The Manager's Pocket Guide to Leadership Skills

Self esteem is quite simply how you feel about yourself. How we feel about ourselves critically influences virtually every aspect of our lives. Our self-esteem influences everything from the way we function at work, to our personal relationships, to our role as parents, to what we accomplish in life. Every response we make in life and every goal we set, is shaped by whom and what we think we are. Thus, self-esteem is the major key to our success, our failure, and the level of our accomplishment as a supervisor or leader.

Self-esteem has two components: (1) a feeling of personal competence and (2) a feeling of personal worth. In other words, self-esteem is the sum of our self-confidence and self-respect. Self-esteem, on whatever level, is an ...