Lead yourself to the zone and be happy: the effect of self-leadership development on flow and happiness

Background: Self-leadership has been associated with several positive organizationaloutcomes (e.g., performance and innovation). Yet, individual’s subjective well-beingconstructs have seldom been explored in the self-leadership literature. Wehypothesized that an increase in self-leadership results in increased positive affectresources, namely flow and happiness.Methods: A self-leadership intervention program, interlinked with a real-world selfcontrolledlongitudinal observational effectiveness-assessment design, was used totest this hypothesis. A sample of 64 middle-managers from a for-profit organization inthe fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector went through one 8-week selfleadershiptraining program, and provided 4383 daily measures of self-leadership, flow,and happiness during working hours on business days, plus 242 post-training modulesassessments. Email surveys were used to assess self-leadership and dispositionalflow, whereas the experiencing sampling method was used to assess situational (i.e.,at-the-moment) flow and happiness. Linear mixed models and mediation analysis wereapplied to longitudinal data.Results: As hypothesized, an increase in self-leadership was positively associated to(1) situational and dispositional experiences of flow among employees in the FMCGsector and (2) happiness in the workplace. No mediation of flow was found betweenself-leadership and happiness.Conclusion: Results highlight the potential of self-leadership skills development andpractice to shorten the distance between perceived challenges and skills in job-relatedtasks, as well as to make subjects feel happier in the workplace.Keywords: Self-Leadership; Flow; Happiness; Subjective well-being; Eudaimonia;Experience sampling method; Management training; Real-world evidence.