A successful agile team is empowered and self-organising. To manage themselves effectively you need each person in the team to be self-managed. And because leadership is a portable attribute within the team, you need each person to be able to demonstrate self-leadership. Rosa Say has devised 12 rules for self-management and 12 rules for self-leadership.
Live by your values, whatever they are. You confuse people when you don't, because they can't predict how you'll behave.
Speak up! No one can "hear" what you're thinking without you be willing to stand up for it. Mind-reading is something most people can't do.
Honor your own good word, and keep the promises you make. If not, people eventually stop believing most of what you say, and your words will no longer work for you.
When you ask for more responsibility, expect to be held fully accountable. This is what seizing ownership of something is all about; it's usually an all or nothing kind of thing, and so you've got to treat it that way.
Don't expect people to trust you if you aren't willing to be trustworthy for them first and foremost. Trust is an outcome of fulfilled expectations.
Be more productive by creating good habits and rejecting bad ones. Good habits corral your energies into a momentum-building rhythm for you; bad habits sap your energies and drain you.
Have a good work ethic, for it seems to be getting rare today. Curious, for those "old-fashioned" values like dependability, timeliness, professionalism and diligence are prized more than ever before. Be action-oriented. Seek to make things work. Be willing to do what it takes.
Be interesting. Read voraciously, and listen to learn, then teach and share everything you know. No one owes you their attention; you have to earn it and keep attracting it.
Be nice. Be courteous, polite and respectful. Be considerate. Manners still count for an awful lot in life, and thank goodness they do.
Be self-disciplined. That's what adults are supposed to "grow up" to be.
Don't be a victim or a martyr. You always have a choice, so don't shy from it: Choose and choose without regret. Look forward and be enthusiastic.
Keep healthy and take care of yourself. Exercise your mind, body and spirit so you can be someone people count on, and so you can live expansively and with abundance.
Set goals for your life; not just for your job. What we think of as "meaning of life" goals affect your lifestyle outside of work too, and you get whole-life context, not just work-life, each feeding off the other.
Practice discretion constantly, and lead with the example of how your own good behavior does get great results. Otherwise, why should anyone follow you when you lead?
Take initiative. Volunteer to be first. Be daring, bold, brave and fearless, willing to fall down, fail, and get up again for another round. Starting with vulnerability has this amazing way of making us stronger when all is done.
Be humble and give away the credit. Going before others is only part of leading; you have to go with them too. Therefore, they've got to want you around!
Learn to love ideas and experiments. Turn them into pilot programs that preface impulsive decisions. Everything was impossible until the first person did it.
Live in wonder. Wonder why, and prize "Why not?" as your favorite question. Be insatiably curious, and question everything.
There are some things you don't take liberty with no matter how innovative you are when you lead. For instance, to have integrity means to tell the truth. To be ethical is to do the right thing. These are not fuzzy concepts.
Believe that beauty exists in everything and in everyone, and then go about finding it. You'll be amazed how little you have to invent and much is waiting to be displayed.
Actively reject pessimism and be an optimist. Say you have zero tolerance for negativity and self-fulfilling prophecies of doubt, and mean it.
Champion change. As the saying goes, those who do what they've always done, will get what they've always gotten. The only things they do get more of are apathy, complacency, and boredom.
Be a lifelong learner, and be a fanatic about it. Surround yourself with mentors and people smarter than you. Seek to be continually inspired by something, learning what your triggers are.
Care for and about people. Compassion and empathy become you, and keep you ever-connected to your humanity. People will choose you to lead them.
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