The Core Essence of the Authentic Leader

Authentic Leadership is grounded in our relationship with ourselves.  We work in harmony with our Internal Team and learn from our self talk.  Our relationship with ourselves is the keystone of the arch that encompasses every relationship in our life.  It is the quality of our relationship with ourselves that determines the quality of ALL the relationships in our life.  It is this relationship on which we focus when we create a low stress, fulfilling life adventure of our own design.

In all circumstances, Authentic Leaders treat themselves with loving kindness and gentle good humor.  Criticism, especially self-criticism, never improved behavior or performance.  They look for lessons, not mistakes and they regard all failures as valuable research.

Authentic Leaders live by two self-evident truths: 1) all leadership is example, anything else is coercion and 2) moment-by moment, we are choosing to create either Resonance or Dissonance in all of our human encounters.  (This concept is expanded in the "A Simple Model" Coaching Handout).

People willingly follow a leader because they see their leader as an authentic, vulnerable human being; complete but not perfect, knowledgeable, but not all-knowing, and most importantly, caring without being weak or smothering.  ("I must know how much you care before I care about how much you know!")

The essence of leadership is the ability to gain Buy-in to the leader's values, vision, priorities and purpose.  Without gaining Buy-in, the leader's only alternative is the blunt instrument of coercion which is not an effective leadership tool.