What Does Authentic Leadership Mean To You?

Someone I met at a networking event recently (Networking? Now there’s an activity where we often see inauthenticity in action!!) asked me: ‘what do I need to do to be a great leader’? He’d bought all the books, could spout the latest theories, had attended a few conferences with various ‘leadership gurus’ but still he was struggling.

Do we become better leaders by reading about leadership or going on leadership courses? That depends! Both can be helpful to us but continually adding more data and knowledge is not always what’s required. Trying to imitate the leadership gurus doesn’t really work for me although I can learn huge amounts from them. I’d rather find my own path – with a bit of knowledge and understanding of some basic principles of course – which means that for me any work I do with leaders needs to include something on core values, self- awareness; self-reflection and feedback.

So I’m very drawn to the idea of Authentic Leadership – Dictionary.com defines the word authentic as ‘not false or copied; genuine; real’. Authenticity is also defined as “owning one’s personal experiences, be they thoughts, emotions, needs, preferences, or beliefs, processes captured by the injunction to know oneself” and “behaving in accordance with the true self” (Harter, 2002, p. 382).

Well, so what??

Authentic leaders are sometimes described as ‘good in their own skin’; open and honest in presenting their true self to others; leading from the heart as well as the head. We know where we stand with authentic leaders. They don’t do ‘flavour of the month’ leadership. Some would argue that we each have many different authentic selves, based on our environment, relationships, intentions. And sometimes, when we are developing as people and as leaders we need to stretch our comfort zones so that what is “authentic” changes.

Authentic leaders make authentic choices – I am very struck by something a colleague shared with me recently – a quote from Gail Sheehy’s book Passages:

‘I realised I was working as hard as I could to become someone I wouldn’t like’ – the very antithesis, of course, of authenticity.

So, if you want to understand more about your authentic self – whether you want to uncover it or to create it – try this exercise as a starting point:

Take a large piece of flipchart paper and draw a picture that illustrates ‘Me at my Best.’ Share with a colleague, friend or spouse…… See what emerges……….

I’ve used this exercise a lot with leaders and with teams and the ‘a-ha’ moments are truly amazing!

Till next time,

Lynn

T 01729 840045 E pat@lynnscottcoaching.co.uk www.lynnscottcoaching.co.uk

Lynn Scott Coaching Ltd

High Wood Barn

Rathmell

North Yorkshire

BD24 0JX