Have you ever had a day where no matter how much you plan, you feel like you’re just spinning your wheels? Or maybe you’ve found yourself drifting through work without a real sense of purpose. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone—and that’s exactly why mastering self-leadership is so powerful.
Welcome to a new episode of Self-Leadership with Dr. Bensmann, where we explore how mastering self-leadership helps you thrive across all areas of your life.
Today, we’ll dive into a model that’s helped hundreds of leaders unlock their true potential. What if I told you that self-leadership is the key to achieving not only career success but also personal fulfillment? Let’s explore how.
So, let me ask you—are you ready to take control of your life and leadership? In today’s episode, I’ll take you quickly through my practical and proven model of the Seven Fields of Self-Leadership. First, I’ll give you my definition of self-leadership, then I’ll briefly introduce each of the seven fields. Let’s dive in!
Where do things stand today?
One of my clients, a highly successful CEO, once came to me overwhelmed by the demands of his role. By improving his self-leadership, he was able to rediscover his mission and align his actions with his deeper purpose.
As an external advisor to entrepreneurial individuals, I’ve observed that companies today increasingly expect attributes like teamwork, assertiveness, efficiency, innovative ideas, and the ability to lead by example. And they expect all of this to be embodied in a single person.
Employees want a boss who is always approachable, someone they can trust, someone truly suited to lead—**a person worth following**. Of course, we’ve all encountered some extreme cases. The worst are leaders who are distant, unpredictable, or even moody. These types are often avoided, maybe even feared, and are certainly no role models for effective leadership.
It’s especially critical today, when managing employees across different generations. A command-and-control style just doesn’t work anymore. You need something more; you need to radiate charisma, so people want to follow you.
So, what makes people, and especially leaders, effective and successful? A key factor in a leader’s success is systematic self-leadership.
There are certain qualities and skills that I group under the concept of self-leadership, which help you manage yourself effectively and increase your personal impact. Inspired by the Austrian management guru Peter Drucker, I go so far as to say that only those who can lead themselves should be allowed to lead others.
What is self-leadership?
Since 2007, I’ve conducted over 200 personal interviews, and I’ve reviewed countless academic papers. The result is my definition:
Self-leadership comprises attitudes and methods for goal-oriented leadership of oneself.
We all know how important mindset is—the right mindset is essential to overcoming challenges and continuing forward. Many of us have also experienced that we need certain tools and methods to manage projects effectively, tools that fit not just the project but also our own personal style.
And I think most of us have come to realize that a clear and attractive vision helps keep us on course and steadily moving toward our goals.
Self-leadership, as I see it, has three main components that build upon each other. The first is self-awareness—no surprise, as the ancient Greeks already knew this. The second is self-responsibility, and the third is self-direction.
From my perspective, we first need to figure out what our talents, skills, and strengths are. Of course, we should also take a systematic look at our weaknesses. We need to decide which abilities we want to focus on, and based on that, plan our personal development. **What are we especially good at? What draws us in? What defines us as individuals?** Answering these questions separates those who thrive from those who merely get by in their careers.
I’ve noticed that while many people do some level of self-analysis, they often avoid taking responsibility for the aspects they don’t like about themselves. We’ve all heard the excuses: “It was my parents, it was my teachers, it was the circumstances.” However, successful people take full responsibility for themselves—the good, the bad, and even their failures. They don’t blame others. From my perspective, self-responsibility is the second essential component of effective self-leadership.
Lastly, we come to self-direction, which involves systematically using tools and methods that truly suit you. This might mean using a pen and paper for one person, while someone else might prefer digital solutions. Personally, I use a mix of analog and digital tools, and I wouldn’t want to do without my electronic Kanban board, Trello, or my various digital note-taking apps. The key is to choose the tools and methods that actually work for you. And to do that, you first need to know yourself, so you can manage yourself effectively.
Remember: self-awareness, self-responsibility, and self-direction. These are the three pillars of self-leadership. Without one, the whole structure falters. Self-awareness comes first, and it’s the foundation of everything else.
In my coaching practice, I rely on a system I’ve developed: The Seven Fields of Self-Leadership. It’s practical, proven, and helps you focus on the areas that matter most. Through my research and analysis of other models in the field of self-leadership, I’ve identified key aspects that are critical. I’ve grouped them into these seven fields, which I use as lenses to examine different areas of self-leadership.
Let me take you through these seven fields quickly. The idea is to discover where you’re already strong and to identify the bottlenecks or weaknesses that might need work.
Field 1: Vision and Mission
Mission and vision are two essential aspects of self-leadership. Here’s how I define them:
– Mission is the reason you exist, your core purpose, or your driving force.
For me, communication is a key driver. My mission is to foster and facilitate communication between people, including communication with themselves.
– Vision is a compelling, vivid, and desirable image of the future, something that is achievable yet challenging.
I’ve met people who had a clear sense of their mission but weren’t as clear about their future vision. My tip: Don’t get overwhelmed. Take the time to figure out what you’re offering the world, and then work on defining the future that you want to move toward.
Field 2: Body, Mind, and Soul
It’s vital to figure out what you need to take care of yourself. This can include practical things like enough sleep, oxygen, exercise, nutrition, and having a good daily routine. Set the right rhythms and rituals for yourself. **How is your mental fitness?** Are you truly in control of your thoughts, or are you just surfing through life, letting media distract you from your important projects? I often recommend a media detox to my clients to help them regain focus on what really matters.
Here’s a quick exercise: Tonight, before bed, take five minutes to write down three things that went well today and why. It’s a simple way to build your self-awareness and start taking charge of your daily actions.
Field 3: Skills and Self-Development
I often ask my students how they learn. What methods do they use? What kind of environment do they create for themselves? Unfortunately, many people have never really thought about this systematically.
How do you learn, dear listeners? Do you know if you’re more of a visual learner, or do you prefer taking notes, or even moving around while learning?
Most people haven’t considered what conditions they need to learn most effectively. When it comes to recognizing your own skills and developing them further, it’s exciting to explore what kind of circumstances you need for personal growth. That’s why this third field is called Skills and Self-Development.
Field 4: Partners, Co-Workers, and Networks
Self-leadership, despite what the name might suggest, is not just about you. We are not alone in this world. We have partners, employees, and networks.
We need to strengthen ourselves by surrounding ourselves with the right people. It’s crucial to identify the right partners, the right employees, and the right networks.
In my experience as a consultant, I’ve seen people collect contacts on platforms like LinkedIn without really thinking about the quality or purpose of those connections.
Ask yourself: Is this connection truly valuable for my goals?
Another recommendation regarding this field: Think about what you’re good at and what tasks you should delegate to others who are better suited. One of the biggest career mistakes leaders make is not seeking out people who can handle certain areas better than they can. Finding the right people to complement your own abilities is key—whether we’re talking about partners, employees, or networks.
Field 5: Processes and Structures
Some of you may be thinking, “Self-leadership is basically time management, right?” Well, it’s certainly more than that. This field—Processes and Structures—goes beyond the typical aspects of time management.
A critical aspect here is identifying the right tools and methods that work for you. And this is where self-awareness comes back into play. You need to know yourself to understand what tools and structures will help you be most effective. Maybe you’re not a checklist type of person. In that case, you should explore alternative methods, such as using collages, visualizations, or mind maps.
My advice is to create the processes and structures that truly suit your personality. This also includes setting up an environment where your abilities can flourish.
For example, a leader may need to sit at a desk to handle controlling tasks, but for creative work, they might thrive while sitting by a river, as such a setting is proven to boost creativity.
This field is not just about calendars and checklists; it’s about finding the right conditions for your effectiveness, including your physical environment.
Field 6: Products and Projects
Once you’ve found your passion—congratulations—and once you have a clear vision and mission, the next question is: What are you actually doing to bring that future vision to life?
Under Products and Projects, we focus on what you’re creating and offering to the world. This could be new ideas, innovative approaches, or actual products. What are you contributing?
If you think of your life like a business, this field is all about what you, as an entrepreneur of your own life, are doing or producing. Are you acting as a creator, either solo or with others? Often, real success comes only with collaboration.
Field 7: Added Value
This is the final field in the model, and without it, the model would be incomplete.
Added Value – or value creation—what does this mean? It includes questions like, how do I measure my success? What does “success” even mean to me? What indicators do I use?
In my view, this is a critical aspect of self-leadership. Many of the people I interviewed for my books initially said success meant making money, a lot of money. But when I dug deeper, it became clear that for many of them, money represented freedom—freedom to create something meaningful.
It’s essential to look beyond financial gain. For many, the real motivation was to bring something new into the world, and that’s what gave them the most satisfaction.
Furthermore, it’s crucial to reflect on who benefits from the value you create—not just yourself, but also others.
To me, Added Value means having a clear idea of what success looks like for you and who is benefiting from what you do. I recommend regularly evaluating this—perhaps through annual review rituals or reflective sessions with a trusted partner to assess what you set out to achieve and what you’ve actually accomplished, as well as to express gratitude for any unexpected successes.
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These are the Seven Fields of Self-Leadership:
– Field 1: Mission and Vision
– Field 2: Body, Mind, Soul
– Field 3: Skills and Self-Development
– Field 4: Partners, Co-Workers, and Networks
– Field 5: Processes and Structures
– Field 6: Products and Projects
– Field 7: Added Value
Remember, self-leadership isn’t just about improving yourself—it’s the foundation for inspiring others and making a lasting impact in the world. Lead yourself first, and the rest will follow.
Looking ahead, what can you expect in the coming episodes?
We will be diving deep into the Seven Fields of Self-Leadership. We start with the first field and focus on the topic of vision. I will explain how to develop your personal vision and for that I will give you 11 hands-on tips.
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I am sure today’s episode has inspired you to engage with these Seven Fields, reflect on what’s already going well, and focus on the areas where you could improve to optimize your self-leadership.
Before you move on to the next task in your day, take 10 minutes and reflect on the model of the Seven Fields: Which field resonates most with you? Why is that?
And if you found today’s episode valuable, share it with someone who could benefit from mastering their self-leadership.
Music Into & Outro by Joakim Karud http://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud
