Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?: What It Takes To Be An Authentic Leader

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When leaders reveal their weaknesses, they show us who they are—warts and all. This may mean admitting that they’re irritable on Monday mornings, that they are somewhat disorganized, or even rather shy. Such admissions work because people need to see leaders own up to some flaw before they participate willingly in an endeavor. Exposing a weakness establishes trust and thus helps get folks on board. Indeed, if executives try to communicate that they’re perfect at everything, there will be no need for anyone to help them with anything. They won’t need followers. They’ll signal that they can do it all themselves. In both our research and consulting work, we have seen executives who profoundly misunderstand what makes an inspirational leader. Here are four of the most common myths: Everyone can be a leader. In earlier research, we discovered that many women—particularly women in their fifties—try to avoid this dynamic by disappearing. They try to make themselves invisible. They wear clothes that disguise their bodies; they try to blend in with men by talking tough. That’s certainly one way to avoid negative stereotyping, but the problem is that it reduces a woman’s chances of being seen as a potential leader. She’s not promoting her real self and differences. Gareth Jones next to a stand full of one of his books, which he stumbled across on the way to a Spurs game in 2015. Photograph: Gemma Jones

I appreciate the difficult exercise of detailing one's own experience - it takes accepting to show oneself as "weak" which in our heroic star leadership culture is rarely welcomed - bravoBarbara A. Amodio, Ph.D. on 09/17 – An Integral Catholic Leader: Father Anthony de Mello, SJ - 02/07/2021 Antonio Augusto Casari Kós on 12/21 — Seeing Through the World: An Invitation to Begin the Healing Work - 12/27/2020

Peter Merry, Nish Dubashia, thanks for the great dialogue. In transscript. I enyoyed very much to watch the entire series on You Tube in 2020. The Bohm approach - as I know it from decades ago- has yet potentials which are not fully harvested.Bt thats only a side note. While reading Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? I thought of often of my first boss, Ted Hissey, because he exemplified for me the kind of authentic leader described in this book. Ted was always his authentic self, he shared his family, his kids and his love of sport and even more, he brought out the best in me and others. I always felt Ted really cared about my welfare and future. Thirty-five years after I left the company, he called me when he was visiting Australia for an international engineers conference. He looked in every phone book in every state capital city to find and call me just to say hello and ask how my life was going. After talking to him on the phone that night, he made me wonder about my own qualities as a leader and what I could do to care about and bring the best out in others. This book makes us ask good questions of ourselves and if we are doing the things that result in people wanting to be led by us. While reading this book, one of the employees in our company handed in her resignation. She said she felt she would like to try something else in her life and had enough of the administration work she had been doing for us. Does that mean I wasn’t doing the things described in this book that successful leaders do or did it mean she was moving on because she needed to move on? Not true. Many executives don't have the self-knowledge or the authenticity necessary for leadership. And self-knowledge and authenticity are only part of the equation. Individuals must also want to be leaders, and many talented employees are not interested in shouldering that responsibility. Others prefer to devote more time to their private lives than to their work. After all, there is more to life than work, and more to work than being the boss. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120952975&t=1609320730924&fbclid=IwAR3v6ZCbywhzVJXZWTAJzFiWhnoVhK5b41mi6ErHjJh3t6oAhw2W6UOP6mk

People who get to the top are leaders.

Maybe neither are the leaders we aspire for, when compared to Justin Trudeau, the current Canadian Prime Minister, who captured his leadership ethos with these words: Pierre GOIRAND on 12/21 – The Unintentional Bully: An Autoethnographic Reflection on Leadership - 01/09/2021 Community: followers long for a sense of belonging, to feel part of something bigger. Leaders must help them connect to others (not just to the leaders themselves) as well as to the overarching purpose of the organisation. Albert - Thank you very much for your interest and kind comments. Peter and I are planning to continue with the series of dialogues, and our next one is currently scheduled for 5th February. And thank you for the great quote from Everything Matters. My new novel Dancing with Angels is scheduled to be published around Easter, and it aims to tell the story of development from mythic through rational to post-modern and integral in the form of one man's spiritual journey after personal tragedy. when we have no word we have a problem; but when we use a word beyond it's scope we also create a problem.