Dr. Jay Conger Professor of Leadership Studies, Claremont McKenna College, discusses the following three aspects of great leadership, authenticity, branding and followership.

“We’re swimming in advice about how to be good leaders. Bookstores hold remarkable portraits of Donald Trump, Martha Stewart, Jack Welsh and others. They all have advice for us. But how many people can “play” Donald Trump? It’s hard to imitate these characters. And if you try, it is usually a disaster. The last person who tried to imitate Jack Welsh was Jacques Nasser at Ford, which is one reason why Ford ended up on the brink of disaster. It’s better to be yourself; beware of who you wish to become.”

Authenticity

“Why is authenticity important? We live in a world of political and business cynicism and we’ve lost trust with our establishments and leaders. Authenticity is crucial to gaining the mantle of leadership because it is used to retain talent. Authenticity requires:

• Maintaining consistency between words and deeds
• Communicating a consistent underlying theme
• Being comfortable with yourself
• Revealing an allowable weakness

“… It takes a long time to develop your own authenticity. The challenge is to develop your own sense of conviction, and life experiences can either reinforce or demolish those convictions. ”

“There has to be consistency between words and deeds. A leader’s actions must move the organization toward a consistent underlying theme. You have to know who you are and what the organization stands for.”

Being authentic is central to trust, and without trust you cannot lead. How effectively and consciously have you focused on developing your authenticity?

Branding

“Who you are as a leader is your brand. Because you can’t be everywhere, the brand will carry your message. Branding requires:

• Having identity differences that are meaningful for your followers
• Projecting these differences
• Highlighting your differences in stories, decisions, dress and actions

What is Bill Gates’ brand? He is totally aligned with his business model, which means that if you’re a geek, you want to work for him. Richard Branson’s brand is risk taking, outrageous ideas and adventure. Your brand has to personify your business so followers can easily identify it.”

Although I don’t quite think that branding is the right word, the idea Jay talks about is important. Are you clear about why you make a difference?

Followership

“Why should anyone be led by you? As president and CEO, what are the one or two qualities that make people want to follow you? What your followers want:

• Significance
• Community
• Excitement
• Authenticity

“Do your actions mirror authenticity, a clear brand and build followership? “

Are you doing what matters? This is an important question. With so many causes for people to join and give of their time and energy, why does you cause matter?

Related posts:

1. Your product may be good, but will it spark a conversation?

Effective leaders not only recognise the unique strengths and weaknesses of others. They have sufficient self-awareness to recognise their own, personal strengths and weaknesses.

“Leaders know themselves; they know their strengths and mature them. They also have a faculty I think of as the Wallenda Factor. The flying Wallendas are perhaps the world’s greatest family of aerialists and tightrope walkers. I was fascinated when, in the early 1970s seventy-one-year-old Karl Wallenda said that for him living was walking the tightrope, and everything else was waiting. I was struck by his capacity for concentration on intention, the task, the decision. I was even more intrigued when, several months later, Wallenda fell to his death while walking a tightrope without a safety net between two high-rise buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Wallenda fell still clutching the balancing pole, he had warned his family never to drop lest it hurt somebody below. Later Wallenda’s wife said that before her husband had fallen, for the first time since she had known him he had been concentrating on falling, instead of on walking the tightrope. He had personally supervised the attachment of the guide wires, which he had never done before” – Warren Bennis, Why Leaders Can’t Lead

When we focus on our strengths it’s amazing how our weaknesses take care of themselves. Where is your focus? Is it on your areas of strength? Is it on what you want to create?

Related posts:

1. Leaders Grow Most In Their Areas Of Strength!
2. Limit Your Projects and Keep Your Focus
3. 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

No related posts.