In life, phenomena are not born in a vacuum. They are born in a reaction to something. Authentic Leadership arose in earnest as a clarion call to a new generation of leaders in the early 2000’s to learn from negative examples of companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco. A great distrust of leaders and corporations was exposed, creating a wind of change, and giving rise to a movement that impacted both what people looked for in their leaders and the missions and cultures they wanted to be part of in their workplaces.
Leaders of the highest integrity became committed to building enduring organizations: People who have a deep sense of purpose and are true to their core values, who have the courage to build their companies to meet the needs of their stakeholders, and who recognize the importance of service to their employees, their partners, their customers, and their communities.
In this way ‘authenticity’ emerged as the gold standard of leadership.
We are not defining leadership in this context as a hierarchical position in an organization – we are referring to leadership as presence, not position. All of us have gifts of leadership, that are minimally reliant on having direct reports – I can’t tell you how much time I spend in discussions with leaders around the subject of leading ourselves, leading across teams and influencing upwards.
Authentic leadership is built on who you are, not on your style. It has to do with who we are as human beings and the forces that have shaped us. If I were to ask you in this moment: “What has made you the leader you are today?” How well would you be able to answer?
The importance of the leader’s life story is paramount. Authentic leaders explore their formative experiences to give meaning to their lives, and understand who they are. This process of learning, growing, and developing an integrated self is a process of reflection, construction, and meaning-making. As leaders explore their life stories and their most difficult challenges, they process their experiences and develop a deeper understanding of themselves, feeling increasingly comfortable in their own skin. They create a narrative around their story.
People who have had negative experiences early in their lives, which cause them to have difficulty in managing certain situations or emotions, need not feel like shutting these things in a drawer far away, or deep inside themselves. Rather, by understanding and reframing their experiences, they can find the lessons and strengths and purpose it has given them that represent their authentic self. This is a never-ending journey. As leaders, we are always
discovering the next layer, learning more about who we are, gaining confidence and resilience.
I am often reminded of this when I hear winemakers consistently describe how the very best wine comes from vines that have suffered, and persevered, throwing out their fruit, from the stoniest, harshest soil.
That is what Starbucks’ Howard Schultz did in coping with the severe challenges of his youth. He grew up in a hardscrabble existence; his family lived in a public housing project in Brooklyn. His father was uneducated, his mother wasn’t working. It was just a tough time, and as a teenager he realized his athletic ability was his only ticket out. In looking back he has commented, that his father never had a shot. Howard Schultz wanted to become a leader, making up for his parents’ failures. He revealed in writing about his life “That his tremendous professional success is a tribute to his late father who never attained fulfilment and dignity from work he found meaningful,” but also admits that in his most vulnerable moments he still has fear of failure today. He regrets never having the chance to tell his parents how much their struggle inspired his own achievements.
It’s what made the difference for Steve Jobs when he returned for act two at Apple, 9 years after his dramatic termination. He had become a far better leader, his obsession with control had been tempered, he was better you might say at playing with others, and this was crucial to his extraordinary success.
Authentic leaders rise above the challenges that face them, and discover their passion to lead. In his latest book, Discover Your True North, Bill George and his team interviewed 172 authentic leaders, and their research highlighted not only the importance of how these leaders have processed their life stories but the vital role of self-awareness in leadership development, confirming that leadership is fully a human endeavor, and that the essence of authentic leadership is emotional intelligence. In contrast to IQ, which essentially doesn’t change over one’s adult lifetime, EQ can be developed. Leaders rarely fail due to a lack of IQ—it’s their ratio of IQ to EQ—or the integration of head and heart. Matters of the heart, Bill George says comes from 4 traits:
Passion—about what you are doing, and your purpose
Compassion—taking the time for yourself, and for others
Empathy—for those you work with
Courage—to stay the course and demonstrate self-discipline.
And to quote Maya Angelou, “Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
Understanding your leadership purpose and applying the distinct strengths and qualities you bring to leadership challenges is far more important than focusing entirely on achieving success defined by metrics like money and power and status. The first and most important step is deepening self-awareness.
One of the hardest things for leaders to do is to understand how the world sees them, how others experience them—it is difficult to seek honest feedback from colleagues, friends, and subordinates about yourself and your leadership. The reason it’s so hard is because how people see you is often quite different from how you want to be seen. Your intention and your impact are not aligning--something in between, your actions, are resulting in missing the target. Authentic leaders obtain real-time feedback by eliciting comments from their ‘truth-tellers’, who give them candid feedback about their leadership, and gathering 360 reviews from supervisors, peers and subordinates. The qualitative comments shared can be of great benefit if leaders take them to heart and genuinely try to adjust.
Becoming skilled at tailoring their approach to the audience, the situation, or the team around them, is another imperative of authentic leadership. I’m often in discussions with leaders about whether their undesirable behavior is simply part of who they are. For example, if they are direct, and appear to others as blunt or arrogant or critical, is that just a function of their personality? Shouldn’t others just accept the bad with the good, they’ll ask? I call this their ‘authenticity racket’, or their story about why it’s ok or unavoidable to be a jerk. If it wasn’t your intention to be a jerk, or it wasn’t your desire to hurt someone or belittle them, if it wasn’t your intention to alienate your colleague, then your actions in creating this result aren’t authentic either. ‘Pivot’ or adjust the behavior or action--try again.
Authentic leaders are constantly growing—they do not have rigid views of themselves. There are times when leaders have to make difficult decisions, have difficult conversations, or give tough feedback. At other times they need to be inspiring, good coaches, influencers and consensus builders, good listeners, or let others take the lead. These flexible styles aren’t inauthentic if they come from a place of integrity, purpose, and good intention. Becoming authentic is a developmental state that enables leaders to progress through multiple roles as they learn and grow from their experiences. Like superior performance in athletes, becoming an authentic leader requires years of practice in challenging situations. In this way, leaders’ styles become the outward manifestation of their authenticity. As leaders gain self-awareness, they become more skilled in adapting their style and staying consistent with their intention without compromising their character or their values.
In this way Authentic Leaders do not show up inconsistently, one person one day and another person the next--or one person with their boss and another with their peers or their team. Sometimes in a 360 I’ll see these different personas, and I’ll ask the question; “Why are there multiple Joes or Janes?” If you can do it so well here, why do you choose not to connect and do it there?
Authentic leaders try to lead a balanced life, bringing together all constituent elements: work, family, community, and friends, so they can be the same person in each environment. Authentic leaders build extraordinary support teams: partners, families, mentors, coaches, friends, and colleagues, to help them stay on course and keep them accountable. Authentic leaders realize you have to be willing to listen to feedback, even the kind that’s hard to hear. Authentic leaders are consistently aware of the importance of staying grounded--spending time with family and friends, taking care of themselves and those around them, being engaged in activities to manage their health and well-being, community involvement, respecting their faith or spiritual practices, returning to places where they grew up, remembering who they are, and
staying humble.
Naturally no one can be authentic without fail. Everyone behaves inauthentically at times, saying or doing things they come to regret. The key is to have the self-awareness to recognize these times and listen to those who point them out.
Authentic leaders are not perfect, nor do they try to be. They make mistakes, but are willing to admit their errors and learn from them. They know how to ask for help. The savviest business people face their failures head-on, gleaning valuable lessons from them that they can apply in the future. As Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
It takes a great deal of confidence to lead through challenging times and difficult situations. Most significantly, authentic leaders are constantly learning and growing from their experiences. By taking on new challenges, they become more effective as authentic leaders. When they find themselves in new situations, they draw upon their true selves--what they’ve learned from past experiences and can learn from new colleagues. Being a leader doesn’t make you who you are, it reveals who you are.
I want to read a few lines, as I close up here, from one of my favorite songs, Humble and Kind, written by Lori McKenna;
Don’t take for granted the love this life gives you
When you get where you’re going
Don’t forget, turn back around
Help the next one in line
Always stay humble and kind
Few of us have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can commit ourselves to a series of actions to make this world a better place, and the sum total of all those actions will write the history of this generation of leaders.
When you do leave this life the only thing you take with you is what you leave behind. You are the author of your own story. You cannot live someone else’s life. Learn who you are, and how others experience you. Aspire to be your own best, authentic self, live an integrated life, and leave a legacy that makes a difference in this world: Be an Authentic Leader.
I acknowledge some of the foremost authorities on this subject, are often the sources of my inspiration. I have borrowed from the ideas, research and genius of Bill George in particular, who continues to be pioneer in this space.