Is It OK To Be YOURSELF as a leader?

Having worked in the leadership space for over 3 decades one observation of many is the lack of freedom a high percentage of leaders experience in their role as a leader. The impact of this has a cyclical impact on the organisation. Who the leader is BEING by osmosis impacts the whole. It amazes me the disparity between who the leader is being in their personal life and who they are in their business life. Who said you cannot be ‘yourself’, wholly and completely in ALL areas of your life! The gold lies in you ‘being you’ wholeheartedly!

To demonstrate I share 3 experiences of my own that provided great evidence

1. I was due to present at a big company conference when still in corporate and the standard was to deliver to the executive before delivering live to the conference audience. I had practiced my presentation for days and in my mind it was polished to the hilt. I was eager to get my peers feedback to take it to another level before the live presentation at the actual conference itself. I will never forget it, I started my delivery and 5 minutes in thinking it was going REALLY well my boss/mentor, the Managing Director of the company stopped me mid stream and said, ‘Sally STOP’, a bit shocked I asked why and he responded with ‘Where’s Sally?’. In my naivety I asked, ‘What do you mean?’, looking back I have to laugh for he then said, 'Do you think I pay you the money I do for you to be anything other than yourself?’ That one statement changed the trajectory of my entire career! I thought I had to present what they (whoever THEY were) wanted to hear and not what I really wanted to say…needless to say I changed the entire delivery off the back of being given permission to show up as myself! RESULT – ABSOLUTELY nailed it!
2. The best keynote I ever delivered was one of my last. I have trained with some of the best keynote mentors on the planet and invested tens of thousands of dollars to be at the leading edge on stage. I got to a point where I felt completely confused with all of the advice that I had received over the years and given the magnitude of this particular conference I was speaking at I wanted it to be a standout delivery. Don’t ask me why but I decided to throw out EVERYTHING I had been taught, ditch the presentation/power point, put a stool on stage and do a ‘Sally Anderson UNPLUGGED raw & unscripted delivery. It received not 1 but 2 standing ovations and I was mobbed after it and experienced a new found freedom I had NEVER experienced because I was me probably for the first time ever on stage. They had never had a speaker at any previous conference receive such a response from their audience members and the Minister of Women’s Affairs at the time was speaking after me and the MC said to the audience prior to introducing her that he did not envy her following ‘Sally Anderson’…I had to smile!
3. I was delivering a leadership masterclass for a group of about 30 franchise owners, at the time I was a performance coach of 120 franchise owners of that particular Australasian franchise. I delivered the workshop, had a ball and 1 of the franchise owners came up to me afterwards and said he wanted to sign with me privately. NOTE, I did not promote my private leadership coaching services as I was already seconded. I asked what was it in the presentation that spoke to him? He immediately responded with, 'I have never seen anyone speak like that, you floored everyone in the room, you went where ever you wanted to go, you said whatever you wanted to say, you looked like you had complete freedom to do what ever you wanted to do with a few swear words thrown in for good measure and didn’t miss a heartbeat’, and I want a bit of that! Easiest registration I have ever had!

I have been in private practice for 19 years and must admit I had to leave corporate to find the true ME. Now I get the privilege to go back into the corporate environment free from constraint and work my magic with complete freedom. You cannot put a dollar value on that feeling.

So, a few questions for you today to ponder:-

0-10    To what degree do you give yourself permission to be yourself wholly and completely EVERYWHERE?

0-10    To what degree do you change who you are to fit into different situations?

0-10    What value do you place on FREEDOM?

0-10    Do you feel constrained in your current leadership role?

0-10    Is feeling free to be yourself important you?

0-10    Are you present to the impact of not experiencing freedom to be yourself?

0-10    Do you know what it feels like to feel free to be yourself in all areas of your life?

I spent many years of my life trying to live up to other people’s expectations and it took me literally a life time to realise that ‘being me’ was where the gold lies. Pleased to report it was worth the wait! If you are not experiencing freedom to be yourself highly I recommend doing whatever it takes to reclaim your power and giving yourself permission to ‘come home’ to you!