Self-Cheering: A Path to Exceptional Leadership

"Have you ever found it increasingly challenging to maintain a positive outlook in your daily life, especially when faced with a multitude of changes and obstacles? How do you sustain a positive and self-compassionate attitude during this journey? The key to these questions lies in a simple yet profound concept: self-cheering."

The ability to maintain focus, overcome negativity, and work towards your goals is well within your reach. With approximately 70,000 thoughts traversing your mind each day, harnessing the power of self-cheering can be transformative.

Now, let's delve into what self-cheering entails in the context of personal development and positive psychology. It's the art of self-support and self-encouragement, involving positive affirmations, constructive self-talk, and a compassionate inner dialogue. Self-cheering revolves around recognizing your intrinsic value, offering emotional support, and cultivating self-motivation. This concept rests on the belief that individuals can significantly influence their well-being, confidence, and personal growth through nurturing a positive and self-compassionate inner conversation.

When it comes to leadership, the need to engage in self-cheering isn't a constant requirement, but it's a valuable practice. Self-cheering in a leadership role involves leaders providing themselves with positive reinforcement, motivation, and emotional support to excel in their leadership responsibilities. It's about cultivating a constructive and empowering mindset to navigate the challenges and responsibilities of leadership effectively.

So, are leaders expected to perpetually pat themselves on the back and overlook their areas for growth? Is self-cheering an ongoing responsibility in leadership, or is there more to the story?

Self-cheering in a leadership role forms the cornerstone for leaders to express their full array of knowledge, skills, abilities, passions, and values effectively. It's a fundamental skill set enabling individuals to exhibit self-awareness, emotional intelligence, inclusivity, mindfulness, empathy, social intelligence, and learning agility within the workplace.

Undoubtedly, mastering these concepts can feel daunting, given the extensive literature and the overlapping principles related to self-awareness, emotional intelligence, inclusivity, and other facets of self-leadership. However, with commitment and dedication, leaders can refine their self-cheering skills and continue to elevate their performance.

How To Develop Self-Cheering Skills

Developing self-cheering skills is crucial for maintaining focus, nurturing positive thinking, and achieving success in your personal and professional life. With the constant stream of thoughts and external influences we encounter daily, honing these skills is a transformative journey that anyone can embark on. Here are the fundamental steps to help you capture and convert negative thoughts into self-cheering practice:

1. Awareness of Your Thoughts

The first step in developing self-cheering skills is to become aware of your own thoughts. Recognize that amidst your 70,000 daily thoughts, some can be self-critical or negative. Awareness allows you to identify the triggers that lead to negative self-talk.

2. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a powerful tool for managing your thoughts. Regular mindfulness practices, such as meditation or deep breathing exercises, can help you stay in the present moment and minimize self-doubt or negativity.

3. Challenge Negative Thoughts

When you notice negative thoughts, take a moment to challenge them. Ask yourself if these thoughts are based on facts or assumptions. Are they helping you or holding you back? Reframe negative thoughts into positive, self-cheering affirmations.

4. Create Self-Cheering Affirmations

Develop a list of self-cheering affirmations that resonate with your goals and values. These affirmations should be positive, encouraging, and specific. For example, "I am capable of achieving my goals" or "I embrace challenges as opportunities for growth."

5. Stay Persistent

Developing self-cheering skills is an ongoing process. Be patient with yourself, and stay persistent in challenging and transforming negative thoughts. Consistency is key to lasting change.

The Self-Cheering Roadmap

The CHAT model is designed to help you understand your behavior critically, identify ways your thoughts or actions might contribute to a problem, and make appropriate changes in your behavior. You can gauge your self-cheering development by assessing whether your actions and values are aligned and if they are propelling you towards your long-term goals.

Below are the four phases of the CHAT Self-Cheering Model and behaviors associated with each phase to assess your self-cheering knowledge, skills, and abilities:

Clarity in the "CHAT" Phase:

• Clarity about your overarching purpose
• Align actions with purpose and values
• Understand strengths in your best and worst environments
• Awareness when your fundamental needs are unmet, actively replace self-doubt with positive affirmations

Honesty:

• Awareness of emotions and the ability to describe your feelings
• Identification of situations that trigger negative emotions
• Comprehension of how negative feelings influence your behavior
• Pause and regain balance when experiencing negative emotions
• Utilize opportunities for growth and learning in each negative interaction

Active Listening :

• Intentionally listen to your thoughts and align them on the core issue
• Actively try to increase your understanding, ask questions to seek clarification
• Reason, don't assume, clarify when you're in the doubt phase

Tone and Timing :

• Avoid sounding aggressive or dismissive deliberately practice developing new skills
• Consider the timing of your messages, especially in the morning- it sets the tones
• Critically evaluate your behavior habits and communication from previous actions to gain insights to adapt for future challenges

The CHAT model empowers you to develop self-cheering skills, anchoring your focus and guarding against negativity in everyday life. Now, more than ever, it's paramount to nurture your self-leadership abilities. In an ever-shifting environment where customary habits and behaviors often fall short, self-cheering emerges as a potent instrument for evaluating and refining your self-leadership skills. The CHAT model champions your journey to self-cheer and paves the way for you to flourish.

Belinda Allen.