True Leadership, True Self

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Before you can become an authentic leader, you have to know who you are. That’s your true north: your most deeply held beliefs, your values, the principles you lead by, and what inspires you.

BILL GEORGE
Harvard professor and former Medtronic CEO

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Being a great leader is no easy job. 

The best leaders must integrate and balance the needs of their team and others around them with meeting goals and outcome metrics.  They must be mindful of their leadership presence and self-regulation knowing that behaviors and emotions are contagious.  They have to navigate accountability and recognition; the task at hand and meaning and purpose; and workflow, processes, and relationship-building.

Most importantly, exemplary leaders ensure consistency between what they say and what they do.  People are demanding that leaders today are truly themselves and true to themselves; who have a deeper level of self-awareness, and who can be vulnerable and transparent.

In other words, great leaders are authentic.

Authenticity in leadership has gained significant attention in recent years.  The starting point for authenticity is self-awareness.  You can't be authentic if you don't know what your deeply held beliefs are, your values, the principles you lead by, and your purpose—what inspires you.

The greatest leaders have paused and pondered two age-old questions, "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?"   Then, they clearly answer them. 

The very best leaders write that down as a Life Mission, Leadership Philosophy, and Core Values Statement.  They visit it every single day so that they can leverage it in their leadership thus boosting their authenticity and transparency.  They also revisit them over the years as they grow and evolve in order to remain true to themselves.

Having clarity of purpose and values allows you to shift from simply being self-aware to being self-observant.  Self-awareness is the process of clarifying your purpose, principles, and values, while self-observance takes it a step further. 

When you add contemplating purpose, principles, and values at the end of the day (self-reflection), you create the space for greater self-awareness by asking yourself, "When did I live those well today?" and "When did I not live them well so that I can learn from that experience?" After doing that over and over, you build the capacity to do that in real-time (self-observance).

Being self-observant empowers you to look at yourself within a situation and evaluate whether you're living up to your true self and whether that situation and your role in it is propelling you closer to your mission and goals or pulling you away.  This seemingly subtle shift in perspective can have profound implications for achieving success.

And great leaders don't stop there.  They also promote meaning and purpose and self-awareness with their team.  They align individual purpose and values with the collective mission, vision, and values. 

Great leaders have taken the time to learn how to engage their team in collectively creating a Shared Team Mission & Values statement and a Shared Team Vision statement.  They then foster a culture of shared purpose by connecting them to daily tasks, processes, workflows, behaviors, and reward and recognition.  They further harness this meaning, purpose, and vision as they launch change and process-improvement projects to build buy-in and success.

A sense of shared meaning and purpose then elevates job satisfaction, engagement, productivity, innovation, and retention.  It positively impacts financials and revenue.  It even impacts wellbeing.

Self-awareness and purpose-driven leadership are the foundation of authenticity and great leadership.  If you want to learn how you can cultivate greater self-awareness and meaning and purpose and how to leverage that more effectively, look no further. 

My Purpose-Driven Leadership Program is an applied sciences, evidence-based program designed to help you learn essential behaviors and competencies to apply in the real world— in your personal life, with your team and peers, within your organization, and yes, even the world.

The program is not simply a class or a workshop.  It is an in-depth and intensive leadership development experience designed to get you and your team results.  Contact me today!

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Check out what Simon Sinek as to say about authenticity and purpose in this short video (less than 2-minutes).

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Have an amazing journey today!

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Alan Mikolaj is a seasoned coach and leadership development consultant with nearly 20 years of experience.  He is passionate about helping leaders transform their leadership, their teams, and their organizations.  He has an impactful, professional approach driven by a passion for meaning and purpose, a growth mindset, and a commitment to excellence and service in order to drive change and results.

Alan holds his Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology and Associate Certified Coach credential with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and maintains their ethics and standards of behavior, including the standards regarding confidentiality.  You can learn more about them on the ICF website.

Transformational change starts with a conversation!
Schedule your free, one-hour session by clicking here: Discovery Conversation with Alan
Or call or email: Contact Page

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