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Developing self-leadership and responsibility and moving away from egocentrism

  • Daniel T.L. Shek EMAIL logo and Hildie Leung
Published/Copyright: May 28, 2016

Abstract

To lead others, successful leaders must first, be able to lead themselves. Hence, self-leadership is an important element of leadership development for university students. In this paper, the definitions of self-leadership and responsibility are introduced. Their impacts on effective leadership are also addressed. In addition, the concept of egocentrism as a barrier to effective leadership and adolescent development is highlighted. To facilitate the development of self-leadership and responsibility in adolescents, a lecture on self-leadership, responsibility, and egocentrism is designed in the curriculum of a university subject entitled “Tomorrow’s Leaders”. The objectives, intended learning outcomes, lecture outline and materials are presented in this paper. Issues surrounding this lecture are discussed.


Corresponding author: Daniel T.L. Shek, PhD, FHKPS, BBS, SBS, JP, Associate Vice President (Undergraduate Programme) and Chair Professor of Applied Social Sciences, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Room HJ407, Core H, Hunghom, Hong Kong, PR China

Acknowledgments:

The preparation for this paper was financially supported by the Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The authorship is carried equally between the first author and second author.

Appendix 1

Worksheet (Sample)

My Responsibility
1.I would like things to be different in the following area of my life (e.g. study …). Elaborate on your wish.
______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
2.How responsible am I in this area of my life? ( )
No responsibility 0------1------2------3------4-------5------6------7------8------9 Full responsibility
3.What can I do differently to move my level of responsibility up by just one point on the scale?
1. __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

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Received: 2014-9-7
Accepted: 2014-10-3
Published Online: 2016-5-28
Published in Print: 2016-6-1

©2016 by De Gruyter

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