Authentic Leadership: What It Is, Why It Matters

I don’t want to pass up the opportunity to share an article I read about leadership. Here are a few highlights:

Authenticity is the healthy alignment between internal values and beliefs and external behavior. Authenticity comes from finding your style and your way of leading — and making life decisions that reflect your ethics, values, and your personality.

Leadership success starts with authenticity — doing our jobs without compromising our values and personality. People trust us when we are true to ourselves, and that trust makes it possible to get things done.

5 Ways to Be a More Authentic Leader

1. Rethink “leadership image.”

A sincere passion and desire to learn and change is what building a leadership image is all about. With that in mind, consider the gap between the image that others have of you and the image you would like to project. A big obstacle to authenticity is a strong need to maintain a certain image. You may have defined your image of “executive” or “leader” more narrowly than you need to. Try to let go of the tight limits or expectations of how you need to appear — revealing your personality and humanness is a better sign of effective leadership.

Often, gaining awareness of your current image and leadership brand goes a long way. But before you make any changes, be sure to get a good, truthful picture of your current image. Take time to understand how others see you and why. Seek feedback from your colleagues, boss, and direct reports. Ask your friends, children, and significant other. Each of these points of view will shed light on how your words and behavior are viewed by the people around you.

2. Increase your self-awareness.

A key component of behaving authentically is to understand what you care about most. Try these ways to boost your self-awareness. What are your values, likes, dislikes, and weaknesses? This might sound simple, but we often avoid or overlook the process of clarifying what’s most important to us. Sometimes, given societal norms and conditioning, women in particular struggle with this aspect of leading authentically. Consider asking yourself questions like, what is my current skill level and knowledge related to the role? Or, how would others view my performance so far?

3. Assess and evaluate.

Once you have established your values, likes, dislikes, and weaknesses, you can better understand how aligned your behaviors are with your values and ethics. Assess what you have already given up, and be clear on what’s most important to you now and what you will and will not do to get there. Remember, there are no “right” trade-offs to make, and your choices will likely change at various points in your life. Set goals for yourself that are aligned with your values.

Want to know more? Head on over to the full article here for more ideas and perspectives. Afterwards, why not drop me an email to share your thoughts at [email protected]; or call me on 0467 749 378.

Thanks,

Robert