Image source: https://presencepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/12-truths-to-remember-in-chaotic-times-scaled_Adobe-113524402-1536×1024.jpg

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” ~ Jack Welch

Leadership is assumed to be a place where we exercise power, whereby we lead based on the power bestowed to us. Power can be exercised through political, military, religious, familial, educational, expertise, experiential, cultural, communal, psychological, or spiritual gains.

‘Leadership from the inside out’ is a profound concept that underscores the role of self-awareness and personal growth in effective leadership. It’s a call to introspection and enlightenment, urging us to lead ourselves before we lead others. This journey of self-discovery and growth empowers us, inspiring us to take on the challenges of leadership with renewed vigor and determination.

In 2020, I attended John Maxwell’s leadership certification program with my sister and was recognized as a Maxwell Leadership Team Member. Now and then, I ask myself, how do I exhibit leadership? This question, aligned with AWiB’s 2025 theme—Leadership from the Inside Out—prompted me to reflect.  John Maxwell’s teachings about ‘authentic leadership originate from a strong internal character, values, and integrity, which then manifests in outward actions and behaviors, essentially stating that to be a great leader, you must first develop yourself on the inside before effectively leading others on the outside. This emphasis on personal development as the foundation for leadership is enlightening and encouraging, guiding us on our path to effective leadership. 

In organizational leadership, we prepare a strategic plan, usually identifying internal strengths and limitations and external opportunities and threats outside the organization. The strategy is then designed to tap into internal strengths and external opportunities to deal with internal limitations and external threats from outside the organization.  

Similarly, personal leadership requires assessing self to identify strengths that help to tackle weaknesses and opportunities to tackle threats.   When I do a self-leadership consultation, I ask my clients to create four similar categories for personal strength, limitations, opportunities, and threats (SLOT) analysis.  I want them to enumerate the internal strength and weakness categories and list the physical, emotional, intellectual, relational, spiritual, financial, behavioral, and personality strengths they can identify within themselves.  I ask them to use the same aspects to identify personal limitations. 

To identify external opportunities and threats, I ask them to enumerate what technological, political, economic/business, and social assets they can tap into and use similar items to assess threats from outside. Leadership from the inside out entails understanding one’s strengths, weaknesses, values, core beliefs, personalities, opportunities, and threats. Effective leaders are in tune with their emotions and motivations and align decisions and actions.

In a rapidly changing world, leadership demands adaptability, flexibility, and a commitment to continuous learning. Embracing this mindset empowers us to navigate change and challenges, fostering personal transformation and credibility in our leadership.

I was reading about the reflections of the recent presidential election of the USA presidency.  Some base their judgment of the ability to lead the country on the elected person’s personal integrity, records, and business leadership to forecast the ability to lead the country.  Depending on their values and judgment, some feel encouraged and expect transformation of the nation, but others feel discouraged and anticipate humanity’s tyranny.

Nevertheless, we may look deeper into characters when taking an inventory of internal strengths. Strengths like authenticity, the ability to build trust, communicating one’s ideas and feelings and listening to others, connecting to and learning from past lives, empathizing with others, managing thoughts and regulating emotions, and realizing the impact of one’s actions and reactions on others are all components of self-awareness and relationship management. It is about character development.

In addition to identifying all these capabilities, leadership requires vision. Where do I stand now? What do I see to take my life to what I see? How do I take my life to where I see it? Leaders from the inside out are guided by a clear vision for their purpose, which enables them to provide direction and inspiration for their team.  Sometimes, the vision gets clearer when one acts on what they initially see.

In addition to self-awareness and self-management, by balancing work, relationships, leisure, past, present, and future, focusing on what is essential, and juggling different aspects, leaders can create a strong foundation for their leadership, enabling them to lead others more effectively and authentically. Leadership from the inside out is about being the best version of oneself to bring out the best in others. As AWiB embarks on 2025 with revitalized energy, before we exercise our power, let us all embrace self-awareness and transformation for effective leadership and be mindful and intentional about leadership from the inside out.

Written by: Seble Hailu (Ph.D.)

Share with your circles!