Authentic Leadership Archives - The Career Success Doctor

What The Pope Can Teach Us About Leadership

My PhD is in spirituality and leadership, so I was really interested to read an article this morning discussing what the Pope can teach us about leadership. I’m not a Catholic, but I have been really impressed by some of the actions Pope Francis has taken. He is clearly living in accordance with his beliefs – starting with the washing of the feet of some of the most alienated people in society – and, as this article shows, he walks his talk.

The research on leadership shows clearly that people look for leaders they can trust, and authenticity (walking the talk, living by your beliefs and being willing to stand up and stand out for what you believe in) is an important element in creating that trust. So is the ability to trust others through delegation. The best leaders give opportunities to their people, they stretch them, they rejoice in their development. And they recognise that, to be a truly successful leader you cannot do it on your own.

As a student of what makes a good leader, I have looked at many leadership models, including authentic leadership and servant leadership, and the Pope incorporates many of these models into his leadership style.

If you are in a leadership role, or you aspire to move into a leadership role, then the current Pope is a powerful example of what good leadership looks like, irrespective of whether or not you support his religious views.

You can read the full article on the 7 management lessons of Pope Francis here, and if you’re interested in seeing a copy of a paper I wrote on the subject of leadership and spirituality, leave a comment in the comments box below.

Photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pope_Francis_in_March_2013.jpg

Female Leadership: The Most Undervalued Traits

Written by Natalia

It’s not such a long time ago that we wrote about a piece of research on female leadership , where we saw that people have actually started to recognise women as leaders. After our last post on Top Qualities Of Effective Leaders, I wanted to come back on the subject of female leadership. And, believe me, not without reason!

I received an email on Monday night telling me I had to read a great article published some days ago on Forbes. To be completely honest with you, even as I’m writing this, I have already read the article 4 times! And every time I see in it more people I recognise; traits of women I look up to, role models, even relatives. Glenn Llopis, the author, has written the most comprehensive article on women’s psychology and way of thinking I’ve read for a long time. And from my point of view, the most extraordinary thing is that it is written by a man.

“I was surrounded by strong-willed, hardworking and purpose-driven women. It is through their leadership that the traditions, values and legacy of our family have been upheld. My grandmother, mother, wife, and sister-in-law all possess natural leadership skills and they are masters of opportunity management – seamlessly keeping us all in check while running the family household and at the same time supporting our family businesses. They have taught me that a woman’s instincts and emotional intelligence can be off the chart. They seamlessly manage crisis and change and are turnaround experts – sensing and neutralizing any signs of danger well before it invades our path. It is because of the women in our family that we are well-organized, full of love, spiritually aligned and well-balanced. We are by no means a perfect family, but we are a modern family who embraces traditions even as we adapt to changing times.”

I could almost feel you nodding while you were reading that. And even for our male readers I bet it was difficult not to think of their mother, their sister, their wife. Throughout this article, you will see attributes of almost every woman you have ever known.

These attributes are what makes women great leaders. We are born with these characteristics. These traits are in our genes. It’s up to us to make use of these traits and become the leaders we were meant to be.

Although there has been a huge improvement over the last years on rejecting gender stereotypes that want women not to be “leader material”, we have a long road ahead of us. But we can’t expect the world to see things differently, unless we teach them how to see things from another perspective. We have to show them they are wrong. We have to show them that female leadership is not just a ‘trendy’ phrase, nor a joke. If we want to change the world, we have to show them that women can be great leaders!

Read the article here: “The Most Undervalued Leadership Traits Of Women”

I’ll close with the author’s last two sentences with the hope his wish comes true: “Rarely have I read something from a man who has been inspired and influenced by the wisdom of a woman’s leadership. Hopefully this perspective helps awaken more of us to the opportunity of learning about leadership from the women in our lives, whether in the home or at work.”

Do Leadership Models Stop Authenticity?

Written by The Career Success Doctor

We are all, in one way or another, leaders. Whether it’s running your own business, being a role-model for your kids (or other peoples’ kids), being a ‘thought leader’ or a senior manager in an organisation, it’s all leadership. In recent years, there’s been a call for more authentic leadership, led by Bill George and others.

In the Authentic Leadership model, the leader aspires to be true to themselves and their values, to walk their talk. Leadership models are generally the antithesis of authenticity. Yet this doesn’t stop the ‘Leadership’ market from producing new models of ‘best practice’.

In a recent article produced by researchers at the London School of Economics, one of the key conclusions is that leaders are more successful when they adopt a more participative style: ‘…while leaders who exhibit a powerful demeanor may boost their appearance of competence, they also risk stifling follower voice precisely because they appear more competent.’

But what happens if your own, authentic style leans more towards command and control? One of the authors of the LSE report observed that when leaders deliberately try to be more influential, for example by increasing eye contact and thinking about their body language, they often come unstuck. We have very good inbuilt b/s detectors: we tend to intuitively know when someone is trying to fool us, and we push back against it.

As a coach, I have worked with some really excellent leaders: their people enjoyed working for them, and they got excellent results. I have also worked with some real ‘one trick ponies’. People who got results by sheer force of personality, but managed to demotivate their staff, who would have performed even better if the boss had behaved differently. And there are those who still think that command and control is the order of the day, and don’t even manage to get the results.

Most observers agree that the days of ‘you’ll do what I tell you, and you’ll do it like I tell you, otherwise I’ll…..’ are over, even though there are still some dinosaurs out there. What they don’t agree on is whether we should apply the more prescriptive models (which don’t agree with each other anyway) or go the authenticity route.

I believe there is a case for a middle ground. If you read or listen to Bill George, it’s clear that he changed his style over time. He admits that he had to! He also figured out who he was and became comfortable with his own identity. In too many models, the concept of knowing who you really are and what you stand for and being comfortable with it doesn’t seem to have much place.

As an individual, you can’t be all things to all people all of the time. It’s too exhausting. When leaders really start to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and figure out strategies for dealing with their weaknesses (being honest about what these are is a good start), then they can step into their own power. It’s what most leaders want to do anyway, if they only knew how.

The less successful ones often go about it the wrong way, either seeing ‘power’ as a game of me versus you, or believing if they deliberately apply every trick in the leadership handbook, they will have people lining up to follow them.

The most comforting thought in all of this, as a recent article in The Director identified, is that leaders are made not born. You can work at becoming a leader, and ‘those who’ve worked at it have more to offer the modern workplace.’ So if you dream of leading from the top of a great organisation, but secretly wonder if you have what it takes, take cheer. You can still be authentic AND develop the skills to become a successful leader.

Keys to Career Success: Mastermind Groups

Written by The Career Success Doctor

One of the challenges in creating success in anything in life, including your career, is the pain of doing it on your own. It can be hard to stay focused, motivated and self-disciplined. It can also be very lonely. One solution is to create a Mastermind Group – a mutual support group of people who come together from time to time to help one another achieve their dreams.

The idea goes back to Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich. Bill George, the Authentic Leadership man, talks about a group that he has been in for years. The great things nowadays is that you can meet your mastermind buddies virtually – you don’t have to all be in the same city at the same time.

Different people run their groups in different ways. I was a member of a Mastermind Group for a number of years. (We called it an Action Learning Set, but to be honest the purpose is the same). It was so helpful for me in developing my coaching business, particularly the way I think about what I do, how to deal with challenging issues, and how to market my business. In this case all the members of the group were coaches, but we could have had a mix of small business people.

Here’s a really excellent article I came across which cover the topic in some depth. How To Run a Mastermind Group Says it all, really.