Claire Irving of Better Strategic Consultancy reflects on one of the agency's key values - to be authentic - and how that is key to brilliant, inspiring leadership.
With a cup of tea (Yorkshire please, reader) in your hand, take a moment to think about a time when you experienced brilliant leadership. What did it look like? How did it make you feel? How did it impact your organisation’s success? For me, a defining characteristic of the successful leaders I’ve met was their authenticity. Thinking about it, they inspired trust and connection in me because I could see that they were working without compromising their values or their personality, and they spoke with everyone, bringing people along with their vision on the way.
This style can feel at odds with the concepts we may have of what Being In Charge is like. Surely, it’s best to have a work persona and rigidly stick with it, right? Surely, speaking to all in your organisation isn’t time well spent for you and replicates what your managers are for? Well, no. I think that’s wrong. I wanted to share some thoughts over the next couple of posts about areas you might consider to really strike out as a successful and authentic leader:
Who are you and what are your values?
What are the things that have shaped you as a person and how have they helped you reach this point in your career? What is important to you? Spend some time really thinking about these things and understand your ‘why’ and the values that are vital to you. This level of self-awareness will help you relate this to your work, your people and your vision for your organisation.
Open yourself up – appropriately
If you know what has shaped you and understand your values, you can use this to open yourself up to your people. Letting them see where you’ve come from and how it fits with the organisation they work in will help them relate to you and get on board with your vision. There is a big caveat here... It’s not about you. It’s about showing who you are to help people understand the goals and vision of the company, having first considered whether it is helpful for the person to hear. It’s not about holding court and banging on about whatever is on your mind or making people feel so sorry for you that they feel they must look after you.
Adapt to your audience
There is always context to your authenticity, and it should never be at the expense of policies, political savviness, good taste and the wellbeing of your people. One size does not fit all. You need to read a room and adapt - you must listen, observe and reflect the context around you while remembering the positional power that you hold. For example, while holding true to your values, you would adapt your behaviours and tone while leading a leadership meeting versus speaking with a member of the wider team in the corridor. Emotional intelligence is everything here.
I’ll write more next time about how you can gain confidence in yourself as an authentic leader. In the meantime, if you’d like to explore anything here further just drop me a line to arrange a call.
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