Tag: authentic leadership

Where is your family?

Dad visited us on our Authentic Leadership Course today.  Why would he?  Well actually why wouldn’t he?  As authentic leaders are we as one with the world?  Who are the people we love and hold?  If we look a little deeper could it be that those people are the very same people that shaped our leadership from its earliest days?

As I walked with Dad and the participants today, a sense of pride for my Dad, myself and for the folk who were with us rose within me.  Here was a group of people, strangers to me and each other only five days ago, embracing my father with respect, kindness and genuine interest in what he had to offer.

Look around you – maybe that unique leadership story which is the key to your authenticity is closer than you think.

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How big is your universe?

From the work of physicists, especially the brilliant Stephen Hawking we know that the universe is pretty big – perhaps about 46 billion light years from earth to the edge.  For me when I think about this stuff, my mind can’t quite get around it. That could be because perhaps the only thing I have in common with Hawkings is his name and not his mind!

But for me it does put many things into perspective.  How big is your universe?Business can be tough, competitive and sometimes a grind.  It’s easy in tough times to baton down the hatches, to guard the gates and see every gain by another as a loss for you.  But is this right?  As leaders, do we really believe the universe is limited?  I’m a firm believer in abundance in all things.  There’s enough out there that my success doesn’t mean someone else’s loss and visa versa.

If all the people in my line of work do well, then we all do.  It’s good for us all. Some might say it’s naive, that the competition will take advantage of me.  They could be right, but they can’t take away your values and the universe you exist in.  And others can see that.

So I reckon that with 46 billion light years in one direction, that there’s enough for all of us, and that success for one will never preclude success for another.


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Are you prepared to model the real you?

This evening I had the pleasure of attending a fashion show put on by the Auckland Zonta Club.  Zonta I discovered, is an international organisation dedicated to advancing the status of women.  This was no ordinary fashion show.  Held in the beautiful Fables Antique rug gallery in Parnell, Auckland the models were almost all, well, not models. But you’d hardly know it!

Here were women from all walks of life, all ages, parading it out in front of a big crowd seated around the rugs to an eclectic music mix including Carmen, Paolo Conte and Michael Jackson.

My immediate reaction was this was a beautiful display – all the women were beautiful.  And brave.  Braver than all of us on the rugs, that’s for certain.

I’ve blogged a bit about authenticity and uncovering the real you to find the authentic leader that exists in us all.

When we’re comfortable enough in our own shoes, when we know who we are and why, we’re comfortable to present ourselves to the world as that real person.

In return we win respect from those around us and become role models for others to aspire to.

Zonta turned this concept into glamorous reality tonight.


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