Personal leadership is applying positive leadership traits to your life at the most basic level—your personal life—in order to reach your full potential and realize goals that you’ve set out to achieve.

Ghandi illustrated this well when he said, “I must first become the change I wish to see in others.”

Once you start building your positive traits, it will spill over into all aspects of your life, making you a better spouse, parent, member of your community, and leader in your career.

How Does Personal Leadership Development Work?

Personal leadership development begins when you make the conscious decision to take on the role of your own life coach and follow a well-thought-out personal leadership plan in order to change your life for the better. By doing this, you are taking control of your life instead of letting time and chance dictate your course.

There are a few things you can do to fast-track your personal leadership development:

1. Educate yourself on personal leadership development strategies. Read books, watch videos, listen to podcasts, attend seminars, take classes—consume the best information you can find to help in your personal growth. This is a good strategy if you are on a tight budget. As Michael Hyatt says, “The most valuable resources you have are determination and creativity.” So if all you are able to do right now is to self-teach, don’t be deterred. Stay determined, keep learning, and push on towards your goals.

2. Come up with a personal leadership development plan to help you achieve your goals.

3. Find a Leadership Coach. We think this Chinese Proverb says volumes: “A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.” The best way to develop your personal leadership skills quickly is to hire a highly qualified leadership coach to help you kickstart your journey.

What to Look for In a Personal Leadership Development Program

personal leadership development plan

Many people enlist the help of a life coach to help them craft a personal leadership development plan. This is a great way to get started!

If you choose to go this route, a good personal development leadership program should cover the following:

  • Define your own strengths and weaknesses. This is often done through a candid assessment or self-exam. From there, you can focus on strategies for growing your strengths and developing your areas of weakness. Part of this includes eliminating toxic negative thinking and replacing it with positive thoughts and actions.
  • Learn how conditioning works and how you can break free from a conditioned existence.
  • Develop your goals and personal mission statement. Goals that are never put on paper are simply cloud talk and likely will never be reached. In fact, some research shows that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them out. A good leadership program will help you understand the value of written goals (with target dates), how to choose your goals, and how to overcome obstacles that get between you and your goals.
  • Craft a personal leadership development plan as a roadmap to help you achieve your goals. You can put these on paper, type them into a Word doc, or even use an online tool like Trello to plot out the steps (with timelines) you’ll be taking to reach your goals.
  • Identify what keeps people from reaching their goals and what steps you can take to move towards your goals.
  • Understand how to get out of your rut and move forward by learning from the past, dealing with disappointment and personal failure, and using visualization and affirmation to begin the change process.
  • Discover how to find a work/life balance. This is a struggle for most people. Learn to look at different areas of your life from a long-term perspective, avoid common regrets of old age, build and cultivate meaningful relationships, and “re-boot” your mind. You should also learn when and how to say “no.” (Psst…you don’t have to do it all.)

Once you have the tools and information needed to develop personally, you can take charge of reaching your goals to become a high achiever in all aspects of your life.

Interested in Learning About Our Leadership Development Programs? CLICK HERE.

Benefits of Personal Leadership Training

Developing personal leadership skills will benefit you in your personal and professional life and better prepare you to take on future leadership roles. Personal leadership development will help you:

  • Improve Personal and Professional Relationships
  • Build Character
  • Increase Self-Confidence
  • Strengthen Your Self Image
  • Learn to Take Initiative
  • Improve Communication Skills
  • Enhance Productivity
  • Develop Strategies to Overcome Obstacles
  • Stay Motivated to Reach Your Personal Goals
  • And More!

Become the Best Version of You

Whether you are a domestic engineer or you sit in the C-Suite, personal leadership development can help you grow as a person and turn your dreams into tangible, attainable goals. Need help kickstarting your personal leadership journey? Check out our personal leadership development programs here or schedule a complimentary 15-minute call with Greg Thomas, our Cleveland Leadership Coach, to learn more.