Leadership begins at home: A new year call to lead yourself first

By Professor Kwasi DARTEY-BAAH

As a new year unfolds, leaders across organisations naturally reflect on targets, strategies, and performance expectations. Yet the most important leadership work rarely appears on dashboards or strategic plans. It begins quietly, internally, with how leaders choose to conduct themselves. Leadership, fundamentally, is influence but influence that endures is anchored in personal leadership. A leader without followers may simply be taking a walk, but a leader without self-discipline is unlikely to inspire meaningful followership. Before leaders can ask others to commit, comply, or perform, they must first model the standards they expect. This is especially relevant at the start of a new year, when organisations seek renewal, clarity, and direction.

Effective leaders do not merely speak about values such as integrity, transparency, respect, or accountability. They demonstrate them consistently through decisions, behaviour, and everyday interactions. In doing so, they remove confusion about what is acceptable and what is not. Followers learn faster from what leaders do than from what they say. Over time, these visible behaviours shape organisational culture more powerfully than policies ever could.

Personal leadership also requires reflection. Leaders who lead themselves pause to examine their motives, check their assumptions, and remain conscious of how power influences their judgment. They recognize that authority does not justify inconsistency and that credibility is earned daily. When leaders align who they are with how they lead, trust follows naturally.

As the year begins, leaders must also recommit to empathy and perspective. Sound leadership decisions balance performance demands with human impact. This does not imply avoiding difficult choices or ignoring misconduct. Rather, it means exercising discipline with fairness, context, and dignity. Such leadership strengthens commitment rather than compliance and builds resilience rather than fear.

Organisational development teaches us that culture is the cumulative result of repeated leadership behaviour. When leaders consistently “walk the talk,” ethical conduct and responsibility become embedded norms. When they do not, even the best strategies falter.

The new year offers leaders a rare restart. It is an opportunity to recommit not just to goals, but to conduct. Leadership does not begin with directing others; it begins with governing oneself. Organisations will only rise to the level of the personal leadership practiced at the top and sustained every day thereafter.

The writer is the Vice-Chancellor of Central University and a Professor of Leadership & Organisational Development

 

 

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