Self‐leadership may be defined as a self‐effecting process that individuals experience by maintaining the motivation they require for fulfilling their roles and duties. The self‐leadership process comprises three key strategies: behaviour‐oriented strategies, natural reward strategies and constructive thought pattern strategies. What is intended herein is to inquire about the implementation of self‐leadership within organisations and to examine the effects of such variables as age, gender, total terms of employment, marital status and education on self‐leadership strategies. The primary data collection instrument was a survey distributed to 450 personnel working at a state hospital in Kırıkkale, Turkey, and feedback thereto was received from 308 (68.4%) of those surveyed. As a result of the findings taken from the analyses, age, total terms of employment and receipt of education in leadership affect the use of self‐leadership strategies. Although age and total terms of employment display a negative‐directional correlation with the self‐leadership strategies, female employees and those who receive education in leadership are more inclined towards self‐leadership strategies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.