Your work is not only about managing others; it is about managing yourself. You are the center. You must be in good shape personally to manage others effectively. What if your professional development as a manager centered on you – your balance, happiness, intellect and fulfillment rather than on rote skills or others’ definitions of leadership alone?

At a minimum, you can focus your professional development on managing yourself, even if others do not. You will see good results from this that move your career in a positive direction. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to get started:

• Do I value self-management as important to my career?

• How is my relationship with time?

• Have I achieved a reasonable level of balance in my life?

• Do I have a place within where I go to manage stress, set my direction and deal with challenges?

When you manage yourself and maintain a strong center, your work managing others will benefit. In the environment you manage in today, it is like finding the eye in the center of a hurricane; stillness and peace are the place you move out from, into the storm of everyday managing.

photo: Photojogtom, Dreamstime.com