Authentic Leadership

I have been busy doing other things this weekend and did not think of blogging, but

As I was reading some of my favourite blogs, I noticed an interesting post worth spreading.

John Spence blogged a list of 10 Things Authentic Leaders Do by Robin Sharma.

The post was so good that I decided to simply blog a short version of it. See John’s blog for the whole story.

10 things that authentic leaders do on a regular basis:

1. They speak their truth. In business today, we frequently ’swallow our truth’. We say things to please others and to look good in front of The Crowd. Authentic leaders are different. They consistently talk truth.
2. They lead from the heart. Business is about people. Leadership is about people. The best leaders wear their hearts on their sleeves and are not afraid to show their vulnerability.
3. They have rich moral fiber. Authentic leaders work on their character. They walk their talk and are aligned with their core values.
4. They are courageous. It takes a lot of courage to go against the crowd. It takes a lot of courage to be a visionary. It takes a lot of inner strength to do what you think is right even though it may not be easy.
5. They build teams and create communities. One of the primary things that people are looking for in their work experience is a sense of community.
6. They deepen themselves. The job of the leader is to go deep. Authentic leaders know their weaknesses and play to their strengths.
7. They are dreamers. Authentic leaders dare to dream impossible dreams. They see what everyone else sees and then dream up new possibilities.
8. They care for themselves. Taking care of your physical dimension is a sign of self-respect. You can’t do great things at work if you don’t feel good.
9. They commit to excellence rather than perfection. No human being is perfect. Authentic leaders commit themselves to excellence in everything that they do.
10. They leave a legacy. To live in the hearts of the people around you is to never die.

As always, some questions at the end. This time copied from John.

Look at the list and give yourself a brutally honest score of 1 -10 on each of his items.

10 = you are a living example of this — it describes you perfectly.
7 = you do this almost all of the time.
5 = 50/50, sometimes you behave this way - sometime you don’t.
3 = this describe you a little bit, every now and then, but this is not a typical behavior for you.
1= this isn’t you at all - you might wish it were, but the truth is - this is not the way you lead today.

John’s recommendation: Anywhere you scored a 7 or less is a good place to start working. Anything below a 4 means you need to get to work on that particular issue immediately. Remember: be 100% honest with yourself!