In your personal life, authenticity is about being yourself regardless of social context. In business, it’s about walking the talk, being true to ethical principles and maintaining your personality and essence consistently. Traits of a true leader.
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Trascend via leadership
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This holds true for any position of leadership, both in professional and personal settings.
Leaders look to be challenged
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If you surround yourself with “yes-men”, you will never attain the unimaginable and you will never find out what you’re really made of.
A visionary leader looks to be challenged. “My way or the highway” is fine for emergency situations where decisions need to be implemented quickly but in the day to day operations and long-term vision, you’re missing out if you’re so insecure about your own standing that you won’t allow for (or promote) healthy debate. Valued professionals don’t want to follow… they want to co-create and co-achieve. Invite them to.
Obedience vs. alignment
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True leaders are able to promote and achieve enthusiastic alignment within their teams. Bad bosses rely on constant demanding of obedience due to their own shortcomings as motivators, communicators, influencers and leaders.
Lead yourself
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Before trying to understand what motivates and drives your team for results, have you taken the time and space to figure out what makes YOU tick? It’s amazing how many people operate by inertia and don’t identify their own drivers, just because they’re caught up in the daily grind and pressured to meet that next deadline. Breathe, reflect, know yourself. It’s essential if you’re going to try to lead others.
Leadership is constant, not cyclical
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Leadership in action
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I’ve found that when facing a challenge or problem, organizations can fall into the paralysis by analysis trap way too often.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to get a real grasp of the situation and root of the problem in order to develop effective solutions. The problem comes when we overextend the analysis and no one wants to posit a solution because they fear the possibility of getting it wrong and making things worse.
Leaders don’t cower or freeze up when facing obstacles. Leaders are called upon to act and to drive solutions forward.
