Authentic Leadership - 6 Strategies to Becoming a Leader Others Want to Follow
6 Ways of Becoming an Authentic Leader
1. Develop your personal unique leadership style. Be consistent for your own personality.
2. Understand your own personal purpose. Should you lack purpose and direction in leading, why would anyone wish to follow you? In order to find your own personal purpose you must first understand yourself. What exactly are you enthusiastic about? What are the underlying motivations? What stirs your soul?
3. An authentic leader is determined by their values and character and integrity may be the one value that is needed. If people cannot trust you, why would they follow you? You will see situations by which your values are challenged and also you must make tough decisions in the context of your values.
4. Lead together with your heart. Some leaders behave as should they have no compassion for anybody. It is your life experience that reveals your heart to have compassion which are more difficult challenges people have along life's journey.
5. The capability to build up close and genuine relationships is a mark of an authentic leader. Many leaders believe their job would be to create the vision strategy and organizations structure. There is a detached style of leadership. If you cannot or will not interact with the folks you lead, you will discover it hard to be effective.
6. Self-Discipline is really a critical quality of the authentic leader. Without them you cannot gain respect of the people you lead. If your leader has good values but not the self-discipline to place them into action, they lose trust. Also, know that none of us are great so when we fall short it is important to admit our mistakes.
To be a geniune leader you have to practice consistency and self-discipline. Learn to handle the pressure of leading. Just as one authentic leader requires years of effort, some pain and suffering, and the wisdom which comes from experiencing life at its fullest.
Mother Teresa was a compelling illustration of a geniune leader. Many think of her as just a woman who reached to the poor yet by 1990 she'd created an organization of 4,000 missionaries operating in a hundred countries. Not just did she have a purpose, clear values, along with a heart full of compassion, but she also had a very close relationship with individuals and exercised self-discipline. She would be a great example of authentic leadership.
Are you prepared to become an authentic leader? Go ahead and take challenge, focus on these strategies, and become the type of leader people want to follow.