Authentic Leadership

Authentic Leaders genuinely desire to serve others through their leadership. They are more interested in empowering the people they lead to make a difference than they are in power, money or prestige for themselves. Authentic leaders use their natural abilities, but they also recognize their shortcomings and work hard to overcome them. They lead with purpose, meaning, and values. They build enduring relationships with people.

Being your own person. Leaders are all very different people. The one essential quality a leader must have is to be your own person, authentic in every regard. Being your own person is most challenging when it feels like everyone is pressuring you to take one course and you are standing alone.

Developing your unique leadership style. To become authentic, each of us has to develop our own leadership style, consistent with our personality and character. To be effective in today's fast-moving, highly competitive environment, leaders also have to adapt their style to fit the immediate situation. There are times to be inspiring and motivating, and time to be tough about people decisions or financial decisions. There are times to delegate, and times to be deeply immersed in the details. There are times to communicate public messages, and time to have private conversations. Good leaders are able to nuance their styles to the demands of the situation, and to know when and how to deploy different styles.

Being aware of your weakness.Being true to the person you were created to be means accepting your faults as well as using your strengths. Accepting your shadow side is an essential part of being authentic.

The temptations of leaderships. Little by little, step by step, the pressures to succeed can pull us away from our core values, just as we are reinforced by our "success" in the market. The irony is that the more successful we are, the more tempted we are to take shortcuts to keep it going.

Dimensions of authentic leaders. Authentic leaders demonstrate these five qualities:

• Understanding their purpose
• Practicing solid values
• Leading with heart
• Establishing connected relationships
• Demonstrating self-discipline

Understanding your purpose. To find your purpose, you must first understand yourself, your passions, and your underlying motivations. Then you must seek an environment that offers a fit between the organization's purpose and your own.

Practicing solid values. Leaders are defined by their values and their character. The values of the authentic leader are shaped by personal beliefs, developed through study, introspection, and consultation with others-and a lifetime of experience.

Leading with heart. To excel in the twenty-first century, great companies will go one step further by engaging the hearts of their employees through a sense of purpose. When employees believe their work has a deeper puropose, their results will vastly exceed those who use only their minds and their bodies.

Establishing enduring relationships.

Krishnamurti, " Relationships is the mirror in which we see ourselves as we are."

The capacity to develop close and enduring relationships is one mark of a leader. Bill Gates, Micheal Dell, and Jack Welch are so successful because they connect directly with their employees and realize from them a deeper commitment to their work and greater loyalty to the company.

Demonstrating self-discipline.

Self-Discipline is an essential quality of an authentic leader. Without it, you cannot gain the respect of your followers. It is easy to say that someone has good values but lacks the discipline to convert those values into consistent actions.