This is how you build yourself as a leader.

“Leaders aren’t born; they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.” – Vince Lombardi

The first question we must ask ourselves if we aspire to be in a leadership position is why? By leadership position I also mean being a parent. Why do you want to be a parent? Why do you aspire become president of your country?

Clarity of why will force you to dig deep into the core of your being, to search if your personality will be compatible with the responsibilities that comes with the role you want to take as a leader.

In the list of seven principles of an effective leader, Brian Tracey says clarity is the first and most important responsibility. He stated that “You must absolutely be clear about who you are and what you stand for. You must absolutely be clear about your vision and where you want to lead your people.”

The great news is that; leadership can be learned by anyone at any point of his/her life. “Fortunately, leadership is learnable. Leaders are developed – usually self-developed – over time through hard work, experience and training.” – Brian Tracey

The majority of great leaders ever lived in our planet were self-made or self-developed. Most notably, they all seem to have started by focusing on changing their personality and character through self-education and extensive learning from other great leaders and experts. 

The transformation of personality is the building block of all effective leaders with reputable character and resolve. Great personality is built through self-discipline and hard work. Elbert Hubbard defines self-discipline as “the ability to do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”

Before you start transforming your personality, it’s important to understand all the components that form your personality. According to Brian Tracey, your personality has three parts; i) your self-ideals, ii), your self-image iii), your self-esteem. He further expounds at each one of them in detail as follows.

1.    Your self-ideal

Your self-ideal is that part of your mind composed of your values, virtues, ideals, goals, aspiration and your idea of the very best person you can possibly be. In other words, your self-ideal is composed of those values that you most admire in others and most aspire to possess in yourself.

The most important part of your self-ideal is clarity. Superior people are those who are absolutely clear about who they are and what they believe. They have complete clarity about the values they believe in and what they stand for.

2.    Your self-image

This is defined as the way we see and think about ourselves, especially prior to any event of importance. People tend to behave on the outside consistently with the way they see themselves on the inside.

When you see yourself as calm, positive, truthful, and possessed of high character, you behave with greater strength and personal power. Other people respect you more. You feel in control of yourself and situation.

Whenever you actually behave in a manner that is consistent with your highest values, your self-image improves. You see and think about yourself in a better light. You feel happier and more confident.

3.    Your self-esteem

This is how you feel about yourself, your emotional core. Yourself esteem is defined as how much you like yourself. But its more than only this. The more you see yourself as a valuable and important person, the more positive and optimistic you will be.

When you truly consider yourself to be important and worthwhile, you will treat other people as if they are important as well. Your self-esteem is largely determined by how consistent your self-image is with your self-ideal. In other words, if you see and think of yourself as an important, valuable and worthy person, you will like and even love yourself more.

How you feel is not only determined by how you see yourself, but also with what you hear when you have conversations with yourself.

The three parts of your personality are interconnected and always work in harmony. Everything start in your mind (your self-ideal – clarity of your values, principles, goals, aspiration). If your ideals are clearly defined and resembles those of great leaders (your role models), your self-image will improve.

You will see yourself as a confident and competent person. Eventually, you will feel more powerful and happier as a person. To love yourself more, change your thinking.

“Self-discipline is the key to self-esteem, self-respect, and personal pride.” – Brian Tracey. Self-discipline is synonymous with self-control and self-mastery. The more you practice self-mastery and self-control, the more you will be able to lead and respect yourself and others.

You can’t lead others if you cannot lead yourself. You cannot respect others if you can’t respect yourself. Unfortunately, it’s impossible for others to respect you, if you cannot respect yourself.

Effective and powerful leaders have mastered the art of forming good relationships with themselves first, and then with others. They also clearly communicate their visions with themselves first, then with others.

Because they realized with effective and clear communication, relationships will be established. And without love, trust, respect and courtesy, effective leadership would never exist.

In conclusion, “the overarching characteristic of a leader is that he is in complete control of himself and of every situation. There is seldom been a time in history when leaders were so needed and so much in demand as today.

We need leaders at every level of society. Both in private and public sectors. We need leaders in our families, businesses, places of worship, community organizations, and especially in politics. We need men and women who take their responsibilities seriously and are willing to step forward to take command of the situation.” – Brian Tracey.

The article is a synopsis which I consider as “Leadership lessons” from Brian Tracey’s book with the title, No Excuses: The Power of Self-Discipline – 21 ways to achieve long lasting happiness and success.