Leader, Be Yourself

The article by Kellye Whitney, The New Leadership Requirement: Be Yourself from the Chief Learning Officer discusses the importance of being yourself, stating that:

“if you are your very best self, your chances of becoming a great leader increase.”

With a dizzying array of books and workshops on leadership it becomes easy to fall into the trap of trying to imitate the great leaders we read about. By doing this we overlook the real raw material necessary for great leadership, an authentic expression of who you are. Some points from the article that stood our for me were:

• Be Authentic. Truly authentic leaders will selectively show their weaknesses.
• Focus on Your Strengths. No one is perfect, so the old way of looking at leadership development, to point out good traits yet focus on those that need improving, can make someone forget about traits that make him or her special and encourage frustration as the leader in training chases after perfection, which doesn’t exist.
• Capitalize on Your Uniqueness. Good leaders use their differences, whatever they are, as skillfully as they can.

Being yourself, focusing on your strengths and using your uniqueness is an authentic response to leadership. Authenticity builds trust and trust is the foundation of leadership.

“The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice…it is conformity.” – Rollo May, Man’s Search for Himself (Via: The Coyote Within).

Leader, BE YOURSELF! Learn from everyone, and copy no one, that’s that way to be!

“To be nobody-but-yourself – in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” – E.E. Cummings, poet

Technorati Tags: Personal Leadership, Leadership, Personal Development, Authentic, Trust

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4. The Leader as Artist
5. Where’s your focus?

Tagged as: Character, Self-Awareness, Self-Knowledge