Becoming an authentic leader

“Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we are supposed to be and embracing who we are”  Brene Brown.

The best leaders I have ever worked with have their own authentic style.  

That celebrates who they are firstly as humans and then as leaders. 

But then vitally they put their unique superpowers to the collective good rather than pursuing their own selfish agenda.

Unfortunately it is rare to be this real. Many leaders fail to lead authentically.    

Why?

• Because it is difficult and requires effort. 

• Out of pressure to conform to a narrow, corporate model of what it takes to be a leader in your organisation.

• For some because of their own imposter syndrome.  It can seem safer adopting someone else’s style rather than exposing your own values as a leader.  The problem is others will always be a much better version of themselves than you will be.

• Sometimes because their boss demands they be like them.  A friend was told in a year-end review by his boss that to be more successful he needed to be much more like the boss!!  

• Out of fear.  As a coach, I know that fear is such a powerful barrier preventing change and growth.  This can be fear of how you might be perceived if you express your vulnerability.

• For some, they are too blinded by their own self-agenda to serve the common good as an authentic leader.  

The bottom line is not being true to yourself as a leader:

Is exhausting as you are always pretending, always trying to second guess.

Is ultimately unfulfilling even if you are successful in the short-term.

Means that you keep your own unique superpowers hidden. 

Means you are less likely to connect with people around you as you become known for wearing a mask.

From experience, there are few things as important and as liberating as finding your authentic style of leadership. It took me a while to find my authentic style but once I did there was no turning back!

By being authentically you, you become a role model for others to be true to themselves.  It unleashes so much energy in yourself and in others.  You play to your unique strengths. 

So what if these strengths are different to others in your organisation.  That is to be celebrated as it encourages cognitive diversity.  Great people leaders encourage this.

The good news is that through coaching/mentoring leaders can be supported to identify and leverage their authentic style.

This allows them and the organisations they lead to grow faster and more sustainably.

SO how do you develop your own leadership style.  I recommend the following steps.

1.     Identify your own values (no more than 4 words) as a person/professional.

2.     Use these to guide what you stand for as a leader and what you do not.  You need to accept that you cannot be all things to all people. Far better to be brilliant at a few areas that are important to you than try to be average at everything.

3.     Release yourself from the pressure to be perfect.  This is impossible as a leader.  The good news is you do not have to be perfect to be incredible.

4.     Lead in line with this.  Try it out.  Practice.  Practice.  Practice.

5.     Regularly review and get feedback from a trusted source on how you are doing.  Listen also to your intuition.

Sadly, being true to yourself does not guarantee you will be successful in every role as a leader.

But it will increase your chances AND ensure the journey will be much more joyful!

So what is your authentic style of leadership?

Generosity of Spirit: Why is it so difficult to implement?

I previously discussed the topic of Generosity of Spirit as a winning perspective for leadership.  Generous Spirit leaders focus relentlessly on the “how” as well as the ”what”.  They realise their role is to win collectively by lifting others.  By their consistent behaviour, they model generosity of spirit and demand it unapologetically from all those they lead. 

I have worked with some incredible leaders in wonderful companies.  In my experience, leaders who consistently adopt a perspective of Generosity of Spirit are more successful in driving sustainable business success and engagement.  It can be the basis of competitive advantage.  Simply put, people contribute more when they feel respected, trusted, valued, empowered.  This has never been more relevant as many recent surveys show that the majority of employees are disengaged and unfulfilled by their work situation.

There are many leaders and companies who will never buy into this.  They steadfastly believe a more individual-oriented and ruthless focus on the “what” will deliver better results for them.  They are more comfortable with the classic command, control and compliance approach to management, which is based on low trust.  They perceive alternative approaches such as Generosity of Spirit as being too soft.  Whilst I strongly believe this not to be the case, I almost admire the purity and consistency of their approach.

But there are also many leaders who state they believe in similar principles to the ones that are behind Generosity of Spirit.  However they are not successful in embedding the principles in their organisations/business units/teams they lead.  It may be something they say for effect rather than something they do (in my view the worst crime of leadership) but often the feelings are very genuine.

In truth, it can be fiendishly difficult for business and leaders to adopt a Generosity of Spirit perspective.  Especially in larger, established companies.

In Biology, homeostatis is the ability to maintain internal stability in an organism in response to environmental changes.  In business it is the ability to resist change or at least anything more than superficial, incremental change at a time when the world around us is changing.  Increasingly leaders (rightly) talk about the need to disrupt the external market whilst simultaneously ignoring the need for internal disruption.  It is very easy as a leader in practice to pay lip service to Darwin’s view on evolution that it is the not the most intelligent or strongest of the species that survive but the most adaptable.

Delivering change is hard.  It requires consistent leadership from the top.  It demands CEOs to have a long-term perspective as well as a short-term view.  This can be very difficult given the huge pressures on them for short-term performance. 

Adopting the perspective of Generosity is not how leaders have been conditioned to behave over the years.  At a wider societal level, the focus is on self, rather than community.  As Simon Sinek notes wryly, you go into any bookshop (in the days when we could go into shops!) and you will see huge sections on self-help and hardly any books on helping others.  Many leaders have been successful due to a different way of working and so have little motivation to change beyond window-dressing.

Another challenge is Generosity takes bravery as a leader.  It comes authentically from the heart.  You only get authenticity from the teams you lead if you model it yourself as a leader.  I know from experience that this can seem a very dangerous place as a leader.  It often feels a smarter, self-interest choice to play it safe and not to stick your head above the parapet.  This bravery means taking tough decisions when people do not behave in the desired way even if they deliver on the “what”.  The “how” and the “what” must be equally non-negotiable.  Nothing destroys in practice all good intentions on values than tolerating (and even worse rewarding) consistently bad behaviours, especially in leaders. 

Generosity in leaders is linked to humility.  Historically this has not been a trait often associated with successful leaders.  All leaders inevitably have an ego or else they would not be in that position.  But Generous Spirit leaders are focused on winning by lifting others, rather than reinforcing their own self-importance.  I love C.S. Lewis’ definition of humility as not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.  

In addition, over time we become conditioned to adopt a sense of learnt helplessness at work.  We grumble about continuous meetings, zoom/teams calls, lack of trust etc but learn to accept it as the way it is.  We forget to truly challenge in part because it has become normal to us.  Or if we challenge, we challenge on the margins only. 

Finally, reward systems can be a practical deterrent to Generosity of Spirit.  Performance metrics and bonuses typically focus on the wrong measures.  They all too often measure what is precise, short-term but wrong, rather than incentivise what is directionally right and important for long-term growth.  Most reward systems need to change dramatically to truly encourage generosity of spirit.

So embedding a genuine culture of Generosity of Spirit is difficult.  But most things in life that are valuable are not easy.  The size of the prize when you get it right can be hugely significant.

I would love your feedback on this.  Have you experienced or modelled Generosity of Spirit at work?  Have you experienced the opposite style of leadership? 

Generosity of Spirit and Winning Leadership

As a coach, I know the power of different perspectives.  Often, we can get stuck in one perspective or we are blind to the possibility of other perspectives.  As a simple example, I may despair about the fact it is raining.  One more bad thing to deal with on top of a global pandemic, political chaos etc.  I could choose a different perspective.  Rain may make me nostalgic for home (I am Irish after all!), rain can be refreshing, it can make me grateful for my warm and dry home.  The rain is a fact.  However, my energy and attitude is dramatically different depending on which perspective I adopt about the rain.  The perspective I adopt is a choice.  This is equally true in leadership.

I have been fortunate to work for great companies with many inspiring people.  I have seen the perspective leaders consistently adopt about work dramatically impact both business performance and fulfilment (their own and others).  In my experience, leaders who consistently adopt a perspective of generosity of spirit are more successful in driving sustainable business success and engagement. 

CHANGING NATURE OF WORK

The nature of work is changing.  The old model of compliance, control and command is becoming less relevant.  This model of work is based on a low trust perspective.  It is often associated with a focus on inputs (visible hours worked for example) rather than on business outcomes.  It invariably comes with a high level of bureaucracy and checking. 
 

Our expectations from the work we do are changing.  The expectations of consumers, customers and wider societal stakeholders from business are certainly evolving.  What it takes to be a leader is changing.  The perspective we adopt as leaders therefore needs to change as well.

GENEROUS SPIRIT LEADERS

In my experience, the best leaders focus uncompromisingly on the “how” as well as the “what”, having clearly communicated the “why”.  These are leaders that adopt what I call a Generous Spirit perspective.

The “how” is based on the cultural and behavioural standards they insist upon from others but especially from themselves.  The words behind culture are important but the actions behind behaviours are critical.  Culture is always determined in practice not by the best behaviour leaders celebrate but by the worst behaviour they tolerate.  This is true in business but also in sport. James Kerr in his book Legacy on the All Blacks, the world’s most successful sporting franchise, shares the historical importance of policing their “no dickhead” rule for preserving their winning culture.

The “how” is also driven by the perspective adopted on leadership.  Generous Spirit leaders have the humility to recognise their role is to win collectively by lifting others.  Generous Spirit leaders consistently demonstrate their humanity and authenticity as leaders.  They do this by genuinely and empathetically connecting with the individuals they lead not as employees but as people.  This is the right thing to do at a human level but also is good for business.  Simply put, people contribute more when they feel respected, trusted, valued, empowered.  Sadly, many recent surveys show that the majority of employees do not feel this way about the companies they work for.

It is not just the “how” however, Generous Spirit leaders are equally obsessed with the “what”.  The “what” for them is always based on business outcomes, sometimes key outputs but never inputs.  They are pleasantly unreasonable in the pursuit of ambitious, market-leading growth.

This perspective starts with an understanding of the “why”.  Our purpose as a company but also as leaders.  Simon Sinek powerfully elaborates the importance of this in his many works beginning with “Start with Why”.   As he writes, people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you are doing it.  People willingly follow Generous Spirits leaders because they consciously or subconsciously understand their why – why they choose to lead.   

The “how”, the “what” and the “why” are the irresistible combination of Generous Spirit leaders.  Together they generate sustainable competitive advantage.  Combined, they allow for a balance between short-term and long-term delivery and not just focus on this month or this quarter’s performance as many leaders are guilty of.  Together they ensure Generous Spirit leaders fulfil the needs of all stakeholders – consumers, employees, shareholders, wider societal stakeholders and the planet itself. 

Truly successful leadership can therefore be a matter of perspective.  In my experience, this perspective is often based on generosity of spirit.

In future articles, I will review in more detail topics such as the benefits of generosity of spirit and why most companies will sadly not successfully adopt this perspective. 

I would welcome your feedback.  Does this resonate with you?  Can you share examples of generosity of spirit from your work?