The Research Behind Self-Leadership

When I write about self-leadership, I’m sometimes asked: “Is this an established field, or just another appealing label?”

It’s a fair question. The phrase can sound rather vague. But there is a substantial body of work behind it, and some of the most useful ideas are surprisingly practical. Here's a small selection of works from the vast field of study.

Take self-awareness. In Insight, organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich explores the gap between how we see ourselves and how others experience us. We can spend a great deal of time thinking about ourselves and still miss something important. For a leader, that makes honest feedback especially valuable. 

A question I might ask in coaching is: What effect did you hope to have in that conversation—and what effect might you actually have had?

Neuroscientist Karolien Notebaert approaches the subject through the workings of the brain. Her book The Pilgrim Who Trained Her Monkey invites us to notice our thoughts rather than simply follow wherever they take us. That feels relevant on an ordinary Tuesday: you receive a difficult email, notice the story you immediately tell yourself about it, and give yourself a moment before replying.

Herminia Ibarra, Professor at London Business School, offers another useful perspective. In Working Identity, she shows how we can learn about who we are becoming by trying new activities, meeting different people and making sense of those experiences. Sometimes we don’t think our way into a new leadership identity. We take a small step, see what happens and learn from it.

These authors are writing from different fields. None of their books needs to be treated as a complete theory of self-leadership. Together, though, they help us ask better questions:

What am I noticing?

How am I responding?

What could I try?

And what is the environment around me making easier or harder?

There is also a more specific research tradition behind the term self-leadership.

Charles Manz began developing it as a distinct field of study in the 1980s. Christopher Neck and Jeffery Houghton helped extend and study it. Their book Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence brings the work together in accessible form. It describes ways to observe and guide our behaviour, find meaning and motivation in what we do, and examine the thinking patterns that influence our actions.

Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence adds something essential to leadership practice: noticing and managing our emotions affects how we relate to other people. He did not present emotional intelligence as the theory of self-leadership, but Primal Leadership, written with Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, makes a strong case for paying attention to our inner experience and its effect on those we lead.

Much of the early self-leadership literature focused on what individuals could do to influence their motivation, thinking and performance. The wider conversation now gives more attention to emotion, identity and working conditions. That matters to me as a coach. We can help someone develop their capacity to respond well under pressure, while also asking whether their workload, relationships or organization need to change.

And although self-leadership is a modern research term, the underlying human question is ancient and crosses cultures: How do I conduct myself well, especially when circumstances are difficult?

That’s one reason I keep coming back to this topic. It is central to leadership coaching because leading other people continually brings us face to face with our own habits, assumptions, emotions and choices.

Research gives us ways to examine and practise those capacities. Life gives us plenty of opportunities to use them.

Here's a summary of the books I cited.

• Insight, Tasha Eurich - for self-awareness and feedback.
• The Pilgrim Who Trained Her Monkey, Karolien Notebaert, a story about thoughts, the brain and how we guide ourselves.
• Working Identity, Herminia Ibarra, especially useful when your role or career is changing.
• Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence, Christopher P. Neck, Jeffery D. Houghton and Charles C. Manz, the clearest starting point for the field itself.
• Primal Leadership, Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee - for the link between emotional intelligence and leading others.