I agree with Sanders’ article. Authentic Leaders have a character and leadership style of their own. One that does not set out to make decisions and do things just to please others. At times, a leader has to learn how to say ‘No’ and make the right albeit unpopular decisions.
In my own opinion, it is by no means an easy feat, as we are creatures of emotions, and at times, in preserving relationship and good will, we may be placed in a fix… where our values to preserve harmonious relationship conflicts our value to be true to our true self. No hard and fast rule. I believe, if we are always compromising our true being, we will lose ourselves, our sense of purpose and sense of being. Trust in relationships is built through communication, not through compromising what we are all about.
Check Scotty Sanders article out:
Authentic Leadership – 6 Strategies to Becoming a Leader Others Want to Follow
You cannot be an authentic leader unless you are your own person. Do not try to imitate someone else or be too responsive to the wishes of others. It is impossible to make everyone happy, therefore do not hold back on making difficult decisions for fear of offending. You must be yourself. People will see your strengths and want to follow someone who is true and genuine.
6 Strategies to Becoming an Authentic Leader
1. Develop your own unique leadership style. Be consistent to your own personality.
2. Understand your purpose. If you lack purpose and direction in leading, why would anyone want to follow you? In order to find your purpose you must first understand yourself. What are you passionate about? Are there any underlying motivations? What stirs your soul?
3. An authentic leader is defined by their values and character and integrity is the one value that is required. If people cannot trust you, why would they follow you? There will be situations in which your values are challenged and you must make tough decisions in the context of your values.
4. Lead with your heart. Some leaders behave as if they have no compassion for anyone. It is your life experience that opens up your heart to have compassion for the most difficult challenges people have along life’s journey.
5. The capacity to develop close and genuine relationships is one mark of an authentic leader. Many leaders believe their job is to create the vision strategy and organizations structure. They have a detached style of leadership. If you cannot or will not connect with the people you lead, you will find it hard to be effective.
6. Self-Discipline is a critical quality of an authentic leader. Without it you cannot gain respect of the people you lead. If a leader has good values but not the self-discipline to put them into action, they lose trust. Also, know that none of us are perfect so when we fall short it is important to admit our mistakes.
To be an authentic leader you must practice consistency and self-discipline. Learn how to handle the pressure of leading. Becoming an authentic leader requires many years of hard work, some pain and suffering, and the wisdom that comes from experiencing life at its fullest.
Mother Teresa was a compelling example of an authentic leader. Many think of her as simply a woman who reached out to the poor yet by 1990 she had created an organization of 4,000 missionaries operating in a hundred countries. Not only did she have a purpose, clear values, and a heart filled with compassion, but she also had a very close relationship with people and exercised self-discipline. She was a great example of authentic leadership.
Are you willing to become an authentic leader? Take the challenge, work on these strategies, and become the kind of leader people want to follow.
Scotty Sanders is the founder and CEO of Life Catalyst Consulting. He has been leading organizations for over 30 years and has worked with hundreds of pastors churches both nationally and internationally. Scotty also founded Church Catalyst, an organization that assists new church plants by providing resources and leadership training. To learn more about Scotty and the ministry resources available from Life Catalyst Consulting, please visit http://www.LifeCatalystConsulting.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scotty_D_Sanders
Leadership is about influencing people, not undermining them!
Leadership is about influencing people and the focus is on the people, not the self. Doing it with the people and not to the people. Great stuff!
Leadership is about serving others, not the boss!
I’ve learned something from this video where Ken mentioned that if the structure of the organisation is a pyramid, the natural tendency is for the people below to do things to please those above the hierachy because performance is not measured by results but by who you served above. True leadership is one that serves those below. Focus on the people, not the boss.
Robert Dilts, talked about the importance of Authentic Leadership in Times of Change and Crisis, the Inner Game of Self Leadership and of Thought Virus. I liked the way he linked this to Neuro Linguistic Programming as I felt we have often neglect the power of our own minds, our thoughts can heal or kill…
Many of us live in regrets and banging ourselves for mistakes done in the past, opportunities missed etc… but these are disempowering thoughts. These kinds of thinking only hinder our growth and progress.
As leaders of our own lives, we must focus on what’s ahead. When we focus on what’s ahead, we’d find what’s behind us will diminished in size and dimmed in its power on us. Imagine our eyes as our focus, if we always look back, we can’t see what’s ahead. What’s ahead are bright future, opportunities and happiness… When we focus ahead, similarly, we can’t see behind… What’s behind are regrets, guilt, dim childhood memories…
Personally I think the past, both happy or sad, are holding us back. People with great happiness in the past may live in past memories and unable to accept the imperfections of the present. People with great bitterness in the past may live in past pain and unable to love and accept the beauty of the present. Either way, the past is a huge baggage, burden that is holding us back from living the life we desire and being true to our living now. Whether the past is of great happiness or pain, we learn to let it go. Gently, with love, let it go. Live life at the present, enjoy the life today as it is and look forward to all the new opportunities and new challenges coming up. Embrace challenges because when we overcome obstacles in our lives, we know we are living and we are growing.
I came across an interesting article on why authentic leadership matters. In this fast paced, global, information age, it is all the more important to develop the authencity in leaders. Leaders who value people and are true to their cause and values. Check this out:
Three Reasons Why Authentic Leadership Matters By Kamran Akbarzadeh
With the enormous changes that the world is going through in the 21st century, we are in need of authentic leaders who are change agents and who will help humanity go through this massive change and give birth to a new world of peace, love, and light, that is free from anger, greed, jealousy, and hatred. Below are 3 reasons why authentic leadership matters:
1. Authentic leadership matters because it gives us a sense of purpose
Everyone has a unique purpose in life. We cannot fulfill our purpose by always following others; authentic leadership helps us find our true north and fulfill our purpose.
As an authentic leader you know your life’s purpose and you choose actions to fulfill your purpose. You live on purpose and lead on purpose. You blend your personal and professional vision so that you have the best in mind for everyone in every situation. By living and leading on purpose, you live a happy and fulfilled life and leave a legacy for future generations.
2. Authentic leadership matters because it links us to our passions
Knowing our purpose is not enough. We cannot truly lead if we don’t love what we do. By developing our leadership skills, we can link our purpose to our passions and serve others. Passion is the DNA of positive energy. It is the driving wheel for generating positive energy with little or no effort. It is what causes you to be energetic and stay energetic. When you tap into your passion, it is like turning the switch of your positive energy generator on.
When people in organizations link the organization’s vision to their passion, they soar to excellence. Authentic leadership helps us create that link.
3. Leadership matters because people matter
The world is changing so fast that we cannot do everything alone. We need people onboard. However, we cannot push people to always do what we want; the time of forceful management is gone. We need to work with people and for people toward a shared vision if we want guarantee success. We can only lead on purpose and inspire people to join us along the way.
As an authentic leader, you know that working with people is the secret to your success. If you work with people and for people, they will do wonders for you especially in tough times. John C. Maxwell said, “Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” As an authentic leader, you expand the circle of your friends and network by becoming close to people. Expanding your network is the key to expanding your net worth.
In sum, through authentic leadership we can link purpose, passion, and people together and achieve productivity, profit and prosperity – and by that I mean prosperity in its broadest form, which is richness in our lives.
Kamran Akbarzadeh, PhD, is a motivational and inspiring author, speaker, seminar leader, and coach. In 2009, with a vision to inspire others to live on purpose and lead on purpose, Kamran founded Dream Achievers Academy. As the CEO of the Academy, Kamran believes that the world is in desperate need of authentic leaders who lead with their hearts and who empower people to soar to greatness no matter where they are and what they do. It was this conviction that inspired Kamran to author Leadership Soup. With a background in research, engineering, and leadership, Kamran’s passion is to help those who aspire to be executive-level leaders develop a culture of authentic leadership within their organization, grow their business with passionate people, and create long-lasting success. Learn more about Kamran and how he can help you achieve your vision and dreams click here: http://www.DreamAchieversAcademy.com or http://www.TheLeadershipSoup.com/resources
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kamran_Akbarzadeh
I was exposed to a flavour of Appreciative Inquiry in 2008 in a half day facilitation workshop. It transformed my leadership. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong, by focusing on what’s right, what was wrong seemed small. By developing the giants in people, challenges become small by comparison. Everyone is unique and deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. I learned that by developing people’s strengths, by appreciating people for who they are, transformed them in huge, positive ways. Appreciative Inquiry is a skill every leader should master.
Something light to summarise what’s AI:
Something heavy to summarise what’s AI:
John sharing on the 5 levels of Leadership.
John Maxwell on his 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. He relaunched the book as he felt the old version wasn’t good enough. The book remained while he has grown. True leaderships are always growing, in their thinking and wisdom. The way we see things changes as we experience new things, ideas and people. Our reality is how we interpret it to be, and guess what, our interpretation changes with maturity and wisdom.
This is a video done by Kary, a fellow JMT certified member. John Maxwell Team’s YouthMax Programme aims to reach 500,000 youths world wide in the period from 6 to 12 May 2012. John shared 4 key lessons for Youth : (1) Positive Self Image, (2) Character, (3) Anti-Bullying and (4) Failing Forward. The JMT team in Singapore is also working towards this cause. I am looking forward to play my part to reach out to our youths.
I have been reflecting on my leadership. As I read John Maxwell’s Leadership Gold, he mentioned that Experience is not the best teacher. Experience must be evaluated for it to be a valuable teacher. Otherwise we would be just re-experiencing our bad experiences. Bad experiences can turn out to be the best lessons in life, in other words we can turn what seemed to be a bad experience to a golden learning opportunity if we took the time to reflect on the lessons learnt and by asking , “What have I learned from this?” “How am I a better person because of this?”
Do not beat yourself over a bad experience. Sometimes people brood repeatedly over “what should” or “should not be” in their so-called “reflection”. That is NOT reflection!! That is called HOARDING! Hoarding to bad memories and experiences, and indulging in self pity, regrets, guilt etc that do no good for anyone. Furthermore, such bad feelings and thoughts that get trapped in your body only manifest into dis-eases and illnesses. Negative thinking is like toxins in our body if there is no proper release.
Reflections involves looking beyond what went wrong. Reflections involves looking at how can I do right next time? When we reflect, do so with gentleness, love and kindness to ourselves. The environment is harsh as it is, we don’t need to be abuse by ourselves. Do not indulge in thoughts like, “it’s all my fault” blah blah blah… Take care of the inner child in us, and enjoy our reflective moments. Reflect on not just bad experiences but also as important to reflect on the good ones and ask, “what did I do right?” and “how can I do even better?”
Another reflection I had from a training call with John Maxwell Team by Christian Simpson was this. We attend a lot of seminars but these seminars are just wake up calls. They are no use if we do not share or put what we learned in seminars into actions. Be it actions we do for ourselves or for others. I think when we share and help others grow, we grow in this process and we internalise what we have learned. I have been slow in taking some of the actions but I am beginning to do something about it, and just let it gain momentum. A little at a time…
Keep going.
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