Your supervisor is intrigued by the concept of self-leadership and wants to know more about it. Discuss how she can encourage self-leadership and which conditions would encourage self- leadership to be more likely to occur.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Students should distinguish between personal and situational factors that facilitate self-
leadership.
Personal factors: As with other initiatives, behavior begins with the individual himself/herself.
For example people who have higher levels of conscientiousness and extroversion are more
likely to engage in self-leadership. This is also the case with individuals who have a positive
self-concept and internal locus of control.
Situational factors: Employees who are given a high degree of autonomy tend to engage in
self-leadership. Bosses can encourage their staff to engage in self-leadership when they
empower rather than control them. Moreover, companies that emphasize continuous
measurement of performance may lead staff to engage in more self-monitoring, which is an
important component of self-leadership.