Chapter 10
A General Template
Pedagogy of Personal Leadership &
Character Development
PPLCD
Earlier on, in BOOK the SECOND / Chapter One of this Life Leadership textbook, a Pedagogy of Personal Leadership and Character Development, or PPLCD, was defined as: "educational curricula that focuses a student's attention and efforts on taking individual responsibility and developing integrity-based character."
Pedagogy of Personal Leadership and Character Development (PPLCD)
Educational curricula that focuses a student's attention and efforts on
taking individual responsibility and developing integrity-based character.
It has been made amply clear throughout this comprehensive Life Leadership textbook that both self-education and formal education have played vital roles in my own Existential Growth, as well as my long-term happiness, success, contentment, fulfilment, and inner peace. By including significant chunks of my own personal narrative, I have striven to illustrate—as vividly and comprehensively as possible—the extraordinary importance of an education in SAL (or PPLCD) in my own life and career, and by extension, in the lives of others as well.
Simply stated, my achievements and growth would not have been possible without learning what to do and how to do it, and then being continually reminded of—and taking action on—these same principles and practices. The same will be true for YOU or anyone else.
As someone once said: "Repetition is the key to reception." And to reiterate the choice quote of G.K. Chesterton: We need to be reminded more than we need to be instructed.
"We need to be reminded more than we need to be instructed."
—G.K. Chesterton
The late and great Dale Carnegie—Father of the Self-Help field and author of the massive bestseller, How to Win Friends and Influence People—said of his most famous work: "I am not advocating a bag of tricks. I am talking about a new way of life."
At Freedom Focused, we think and feel the exact same way in introducing the SAL Philosophy, Theory, and Model to the world. Our goal is not merely to help others modify their behavior so they can get what they want. Rather, we are promoting an entirely new way of thinking, believing, acting, living, and being based on authentic, real, and true principles of character development and Existential Growth.
These principles have been painstakingly tested by billions of people over thousands of years, to say nothing of the 40 years of my own diligent study and focused self-action research—and the shining examples of countless others who have overcome great adversity and achieved mighty accomplishments and growth through its study and practice.
Making SAL efficacious in the long-run of your life and career journey will not come quickly; nor will it be easy. To the contrary, it will be difficult, and for most people it will take a lot longer than they may initially desire or suppose to achieve long-term objectives. But, it remains possible for anyone and everyone willing to learn the principles and apply the practices consistently over time.
Problems Precluding PPLCD's
(Pedagogies of Personal Leadership and Character Development)
From the earliest days of self-leadership in academe, a universally accepted (and hopeful) truism has been that self-leadership development is feasible for everyone. To reiterate the words of Dr. Charles C. Manz, the father of self-leadership in academia:
"Effective self-leadership can be learned ... [it] is not restricted to people we describe as "self-starters," "self-directed," "self-motivated," etc. ... Self-leadership approach[es] are relevant to managers and nonmanagers—that is, to anyone who works." (1)
Accepting this truism as fact, everyone who wants to learn and apply SAL can learn and apply SAL. However, the fact that SAL can be learned by all students doesn't mean it will always be taught. In fact, another great truism about education in the West is that it all too often has failed to teach SAL-oriented principles and practices.
There are several reasons for this glaring pedagogical omission so pervasive in Western schools, both public and private. Consider the following reasons, in order of most to least endemic and problematic:
- Many parents are not valuing, teaching, or exemplifying SAL principles and practices to their children and students, at least not to the extent that they could.
- Creators and purveyors of pop culture routinely spotlight, glamorize, and promote individuals of all walks of life who are not honorable SAL role models.
- Heavily influenced by pop culture, the media, and the Internet, Western mores and norms have evolved to have a high tolerance for personal irresponsibility and moral relativity.
- Legislative academic requirements involving curriculum and standardized testing often require that educators teach almost exclusively "to the test," thereby decreasing the time and opportunities to implement and support PPLCD initiatives within a framework of established curricula.
- Educators (administrators and teachers) themselves lack the desire, and/or energy, and/or knowledge, and/or time, and/or willpower to incorporate PPLCDs into their classrooms and schools.
There is a limit to what EDUCATORS can do about the first four (4) problems listed above. However, there is a lot that any educator can do about the fifth problem if they are willing to generate the desire, energy, knowledge, time, and willpower to proceed creatively in ways that are both planned and spontaneous.
How do we know that this is true?
Because Lynnda Crowder-Eagle, Kehl Arnson, Thresa Brooks, Dr. JJ, and many other educators like them have proven it can be done within real classrooms and real schools in spite of any and all other demands.
SAL Must be Taught
An Invitation
Imagine a society where Existential Growth and personal character development was as "Cool," popular, and sought after as Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Ariana Grande, or the latest video game, Internet meme, or YouTube channel?
I know...
It's hard to imagine!
While is may presently seem impossible for SAL principles and practices to ever compete with Mr. Beast or K-Pop Demon Hunters, I believe that elements of popular culture will, in due time, become compelling exponents of SAL and Life Leadership. (2)
The famous French sociologist, Émile Durkheim, once sagely surmised that: when mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary; [but] when mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.
"When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary,
but when mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.
—Émile Durkheim
The successful enactment of well-crafted human-made laws may improve problematic issues within a society on a temporary basis. But, when it comes to producing lasting cultural changes on a broad scale in the long-run, the transformation of informal mores will always prove more impactful and powerful than the alteration of formal laws.
As a general rule, this is just the way most human beings operate.
We would much rather follow a principle or practice because we believe it will help us (and others) than we would prefer to follow a rule because an external enforcer commands us to do so.
For example, areas with some of the toughest gun laws in the United States tend to also experience some of the most gun violence. Sadly, mores of hatred combined with fierce competition often trump mores of civility and compassion in these same areas. Tougher laws will never curb a problem if there is no desire or will to address the underlying symptoms of the problem.
True change, be it intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, societal, or cultural must always come from within. Changes that come from without—via an externally enforced authority figure—usually produce results that are either superficial, short-lived, or both. This reality often plays out geopolitically on a macro level as political elections see-saw back and forth between polar opposite ideological viewpoints. One candidate is elected and immediately enacts sweeping external changes. Then, another candidate from the opposite party is elected and does the same thing, causing the pendulum to swing back in the opposite direction.
However, without necessary internal changes in attitudes, beliefs, behavior, and culture on the micro level—inside of the hearts, minds, and souls of individuals—little lasting progress is achieved.
My goal as a scholar-practitioner and thought leader is to provide opportunities for people everywhere to become better educated in SAL and other, related PPLCDs. This includes expanding people's vision of what is possible for them both personally and professionally as they gradually achieve Existential Growth over time.
The solution that Freedom Focused offers is neither fast nor easy—authentic internal solutions to real metaphysical problems rarely are. That is why SAL will always struggle to compete with Taylor Swift and the alluring and rowdy retinue of her pop cultural and media milieu.
It is so much easier to simply Shake it Off—in other words, pretend our problems don't really exist—and remain rutted in self-deceived patterns of perpetual symptom palliation rather than rising above our problems by honestly recognizing and acknowledging them for what they really are and then paying the price to get them fixed from the inside-out.
But, if and when properly implemented, our proposed solution of SAL will produce profoundly positive effects and results—even to the extent of bringing about individual, group, organizational, communal, regional, societal, and cultural transformations. The realization of this vision depends upon the faithfulness of individuals—including YOU and ME—to learn SAL principles and apply SAL practices.
For widespread cultural change to occur, SAL must be continually taught, encouraged, and acted upon by growing numbers of the world's population. This simple learn-know-do-repeat model of education must then continue throughout your life.
However detailed, intricate, and nuanced SAL may be in its more esoteric philosophical particulars, it remains very simple and basic on its face. It is all about listening to your conscience, trying your best to follow its edicts or commands, and then striving continually to take complete personal responsibility over everything in your life and career over which you have control and/or influence.
These are very straight forward principles.
Yet, how difficult it can be to consistently practice them!
As the Immortal Bard would say: "Ay, there's the rub!" (3)
And again, we feel compelled to repeat the truism spoken by that great British philosopher, G.K. Chesterton: We need to be reminded more than we need to be instructed.
"We need to be reminded more than we need to be instructed."
—G.K. Chesterton
This statement is particularly true of adults, who may have completed their formal education, yet still struggle with so many of the simple—but not easy—habits that lead to happiness, success, and inner peace.
We therefore call upon everyone with a heart that cares and a will to try to study and practice SAL.
We further call upon those special individuals with the high calling of EDUCATOR to teach and model its principles in their schools, classrooms, communities, and personal lives.
Finally, we call upon all of humanity to look deeper into the source of all human ills—the thoughts, speech, actions, attitudes, and beliefs of individuals—beginning with YOURSELF.
I was born in 1979. The recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize that year was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Upon receiving the prestigious Norwegian award, she was asked was people could do to promote world peace.
She replied simply: "Go home and take care of your family."
"Go home and take care of your family."
—Mother Teresa
This is one of the most succinctly wise statements I have ever heard, and we at Freedom Focused wholeheartedly endorse simple, yet profound statements of wisdom. We do, however, ask that you take her advice one step further, as follows...
As you go home to love, serve, nurture, teach, and cherish your family members, remember that your individual capacity to give depends upon how much physical and metaphysical fuel you have in your own metaphysical gas tank. Thus, the stronger and healthier YOU are, and the more knowledge and skills that you have, the better equipped you will be to take care of and positively impact and influence others.
After you have risen to higher levels of Existential Growth yourself, and taught SAL to those in your home, I invite you to creatively consider how you might further promote its proliferation in communities, schools, and organizations throughout your region, state, nation, and/or world.
Along the way, do not make the mistake of thinking you have mastered the material yourself and have no need of review or refreshing. In this world, none of us are above entropy or atrophy. As such, wise self-action leaders always remain humble and continually review, renew, and refresh themselves physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and socially.
We are reminded here of the inspired words and humble admission of Dr. James G.S. Clawson, a friend of mine and an Emeritus Professor at the Darden Graduate School of Business at The University of Virginia.
Said Clawson:
"I remember when Manz (1983) first came out with his work on self-leadership. At the time it seemed odd to me. I will admit I am a slow learner on some things [because] I have come to believe that one of the biggest leadership issues [that exists throughout the world today] is the inability of people—even and especially managers and executives—to lead themselves." (4)
Nothing—save Serendipity—will have a greater long-term impact on the welfare of our world than the widespread embrace of SAL principles and practices. Groups are only as strong as the individuals that make them up. When an individual makes a small self-improvement, every conceivable group or organization associated with that individual is enhanced by a factor of that single change.
As individual self-action leaders take greater responsibility for their own lives and Existential Growth, our planet's possibilities for free, just, clean, peaceful, and prosperous nations, societies, and cultures will expand exponentially.
And the miracle of this planet-altering phenomenon is that it all begins with the ONE.
It all begins with YOU and with me.
Pedagogies of Personal Leadership and Character Development
PPLCDs: A Template
 |
| PPLCD Curricular Triad |
For those who would prefer to deliver your own uniquely packaged curriculum beyond or outside of the confines of this text, we provide the following pedagogical template to inform your efforts.
This template consists of three, broad components of Personal Leadership or SAL: Temporal SAL, Relational SAL, and Existential SAL.
- Temporal SAL
- Relational SAL
- Existential SAL
We further suggest that educators spend approximately 40 percent (40%) of their time focusing on Temporal and Relational SAL topics and 20 percent (20%) of their time on Existential SAL topics.
TEMPORAL Self-Action Leadership
It is difficult—if not impossible—to adequately help others if you are not in healthy and proper working order yourself. Thus, when practicing—or teaching—SAL, it is vital to always put First Things First (5) by ensuring you are standing on higher ground (physically or metaphysically speaking) than the person you are trying to assist. As such, Temporal Self-Action Leadership logically precedes the relational or existential components of SAL in the PPLCD Curricular Triad.
Temporal SAL focuses on primal personal leadership issues such as your own HEALTH (physical, mental, emotional, social, financial, et cetera), strength, and wellness to ensure that YOU are in a positive and productive place in your personal and professional life.
Temporal SAL also focuses on cleanliness, hygiene, grooming, fitness and nutrition, and other basic personal responsibilities including career establishment, maintenance, advancement, and enhancement in conjunction with self-renewal activities (i.e. rest, relaxation, rejuvenation, renovation, time off work, vacation, personal hobbies, et cetera).
The point and purpose of Temporal SAL is to develop the health, wellness, inner security, self-confidence and esteem, and self-reliance that is required to move to the next step of the triad, which involves building healthy and meaningful relationships with others.
Approximately 40 percent (40%) of a self-action leader's focus, energy, and time should be devoted to Temporal SAL.
RELATIONAL Self-Action Leadership
Relational Self-Action Leadership refers to building, maintaining, sustaining, and improving human relationships in both your personal and/or professional life. This includes effectively and productively troubleshooting the many problems that are apt to arise in relationships.
Relational SAL refers to learning how to effectively develop high functioning and mutually beneficial relationships through communication, effort, empathy, understanding, and effectively cooperating or otherwise working with other people.
It also involves making meaningful contributions to the well-being of others through lifting, serving, sharing, teaching, and other cooperative efforts. Keys to building effective and mutually satisfying relationships with others include: courtesy, compassion, kindness, active and empathic listening and other communication skills, emotional intelligence and resiliency, tolerance, forgiveness, etc.
Relational SAL begins with your Source—whatever or whoever you believe your Source to be. It should then extend outwards to your spouse or significant other, immediate family members, close friends and colleagues, extended family members, more casual friends and colleagues, neighbors, and anyone else with whom you might associate—in this order.
Approximately 40 percent (40%) of a self-action leader's focus, energy, and time should be devoted to Relational SAL.
EXISTENTIAL Self-Action Leadership
Approximately 20 percent (20%) of a self-action leader's focus, energy, and time should be devoted to existential matters, such as metaphysics, spirituality, and/or religion.
Existential SAL is concerned with the development and care of one's past, present, and future experiences and existence. As part of Existential SAL, self-action leaders should focus on who they are, why they exist, what their purpose in life is, what their spiritual and/or religious beliefs are (or aren't), what they need to improve upon, and what they hope to become over time in this life and—for believers—beyond as well, where they desire to live and travel and why, and what kind of a legacy they desire to leave behind them when they pass away from this world.
For some, Existential SAL will manifest itself largely in spiritual development and religious practice. Others may choose to see it as a process of fine-tuning their moral compass, or developing a deeper connection to nature, the universe, and themselves. Because of the natural connection between Existential and spiritual/religious matters, public educators should be careful about how they address this subject. For example, efforts should be made to ensure that materials used maintain a clear separation between church and state and do not promote one set of religious or spiritual beliefs above another. Obviously, prayer cannot be taught or officially advocated for in public school environments. However, similar exercises, such as: self-contemplation, self-reflection, self-observation, self-analysis, observing moments of silence, and creating a Self-Constitution can—and should—be taught.
Specific Topics to Consider Covering
When designing a PPLCD for your school, classroom, community, organization, or home, the following topic lists can assist leaders, managers, educators, trainers, and parents in identifying where their audience's greatest SAL needs lie.
These lists are more cursory than comprehensive, and can therefore be supplemented with a variety of other, related topics as needs and wants arise.
Temporal SAL Sub-Topics
- Addiction recognition, acknowledgement, and recovery
- Courage
- Delaying Gratification (impulse control)
- Emotional well being
- Financial Management, Planning, and Saving
- Goal Setting
- Honesty & Integrity
- Journal Writing
- Life-management and Leadership
- Managing/overcoming personal disappointments, failures, rejections, and loss
- Mental health and hygiene
- Organization
- Personal hygiene and grooming
- Physical health, fitness, and nutrition
- Proactivity
- Self-Discipline
- Self-management and Leadership
- Time Management
- Writing a Self-Constitution
Relational SAL Sub-Topics
- Becoming other-minded and/or service oriented
- Communication Skills
- Empathy
- Listening
- Conversations
- Building Rapport
- Speaking (negotiation and persuasion)
- Caring
- Compassion
- Courtesy & Etiquette
- Encouragement
- Ego subversion
- How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
- Kindness
- Negotiation
- Recognizing and overcoming hedonism
- Recognizing and overcoming narcissism
- Praise
- Self-sacrifice
- Service and volunteering
- Sharing
- Specific relational skills, or how to be an effective
- Daughter, Son
- Brother, Sister
- Mother, Father
- Spouse / Significant Other
- Extended Family Member
- Friend
- Colleague
- Boss
- Subordinate
- Neighbor
- Citizen
- Other
- Thoughtfulness
- Win/Win agreements and arrangements
Existential SAL Sub-Topics
- Deep Breathing
- Prayer (where appropriate, as desired)
- Self-Analysis
- Self-Examination
- Self-Contemplation
- Self-Observation
- Self-Oneness
- Self-Reflection
- Spending time in and enjoying NATURE
- Study of metaphysics, philosophy, religion, culture, anthropology, et cetera
- Volunteer Service
- Visiting hospitals, care centers, senior homes, loved ones, etc.
- Dedicating an extended period of time (e.g. month, 3-months, 6-months, year, 2-years, 3-years, et cetera, to full-time volunteer service work as desired.
- Dedicating smaller units of time to piecemeal volunteer work projects throughout your life (e.g. 1-5 or more hours a week/month/quarter/year, etc.
- Donating a portion (however large or small) of your financial resources to organizations that serve the homeless, hungry, poverty-stricken, mentally ill, hospitalized, or otherwise needy.
- Worship (where appropriate, as desired)
- Yoga, Meditation, Tai Chi, et cetera
.............................................................................................................................
Rarely are entire courses dedicated to such topics.
This must change!
Schools need to acquire or develop complete courses on the weightier matters of REAL LIFE, such as health and wellness, personal finance, building and navigating relationships, and of course, Self-Action Leadership.
When it comes to training young (and not so young) minds in the art and science of becoming healthy, productive members of society, such courses are at least as important as other core academic subjects, and from a practical standpoint, they often prove to be much more important than academic subjects (with the exception of reading, writing, and arithmetic).
Just as Daniel Goleman argued that Emotional Intelligence (EQ) can be even more important than Academic Intelligence (IQ), a solid education in SAL can be even more important than a traditional education in academic subjects—at least when when it comes to making a qualitative difference in a student's long-term success in life.
I know this is true from my own experiences. After completing 19 years of formal schooling, including higher education up to and including a terminal (Doctoral) degree, there is no question in my mind that SAL has been even more important to my long-term success than any other academic subjects I've ever studied, with the exceptions of reading, writing, history, and basic arithmetic.
Obviously, a solid education in English, math, science, history, computer operation and Internet navigation, et cetera, should always form the core foundation of a successful education. However, at Freedom Focused we believe that a thoughtful overhaul of the entire educational system is sorely needed.
As part of this overhaul, greater classroom coverage of SAL-oriented subjects of all kinds need to be granted so that students enter the real world prepared not just to get a job, but to also successfully confront all sorts of challenges that will arise after one begins that job so that you can eventually advance and thrive in your career, get along well with others, become a person of influence, and prosper both personally and professionally regardless what pathway you choose to travel.
SAL provides that kind of comprehensive EDUCATION. And it is becoming exceedingly important in our incredibly competitive and increasingly interconnected, complex, and information-saturated, 21st century global society.
The time has come to stop relegating the future of our children—to say nothing of our own futures—to the moral whims of postmodern philosophy and cultural caprice, entropy, stagnation, and rot.
It's time to start being REAL!
It's time to embrace the dawning of a new Age of Authenticism by taking the vitally important matters of personal leadership and character education into our own hands. It is time to decide to determine our own destinies rather than letting arbitrary forces beyond our control whip us around in every which way without any regard to its impact upon our Existential Growth and the long-term results we get in our lives and careers.
It is my sincere hope and prayer that each of us will choose to play a conscious, active, and productive role in positively directing our own lives for the everlasting benefit of ourselves, our children, and future generations yet to be born.
The time has come for all of us to reclaim our divinely gifted endowment of self-sovereignty, and to teach others to do the same.
We can do this!
Let us each begin TODAY...
In Your Journal
- Are we missing anything? If you were a leader, teacher, or parent setting up your own PPLCD in your own school, classroom, organization, or home, would you add anything to the general curriculum template introduced in this chapter? Why or why not?
—Dr. JJ
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Author's Note: This is the 503th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 289th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 502 FF Blog Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS
Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection
Click HERE for a complete listing of Self-Action Leadership Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Fitness, Heath, & Wellness Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Biographical & Historical Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Current Events, Cultural, Philosophical, & Miscellaneous Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Dr. JJ's Autobiographical Articles
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Chapter 10 Notes
1. Manz, C. C. (1983). "Improving Performance Through Self-Leadership." National
Productivity Review (pre-1986). Volume 2. Issue 3. p. 288-297. Page 289.
2. For an example of pop culture messages that resonate SAL principles, see Ashton
Kutcher’s 2014 Teen Choice Awards speech on YouTube.
3. Shakespeare, W.S. Hamlet. Act III. Scene 1. Line 73.
4. Clawson, J. G. S. (2008). "Leadership As Managing Energy." International Journal
of Organizational Analysis. Volume 16. Issue 3. p. 174-181.
DOI:10.1108/19348830810937943. Page 175.
5. Covey, S.R. (1989). The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful
Lessons in Personal Change. New York, NY: Fireside. P. 145-182.
Covey, S.R., Merrill, A.R., & Merrill, R.R. (1994) First Things First. New York, NY: Fireside.
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