Why Self-Management Is Your Superpower
Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a panel discussion on The Inner Edge: Why Self-Management is Your Leadership Superpower with my friends, colleagues, and podcast guests Susan Barber and Margaret Andrews, both who have new books out. Some of you were in attendance (thank you!).
We heard from attendees that leading in this time feels complex, confusing, and overwhelming, amongst other challenging descriptors like unsupportive (not great) and nonsense (totally can understand that!). Does this ring true to you, too?
And yet amidst this chaos, where can we find grounding? What can we control? In speaking with Margaret, Susan, and a few others on my podcast this year I’ve come to the conclusion that a good place to start is with ourselves. This is what we can know and control, which is what we explored last week.
I thought I’d share the through line of our conversation here:
Self-understanding must come before self-management. You can’t manage what you don’t understand.
Consistency and grounding create trust and leadership presence, especially in chaos.
Change and challenge are constant—use them as opportunities to show up bigger.
Sustainability is a discipline, not something that happens naturally. Small, consistent practices build resilience.
You have more agency than you think. Focus on what you can control: yourself, your visibility, your choices.
Give yourself grace. Progress over perfection. Self-management and rest are not weaknesses—they are your leadership superpower.
This idea of finding grounding in oneself has been on my mind since the beginning of the year. I’ve been thinking about how I can create my own personal philosophy to guide me vs. looking to external experts that don’t seem to have the answers or don’t align to what I believe. I’ve been thinking about how I can focus on building my character and managing my behavior to create positive change in each moment (I’m not always successful here, but it’s my ambition and aspiration!). I find it’s helpful to remember that like nodes in a network, our actions don’t just affect us individually—they transmit through our relationships and communities, influencing how others think and behave. These ripples create patterns that spread and influence the whole system. In essence, we can make change standing where we are.
Perhaps you, too, can find some peace and sense of control amidst uncertainty and change by looking inward and finding what is true and consistent for yourself and working on what you can control in the moment, how you choose to show up for yourself and others.
As we said in the session—this isn’t easy, but we can make progress. And progress is the ultimate motivator.
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Sustainable Ambition offers a strategic approach for pursuing our professional and personal goals in a way that is motivating, meaningful, and manageable from stage to stage, rather than be all consuming in a way that compromises other important aspects of our lives or sacrifices our well-being.