- Explain how to develop the habit of self-leadership
- Explain how to develop the habit of creativity


[SLIDE 1]

Self-leadership is made up of three main strategies: behavior-focused strategies, natural reward strategies and constructive thought pattern strategies. Behavior-focused strategies are those that help increase self-awareness to to manage behaviors especially when dealing with unpleasant,  but necessary tasks. These strategies include self-observation, self-goal setting, self-reward, self-punishment and self-cueing.

Self-observation raises our awareness of how, when, and why we behave the way we do in certain circumstances. For example, twice a day, you could stop and deliberately ask yourself questions about what you are accomplishing; what you are not accomplishing; what is standing in your way; and how you feel about what is happening. This is the first step towards addressing unhelpful or unproductive behaviors in order to devise ways of altering them to enhance performance.

Ideally, self-punishment or self-correcting feedback is a process that allows us to examine our own behaviors in a constructive way in order to reshape these behaviors. For example, if we make a mistake, we can assess why it happened and make a conscious effort not to repeat it. However, many of us have the tendency to beat ourselves up over perceived mistakes or failures; indeed, excessive self-punishment involving guilt and self-criticism can be very harmful to our performance.

We can use certain environmental cues as a way to list constructive behaviors and to reduce or eliminate destructive ones. This is known as self-cueing. Examples of self-cueing including making lists or having motivational posters on the wall. These act as a reminder of your desired goals, and keep your attention on what you are trying to achieve. 

Natural Reward Strategies are useful in making tasks or activities more enjoyable, or by reshaping perceptions to focus on the most positive aspects of the task and the value it holds. Examples include listening to music while working, or taking regular coffee, or stretching breaks.

Much of our behaviour is influenced by the way we think, and the way we think is in turn driven by our assumptions and beliefs. Constructive thought pattern strategies involve recognizing destructive beliefs and assumptions and reframing those thoughts through practicing self-talk and mental imagery.


[SLIDE 2]

As discussed earlier, positive self-talk is a useful strategy for changing ones mindset and thought patterns. Similarly, we can engage in mental imagery to imagine ourselves performing a certain task or activity. In fact, studies show that people who visualize themselves successfully performing an activity before it actually takes place are more likely to be successful at performing the task in reality.

These behavioral self-leadership strategies are designed to bring about successful outcomes though positive behaviors, and suppress or eliminate those negative behaviors that lead to bad consequences. The concept of self-leadership has been related to many other areas such as optimism, happiness, consciousness, emotional intelligence, among others. Self-leadership is an essential process for helping entrepreneurs build and grow their business ventures.


[SLIDE 3]

Broadly speaking, we can define creativity as the capacity to produce new ideas, insights, inventions, products or artistic objects which are considered to be unique, useful, and of value to others.

Interestingly, research suggests that entrepreneurs are more creative than others. While everyone has the capacity to be creative, entrepreneurs score higher on creativity measures because they are practicing the creativity process more regularly. 


[SLIDE 4]

It is important to note that creativity is something that can be unleashed in even the most reticent person.  However, when placed on the spot to be creative, many of us find ourselves stumbling against emotional roadblocks.

Stanford professor James L Adams identified six emotional roadblocks to practicing creativity. These are: fear; no appetite for chaos; a preference for judging over generating ideas, a dislike for incubating ideas, a perceived lack of challenge, an inability to distinguish reality from fantasy.

Out of these, fear has the most detrimental impact on your capacity to be creativity. This is because it causes self-doubt, insecurity and discomfort even before the creative process begins. Furthermore, fear of failure, negative feedback or ridicule can prevent us from sharing our creativity with others.


[SLIDE 5]

You may have heard the terms "left-brained" or "right-brained" to characterize individuals. The phraseology comes from the biological sciences which show that the different hemispheres of the brain are responsible for different types of thought process and activities. Left-brained individuals are said to be more logical, rational and reasoning, while individuals who are dominated by the right-side of the brain tend to be more emotional, creative and artistic. 

Increasingly, however, research suggests that it is inaccurate to characterize people in this way. One study by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi suggested that creative people actually tend to embody conflicting traits. In his "Polarity of Creative Individuals" model, Csikszentmihalyi observed that creative people exhibit polarized traits such as having a strong sense of reality and a vivid imagination, having both pride and humility and being objective while being passionate. Csikszentmihalyi said that for people to be creative, they tend to have dialectic personalities.

Equally, successful entrepreneurs exhibit different types of thinking in their mindset. They envision success while also preparing for failure. They are both optimistic and pragmatic. It is thinking like this which is characteristic of the entrepreneurial mindset.