Leading Myself First

A reflection on self-leadership through Peter Drucker’s “Managing Oneself”.

8/19/20261 min read

Leadership.

I always made a big circle around using this word. It seemed too big, with a touch of arrogance (to me).

Since I became self-employed, I have essentially realized that what I do is train people to lead (better lives, partnerships, careers, families). So I went back to my old bachelor notes and looked into leadership again. What resonated most was the perspective Peter Drucker gave in his article “Managing Oneself”:

Leadership starts with myself. In essence, it means taking responsibility for my life, my decisions, my actions - instead of assigning them to something external.

And of course, it iss easier to hand that responsibility off to the market, the boss, the partner, the circumstances. Something out there made me react this way. That story protects me from action and discomfort in the short term (our brain loves handing us reasons not to act, it saves energy after all). But it costs me in the long term, since I will not create the life, relationship, career I want.

Leading myself means owning my decisions even when they do not work out. It means noticing when I am blaming the external to avoid the harder question: what is my part in this? Not to be self-critical but because that is the only place real change can begin: naming a problem as mine. Because if I say “this is not my problem,” how can I ever solve it?

What is your understanding or experience of leadership? Where could you lead more in your life? What’s getting in the way?

#PeterDrucker #Leadership #self-leadership #ManagingOneself