Most professional employees aspire to leadership, and this suggests that a best possible leader self—a personalized representation of who an employee aspires to be at their best as a leader in the future—is likely a relevant and motivating self-representation for employees at work. Integrating theory on best possible selves with control theory, we suggest that activating a best possible leader self can have beneficial effects for the way that any employee feels and behaves at work. Specifically, we propose that employees who reflect on their best possible leader self will enact more leader-congruent behaviors and subsequently perceive themselves as more leaderlike due to the positive affect generated by such reflection. We found support for our theoretical expectations in an experimental experience sampling study that included both current and aspiring leaders. On days when employees reflected on their best possible leader self, they engaged in more helping and visioning via positive affect. Furthermore, employees perceived themselves as more leaderlike after performing these leader-congruent behaviors, as captured by higher enacted leader identity and clout. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for research on leadership.

中文翻译：

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反思作为领导者的最佳自我：对工作中专业员工的启示

大多数专业员工都渴望成为领导者，这表明可能的最佳领导者自我——员工渴望在未来成为最佳领导者的个性化代表——对于工作中的员工来说可能是一种相关且具有激励性的自我代表. 将最佳自我理论与控制理论相结合，我们建议激活最佳自我领导者可以对任何员工在工作中的感受和行为方式产生有益的影响。具体来说，我们建议那些反思自己最好的领导者自我的员工将制定更多与领导者一致的行为，并随后由于这种反思产生的积极影响而认为自己更像领导者。我们在一项包括现任和有抱负的领导者的实验经验抽样研究中发现了对我们理论期望的支持。在员工反思他们最好的领导者自我的日子里，他们通过积极的影响参与了更多的帮助和愿景。此外，员工在执行这些与领导者一致的行为后，认为自己更像领导者，这被更高的领导者身份和影响力所捕获。我们讨论了领导力研究的理论和实践意义。