How’s your self-leadership?

Many supply chain management (SCM) professionals are really passionate about their game. You can see their enthusiasm, for example, in the spirited discussions on social media and at trade events, ranging from eloquent opinions about procurement’s organizational contribution to verbal fisticuffs on the best use of artificial intelligence in logistics.

Yet despite the passion that supply chain managers have for their work, only a minority attain true success and fulfilment in their SCM careers.

Time and time again in my interactions with SCM professionals, beneath the layer of enthusiasm there’s often a thicker, more deep-seated but frequently unconfronted layer of dissatisfaction or unhappiness.

How solid and embedded this substratum is depends on the individual’s circumstances.

Naturally, some individuals are able to sail their career ships with auspicious winds. But for many others, their level of career advancement and success is incongruous with the degree of passion they have for their work. Hence, the hidden discontent.

If you’re one of those who aspires to do more, be more and achieve more in your SCM career, you can.

Start by recognizing that the “management” in “supply chain management” isn’t just about managing your supply chain but also about managing yourself.

Architect of your destiny

Self-leadership is a cardinal requirement for anyone who wants to excel in their work and thrive in their career. It means being the architect of your career destiny.

Architects have to make choices and decisions about materials, dimensions and more, when they’re planning and executing a building. And it gets even more challenging and exciting when it’s a magnificent building like a castle.

Likewise, we all have to make choices and decisions when building our career castles. And the consequent outcomes have indelible impacts on our destiny.

Yet we may not recognize those effects – especially when they stem from short-term decisions or actions whose consequences stack up over time, like an insidious disease or addiction.

It’s in those moments of our everyday choices and decisions that our self-leadership is tested.

The supply chain pros sailing their career ships auspiciously often pass the tests. Typically, they’ve been repeatedly practicing self-leadership skills, like those I previously shared with a procurement audience. For others, the question in those moments becomes whether or not they can be focused and disciplined enough to dedicate and channel their attention and energy at doing stuff that really matters to their career success.

Perils and paradoxes

Focus is a priceless building material when constructing your career castle. And personal discipline is a tree that bears everlasting fruit.

The more you use your focus and discipline to practise self-leadership, the stronger your self-leadership muscle grows – alongside your wisdom.

For example, you’ll increasingly realize that taking intentional action is far more productive for your SCM career than spending too much time on social media and other digital pursuits which add no value to your destiny. When technology saps our personal effectiveness and self-leadership, it becomes a nemesis rather than a valuable tool to use to craft our success.

It’s one of the paradoxes of humankind that things that are good for us (in the beneficial ways we can leverage them) can sometimes be bad for us too (when we become fixated with them). Like an artist who becomes fixated with palettes or paintbrushes, forgetting that they’re simply tools of the trade, the artist’s vocation is still to create paintings and should be the focus.

Meaningful self-leadership

Sometimes we delude ourselves that our technology addiction or social media gluttony provides us with learning; no doubt, from the plethora of online sources now available. Perhaps it’s because the internet has made everyone an expert or guru on everything. Beware of social media prophets with proverbs, promises and platitudes. Check to validate robust proof of their miracles before buying into their religion.

Your expanding self-leadership will also highlight to you that social media addiction isn’t the only way technology can enslave us and cripple our long-term career success. Email is another.

Many of us have unknowingly developed the habit of instantly checking, replying to or taking action on emails. That’s not the most effective way to work. Nor is it characteristic of meaningful self-leadership.

As I explain in Career Dreams to Career Success, emails may have become a poison to our productivity, much like social media gluttony.

My antidote to the poison is to constantly remind myself that the time is exactly “XYZ” time on “ABC” date and I’ll never get this moment in my life again. I get one shot at it; so I must use it wisely – on things that take me towards my goals, as I have planned.

It all comes down to the goals we’re targeting; planning ahead how to spend our time to realize our goals; and the self-discipline to stick to the plan, despite the constant pings of new emails or social media alerts.

If our goals are powerful and motivating enough, the pull of the pings and alerts will likely be suppressed by the allure of working towards attaining the goals.

So, are your career goals powerful and motivating enough?

Or, put another way, is your career castle magnificent enough to capture and retain your full focus?

Always remember that being a puppet jumping to the summons of pings and alerts is not self-leadership in practice; rather, it is being led by something other than yourself.

Sometimes, when our unproductive behaviors or outlook on life simply mimic or are heavily influenced by others, and we’re blind to the negative impacts that they have on our effectiveness, growth and career success become limited.

At other times, the organizations that we work in can be a limiting tunnel. In those circumstances, we can’t allow ourselves to become organizational clones, embracing and mirroring thinking or behavioral patterns that don’t aid the fulfilment of our career aspirations.

Be your own architect of success

You mustn’t let the organizational culture you work in make you lose sight of who you are and what you truly want from your SCM career.

You must decide what’s important to you and who/how you want to be in your career, and go about your work and your life accordingly.

Make a commitment to yourself that you won’t allow the myriad cocaine dealers in life to entice you into a career of eventual mediocrity; because your career success matters.

And you must be clear on what your definition of that success is. Your career success shouldn’t be defined by or measured against what others do or achieve. You should be more influenced by your own desires, convictions, actions and results than by the opinions or attainments of other people.

Other people are not living your life, dreaming your dreams or experiencing your career. You are.

And other people may never know the power of the magic inside you. You will.

Self-leadership is about harnessing your inner magic for your success. It demands knowing more about your true self – how you tick and how to get the best out of you. That knowledge will help you realize your career dreams when you exploit it.

Sigi Osagie helps organizations and individuals boost their workplace effectiveness and performance to achieve their business and career goals. He is the author of Career Dreams to Career Success, as well as the highly acclaimed Procurement Mojo and Sweet Stakeholder Love. He can be contacted at www.sigiosagie.com.

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