Leadership requires us to take risks in order to make changes so that we can pursue our North Star and serve our customers. All too often we allow our contemplation of the risks of trying something new to keep us stuck where we are right now but what about the risks of not changing?
Throughout this series on A.U.T.H.E.N.T.I.C. leadership I have been exploring the work we need to do in order to show up as an AUTHENTIC leader, and I believe the 3 qualities outlined in this final blog are ones which can support us to step up, speak out and take risks.
Compassion
Talking to leaders recently I believe that more and more people are starting to see the benefits of bringing compassion to work. There has been an increased realisation that every individual you work with is a real human being who has a life beyond the workplace. A person who, just like you, wants to feel seen, heard and valued, for as the Dalai Lama says:
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.”
Compassion is an essential quality for building trust (see the blog on Trust), and this has never been more evident than during the pandemic, both at national level and at an organisational level. The leaders who have chosen to engage with people and to listen to their stories, recognising that there is a wide disparity in their experiences of working from home, financial security, family circumstances are the ones who will engender trust and retain staff as the economy picks up.
I find it fascinating that many high achievers I work with inherently understand that compassion is an important quality, yet they overlook self-compassion! They beat themselves up when they make a mistake rather than show themselves the same love and understanding they would to a loved one. We cannot truly support others if we do not care for ourselves.
It’s also important to realise that compassion doesn’t mean being “weak” when dealing with challenging people issues at work, it means listening to understand and seeking to find solutions that work for both parties, and at the same time it means being clear for as Brene Brown says:
“Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.”
Courage
To have the hard conversations, to provide clarity, to pursue your purpose, to speak out against wrong doing, to step out from the expectations of others’ (parents, cultural background, teachers, bosses), to speak your truth: all of these require Courage. So, to be a leader (not by title but in life) absolutely requires Courage.
One of the best ways to tap into your courage is to be really clear on your personal values, on what is most important to you and ask yourself how those values would have you behave in this moment. Your North Star can also provide the light to guide you when it is hard to find your courage – knowing what you are speaking in service of makes it easier (not easy, just easier!)
And when the voice of that inner critic pipes up in your head to silence you, you can thank her for protecting you for all these years, and then let her know you’ve got this!
This is an area rich for exploration with my clients, as they unpack the stories around those inner voices and find new paths forward.
Curiosity
Perhaps this is a fitting place to end this series on A.U.T.H.E.N.T.I.C. leadership – with curiosity, as leadership is a constant learning practice. We can never have all the answers so we must learn to cultivate a beginner’s mind, which can be incredibly challenging when a significant part of our identity is attached to being an expert in our field!
It is easy to be trapped by our desire to be right, to be in control, to have all the answers yet this can prevent us from seeing new perspectives, from truly collaborating and working creatively by inviting the ideas of others. If we are to respond innovatively to the fast changing pace of the world we need to cultivate curiosity by continuing to ask questions.
If you have not discovered Carol Dweck’s work on Growth Mindset I encourage you to check it out: The Power of Believing You Can Improve
And we also need to bring curiosity to an exploration of ourselves as it helps us question and challenge the things we believe to be true and how those beliefs determine our behaviours, which brings us beautifully back to A = Awareness & Acceptance.
And on this topic I shall leave the last word to Albert Einstein:
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to merely comprehend a little of this mystery each day.”
The full series on A.U.T.H.E.N.T.I.C. leadership is as follows:
A = Awareness & Acceptance
U = Unique
T = Transformation
H = Head & Heart
E = Engage & Empower
N = North Star
T = Trust
I = Influence & Impact
C = Compassion, Courage & Curiosity
If you would like to explore any of these topics to support you in becoming an exceptional leader then please get in touch.
Throughout this series on A.U.T.H.E.N.T.I.C. leadership I have been exploring the work we need to do in order to show up as an AUTHENTIC leader, and I believe the 3 qualities outlined in this final blog are ones which can support us to step up, speak out and take risks.
Compassion
Talking to leaders recently I believe that more and more people are starting to see the benefits of bringing compassion to work. There has been an increased realisation that every individual you work with is a real human being who has a life beyond the workplace. A person who, just like you, wants to feel seen, heard and valued, for as the Dalai Lama says:
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.”
Compassion is an essential quality for building trust (see the blog on Trust), and this has never been more evident than during the pandemic, both at national level and at an organisational level. The leaders who have chosen to engage with people and to listen to their stories, recognising that there is a wide disparity in their experiences of working from home, financial security, family circumstances are the ones who will engender trust and retain staff as the economy picks up.
I find it fascinating that many high achievers I work with inherently understand that compassion is an important quality, yet they overlook self-compassion! They beat themselves up when they make a mistake rather than show themselves the same love and understanding they would to a loved one. We cannot truly support others if we do not care for ourselves.
It’s also important to realise that compassion doesn’t mean being “weak” when dealing with challenging people issues at work, it means listening to understand and seeking to find solutions that work for both parties, and at the same time it means being clear for as Brene Brown says:
“Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.”
Courage
To have the hard conversations, to provide clarity, to pursue your purpose, to speak out against wrong doing, to step out from the expectations of others’ (parents, cultural background, teachers, bosses), to speak your truth: all of these require Courage. So, to be a leader (not by title but in life) absolutely requires Courage.
One of the best ways to tap into your courage is to be really clear on your personal values, on what is most important to you and ask yourself how those values would have you behave in this moment. Your North Star can also provide the light to guide you when it is hard to find your courage – knowing what you are speaking in service of makes it easier (not easy, just easier!)
And when the voice of that inner critic pipes up in your head to silence you, you can thank her for protecting you for all these years, and then let her know you’ve got this!
This is an area rich for exploration with my clients, as they unpack the stories around those inner voices and find new paths forward.
Curiosity
Perhaps this is a fitting place to end this series on A.U.T.H.E.N.T.I.C. leadership – with curiosity, as leadership is a constant learning practice. We can never have all the answers so we must learn to cultivate a beginner’s mind, which can be incredibly challenging when a significant part of our identity is attached to being an expert in our field!
It is easy to be trapped by our desire to be right, to be in control, to have all the answers yet this can prevent us from seeing new perspectives, from truly collaborating and working creatively by inviting the ideas of others. If we are to respond innovatively to the fast changing pace of the world we need to cultivate curiosity by continuing to ask questions.
If you have not discovered Carol Dweck’s work on Growth Mindset I encourage you to check it out: The Power of Believing You Can Improve
And we also need to bring curiosity to an exploration of ourselves as it helps us question and challenge the things we believe to be true and how those beliefs determine our behaviours, which brings us beautifully back to A = Awareness & Acceptance.
And on this topic I shall leave the last word to Albert Einstein:
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to merely comprehend a little of this mystery each day.”
The full series on A.U.T.H.E.N.T.I.C. leadership is as follows:
A = Awareness & Acceptance
U = Unique
T = Transformation
H = Head & Heart
E = Engage & Empower
N = North Star
T = Trust
I = Influence & Impact
C = Compassion, Courage & Curiosity
If you would like to explore any of these topics to support you in becoming an exceptional leader then please get in touch.
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