It’s Leadership Week week in New Zealand, thanks to Sir Peter Blake Trust. It’s a week of awards and events in schools, businesses and anyone who’s interested or cares about leadership. That’s a great thing and I hope you can get involved somehow. You might also be thinking, well, leadership is a way of life for me in my role, my community and my organisation. I don’t need a week of it to be reminded. I agree, so here’s an idea. Why not think of one thing you want to change about your own leadership and disclose that to someone who won’t know.
It will be an opportunity to put authenticity into practice in a surprisingly refreshing way for the unsuspecting recipient. They’ll be able to help you and you them by showing vulnerability.
I’d like to say a personal thanks to the team at the Sir Peter Blake Trust. I find them authentic and engaging and this year you’ll find the Centre for Innovative Leadership on the inside back cover of their Leadership Magazine. Which makes leadership week, well, very worthwhile! And what better topic to celebrate for a whole week anyway. Enjoy.
James Bulger was the FBI’s most wanted until last week when he was arrested in Los Angeles. So I’m watching the Martin Scorsese movie The Departed which is based on the life of Bulger.
I guess Bulger won’t see freedom again, if he’s convicted of any one of the 17 murders he’s accused of committing. You might say he’s departed the community already.
I’ve watched many people depart from various workplaces. Sometimes voluntarily, sometimes when they didn’t want to, sometimes with regret and sometimes they even stay when they’ve like, departed.
The cool blue of the Auckland Museum by night
We should all challenge ourselves that what we’re doing is meaningful and brings happiness to our lives. If it doesn’t then we should have departed, not just emotionally but physically too.
There are always more options open than we realise. If you’re bringing yourself and others happiness then fantastic. If either of those are not, then be real. You won’t regret it.
When I’m not happy doing what I am doing, I’ll be moving on. Promise.
Otherwise it just gets messy. Like the end of this movie. Very messy. Blood on the floor.
The real work is ensuring we make more money. That’s what the shareholders want and so we need to work hard, grow, and put energy into developing smarter ways to do business to, yes make more money. This is a reality of the context of many in business.
So when we talk authenticity it’s tempting to think that it’s nice, we’ll feel better, but in the end we’ll have the real work to do. I agree that you can push on, focussing only on pushing the business and you will most likely achieve some impressive results. You probably know people that do that. Or maybe you are one of those people. Maybe you admire those people – the high achievers, hard-hitters that take no prisoners. Maybe you secretly wish you were like that.
When I open a Leadership Forum in Wellington next month during Leadership Week
Leading to grow can feel like not working at times
I will talk about authenticity and business results. I will challenge that if you look at the hard-hitting leader – the hard driver – you’ll likely notice one of two things: they move on or people around them move on. The leader who survives by pushing hard will have to keep pushing hard. Inevitably, pushing harder and harder becomes necessary until the next project. Which pretty well sums it up. A project.
The authentic leader pushes hard too. He or she knows when to drive forward in moments of crisis, when there are challenging changes to put in place. The authentic leader is not just running a driving leadership academy though.
The authentic leader leads from a place of understanding self, appreciating strengths and recognising that there will be strengths in his or her team that will form the bigger part of what they need to achieve. Not just what he or she has. So within that team there will be other leaders who will drive what needs to be driven at different times and when needed. A team from which will come leaders of tomorrow. A collective too, of IQ and EQ that has exponential capability beyond the numbers.
Are you the leader who only drives hard to achieve what needs to be achieved? Like a project manager. Or are you leading others authentically who will collectively drive the business results?
What will you choose? Both can work, we know that. Both will probably be remembered too. Will you be remembered for the things you created or for the people who grew to create more than you could?
I say do what is right for you and your circumstance, but don’t pretend. Either that it’s authentic leadership to drive without trust or be authentic while thinking that it’s just nice, but not real. It’s real alright. Real hard and risky.
Yes, authentic leadership is risky. You’ll likely be thought of as soft and not business-like. At first. Strange that – taking a significant business and personal risk but being thought of as soft. No way!
Do you smile? I mean really smile. Well that’s probably the wrong question. It’s a question about being happy in your leadership.
If you are then you’ll smile. That’s contagious and the team will notice and it’ll pass around like a virus. I’ve very rarely got bad service or not have a problem solved when I’ve got a smile.
Average age 79.3 and they're all smiling - are you?
Not a fake one, but one that comes because of what’s going on inside.
So smile this Monday for leadership. If you can’t then we’ll keep working on it. Come back here soon!
I’m role-modelling with some new headers on this blog that change when you refresh.
Stephen
ps It’s Mum at her 80th in April with her siblings and spouses.
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