Self-Leadership and Ethical Duty - The Leader’s Role

In the quest for personal fulfillment, the universal human need is to identify a meaningful purpose for living coupled with the capacity to govern oneself in the pursuit of achieving one's highest potential [1].This inner drive includes the desire to involve others in the pursuit of shared objectives and, often, to take a leadership role in accomplishing desired results [2].In his insightful book, Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl explained that accomplishing a valued outcome, pursuing a worthy purpose, and effectively managing one's responses amidst challenges are driving forces that reflect personal maturity and sustainability in the face of life's inevitable difficulties [3].In writing about the significance of managing oneself in the search for excellence, Princeton University's Alan Gewirth offered the following summary [4].Because of its concern for what is deepest or best in oneself, self-fulfillment is a maximizing conception; it consists in superlatives of desire and achievement; it subsumes all other values of human life and is the ultimate goal of human striving.So, to seek for a good human life is to seek for self-fulfillment.Knowing oneself, controlling oneself, and then giving of oneself in the pursuit of worthy ideals are the essence of self-fulfillment and go beyond the ideal of self-actualization to encompass the highest in self-discovery and personal achievement [5].The purpose of this paper is to address the nature of self-leadership as a process by which individuals strive for self-fulfillment as they seek to refine their lives and fulfill their identities.The focus on self-leadership encompassed herein emphasizes the personal responsibility of those who lead to understand and discipline themselves in the process of serving others [6].This paper includes a framework for understanding the ethical duties that are inherent in the obligations of those who strive to achieve the highest and best in themselves in honoring the covenantal responsibilities of self-leadership.