These last few months, a lot of my
clients refer to authenticity as one of the main traits they are looking for in
their leadership.
It is remarkable that in current
times, where change is on the every day agenda and uncertainty is part of life,
the desire for authentic leadership becomes so explicit. People look for leaders
who are genuine, honest, courageous, resilient but most of all real.
That is quite a change from
leadership in the 20th century where the leader was the one who commanded the
troops to follow him over the hill to build his glory. But why has the
leadership-style preached by Jack Welsh become outdated?
The nature of people in organisations
has dramatically changed in the 21st century. People today are more
knowledgeable about their jobs than their bosses are. They look for meaning
and significance in their work and they are not willing to toil away just for
someone else’s benefit.
Consequently, a 21st century leader
needs to empower and inspire others to lead.
The only way you can truly inspire
people is by being your own self. When people can relate to you as a fellow
human being—rather than as someone with the power to cut your budget or
outsource your job—you can build engagement and lift performance beyond
anything ‘unreal’ leaders ever can. People will trust you and that will give
them the courage to give it their all.
To be an authentic leader, you need
to be aware of your strengths, your limitations and your emotions. The cliché
image of the leader as some sort of superhero with no flaws has clearly changed
and transferred into the leader as a true person who does not hide his or her
mistakes or weaknesses out of fear looking weak.
Becoming an authentic leader takes
guts and courage. We all have been thought to play though and to look strong at
any given point in time. Sharing our limitations goes against our instinct of
self-preservation.
So next time, when I ask you to
share with me your true self, your strengths but also the mistakes that you
have made in your career, remember this blog. I am not looking for criteria to
rule you out, I am just checking whether you have what it takes to be a true
authentic leader.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Isabel
Through a personalised and
tailor-made approach, Ingenium Executive Search aspires to assist you in
attracting the right talent that matches the DNA of your company
Follow me on Twitter
@IngeniumSearch
