Self-Leadership Theory

Self-leadership is a process through which individuals use specific sets of behavioral and cognitive strategies to more effectively lead themselves in accomplishing both intrinsically motivating and not naturally motivating tasks. Critics have often argued that self-leadership theory overlaps with other classic motivation theories, but the purpose of normative theories like self-leadership are to prescribe how things should be done rather than explain why certain phenomena occur. Self-leadership theory specifically prescribes behavioral, natural reward, and thought strategies to help people more effectively lead themselves. Behavior self-leadership (BSL) strategies focus on ways individuals can increase their self-awareness to effectively manage their behaviors. Natural self-leadership (NSL) strategies are aimed at increasing one’s intrinsic motivation to accomplish a task by either changing the task itself to be more rewarding ...