Leadership - Self discipline

Self discipline

General

Self discipline does not come easily to many people.

We all have desires and things we would prefer to do instead of what we know we must do.
The problem is these desires have a habit of easily distracting us from the correct path.

Developing a habit of self discipline is not easy.
In general we don’t like these tasks that we ought to be doing.
Once you have the habit of discipline you will eventually begin to like some of these actions.

Being a leader will require sacrifice if the vision is to be achieved.

When people are failing to see and recognise the vision it is easy to blame others for problems.
Start firstly with yourself.
How are you communicating the vision?
Where could you improve?

If your own discipline is poor then this will lead to cracks in your leadership facade.
This in turn will lead to doubt amongst followers, lack of trust and reduced influence.

Timing

Get into the habit of self discipline early.

In particular, if you have a job to do get it out of the way.
Jobs have a habit of building up until they either become a problem in their own right or their incompletion affects another job.

Begin by trying to modify small habits.
If you try to make too big a change it can cause problems.
If you find it hard to address large changes you are more likely to feel negatively about the whole thing and give up.
With small steps you will have successes and these in turn will boost your efforts to improve further.

Planning

This area is covered in a lot more detail in:
‘The Complete Project management package’ and ‘The Complete Time management package’.

List areas where you can improve and prioritise them.
Tackle one at a time and evaluate you progress at intervals.
You may want to spend up to 1 or 2 months on each one.
If possible get a friend to give you their opinion on your progress.

Making a list of tasks and prioritising is one thing, keeping them going is harder.
Eventually, what may start as mundane actions become an enjoyable habit.
Your personal organisation should soon begin to bear fruit in time saving and improved organisation in general.

Personal planning concerning your future activities will help enormously.
Planning is definitely not an exact science.
If you don’t allow time for unforeseen circumstances then your calendar will be too full to cope with them when they turn up.

Carry out one task at a time and learn how to file all of the paper work properly.
One of the most irritating things in management is the inability to find information when you need it.

Keep your desktop clear and well organised for working.
You may not be a logical thinker and like to organise your work area in a more creative way.
There are two types of people divergent thinkers and convergent thinkers.
These are also known as monochronic or polychronic.
These are both covered in more detail in ‘The Complete Time management package’.

Take on your most troublesome tasks when you feel you are at your best mentally.
Use downtime in airports and whilst driving for some tasks.
Have a folder with easy to do tasks when you have spare minutes here and there.

Some recent statistics indicated that 40% of business travellers spend 2 to 3 hours a month waiting for flights, while 35% spend 3 to 4 hours. Even though Wi-Fi could access company networks only about 25% of people took advantage of the technology during this down time.

Develop your own systems that work for you. Utilise computer software to save you time and help in your organisation.

Don’t forget the Pareto principle and spend 80% of your time on the 20% of tasks likely to give you the maximum benefit.
If possible delegate the rest.

Recognition of position

A good leader has power. Power can breed bad habits.
The first temptation is to try to preserve your power but really the leader should be trying to relinquish it.

The leader’s aim is to empower the people in his or her team.
By wise training and delegation you will devolve some of your power for the benefit of the whole team and organisation.
In addition, the leader should already be identifying the top 20% of potential leaders and putting 80% of his or her effort in coaching them to lead in their own right. This is another example of the Pareto principle.

Remember, the development of leaders allows much faster growth than the development of followers alone.

Any leader must develop integrity.
This breeds trust and from this influence will develop.