ABSTRACT
Managing yourself is a skill, like many others, that is too often taken for granted. As it seems self-evident many managers tend to overlook it or consciously disregard it in practice. This is a grave error for you cannot expect to make a good job of managing other people and situations unless and until you can effectively manage yourself.
Indeed the ability to self-manage – to keep on learning – is one of the distinctive hallmarks that characterise strong leadership. It is, though, not nearly so straightforward to master – what with the incessant demands, competing priorities, information overload and the degree of expectation in the university environment which we operate, and the realisation that the journey of self-exploration may be an uncomfortable one.
This chapter argues that you owe it to yourself, as well as to others, not to neglect this responsibility; that you should be diligent and purposeful in fulfilling it. It demonstrates how you can organise yourself (by avoiding the ‘busy manager’ syndrome), be yourself (through self-reflection and assessment), look after yourself (by becoming ‘stress-fit’) and develop yourself (by becoming a master manager).
