Visual Guide to Authentic Leadership
Authenticity is seen as the buzz-word of the twenty-first century. Authenticity is a trait that is genuine and true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character – a trait you can’t see unless it is in the mirror of the eyes of others.
Authentic leaders Promote Real! and take time from walking down long corridors to explore new avenues of success and how the talented, innovative, diverse employees can create and develop innovative ideas. At the same time, authentic leaders stay focused on their vision, a vision that both supports the bottom line and maintains employee satisfaction.
Here are some of the other things that leaders do. The intertwining paths and complexity of options to surpass the competition can cause a leader to lose their way. Clarity can be blurred when office politics cause leaders to go around in a circle. Authentic leaders, though, know who they are, what they believe in and value.
Reflecting from a distance, authentic leaders have an internal GPS that can visualize their leadership path within interacting highways, a path that builds on functional and interpersonal strengths, takes you to your destination with the fewest stops, and avoids distracting detours.
An authentic leader is ethical, a good and open communicator, and someone who sticks to their ideals and earns, most importantly, trust. Combining these traits and behaviors with street smarts, leaders are aware of when and how to admit that they made a mistake.
The authentic leader is trusted by their staff because they see someone who is ‘real,’ someone who tells it like it is, someone who can navigate around landmines and educate others on their paths.
Authenticity is not transparency. A leader doesn’t need to be too real! or to be friends with staff on Facebook or other social media sites, or share personal information.
Authenticity is being true to yourself and all those who you interact with daily. Moving from inauthentic to authentic is a challenge made up of incremental developmental steps, a path that will take you to being the leader followers will respect.
