Understanding Authentic Leadership
The reason I throw that word Authentic in there is because there’s likely no concept more misused and misunderstood than the idea of leadership. Someone’s title, or position, no more indicates one’s Authentic Leadership ability than me in my Carson Palmer jersey indicates my NFL quarterbacking ability.
To grasp Authentic Leadership and what it truly is, let’s just think about the word “leadership” itself, before we even dive into examples and illustrations. And when reading these, think of your own life and workplace and the “leadership” you see. Also, remember Harvard’s findings that 90% of American managers are ineffective.
To lead:
- To go first. To be first. To think first. To act first. To visualize first. Think about it, if you’re not going first, you are following somebody who is.
- To move. To not be stationery. Think about this – if the status quo is simply being maintained, no one is being led anywhere. Things are just staying the same as they’ve always been. (Hmmm… sound familiar???)
- To have others actually follow. I don’t even need to clarify this, it’s so obvious. If someone calls himself a leader, yet no one follows in his footsteps, then he’s just out taking a walk! (John Maxwell)
To expand a little bit, think about what it means to go, be, think, act, or envision first. Think about what is required to do this. It’s actually quite extraordinary!
Cre*ate, (verb): to evolve from one’s own thought or imagination, as a work of art or an invention.
Dictionary.com
To create the first telephone means telephones didn’t exist before. So what “model” could Alexander Graham Bell possibly follow? To invent the airplane, what forefathers of flight did the Wright Brothers have to learn from? To declare the sun, and not the earth, to be the center of our universe, what encouragement could Galileo have obtained from his predecessors, who like him, were all severely persecuted for questioning anything the church ordained absolute? To pen the Declaration of Independence and create the world’s first democracy, what footsteps did John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin have to follow in. Who dared rise up against English royalty?
The Discovery of Self Knowledge — From Within
What knowledge did Martin Luther King, Jr. have to glean from in declaring his dream?
What predecessors did Rosa Parks follow after when she refused to leave her bus seat?
What American coffee company did Howard Schultz model Starbucks after?
Whoever actually did invent the internet – did they just read a previously written college textbook to find the idea?
Did Nelson Mandela think it’d be a breeze to oppose apartheid in South Africa?
Now look at all these examples, and so many more, and notice the common threads of Authentic Leadership.
Without much reflection, you quickly see the traits of extraordinary courage, relentless passion, eternal vision and almost an unending source of energy that compels and propels these people to pursue things that followers only talk about as if they’re science-fiction concepts.
Also, I’d venture to say, most of these folks were not looking to be leaders. Even Albert Einstein, who obviously rose to great fame and notoriety later in his life, often mused at the irony of his situation. He, a man given to solitude and much reflection, eventually found himself to be one of the most famous men on the planet. And life was not always easy for young Albert. He was even quoted once as saying, “In my mind, I imagine a clock at every point in space, but in reality, I cannot even afford a single clock for my house.”
Yet he continued on.
Abraham Lincoln’s life has also been well documented. The dude wasn’t born in Kennebunkport, Maine with a prestigious last name. And the dude wasn’t handed success right out of Oxford. In fact, in the military, he actually started out as a captain of men, then later settled into his rightful fighting place – as a Private!
All of these people – Authentic Leaders. They believed in something not seen before.
Walt Disney also comes to mind. Where would Orlando, Florida be without that cat? Still partially under water, most likely!
Authentic Leaders are ones who see things first. They see and envision possibilities within themselves, as there ARE NO outside creations to copy. They have something alive within them that stirs them, awakens them, and pushes them. They see first, they say first, they build first, they act first. There is nothing for them to follow – except their own voices, their own inspirations, their own thoughts, dreams and ideas. They create brand NEW things, and this is the definition of Authentic Leadership.
And you’ll notice, these people all made society better. They made life, if not the entire world, better. And not just for themselves, but for millions and billions of people.
And these are the people we owe our own lives to. The few, but life-bettering, Authentic Leaders who dared not follow the status quo of mediocrity, but believed in themselves enough to forge a much better life and a much better world, for all of us to follow after!
// read more of EPM’s inspirational work at his blog
One Comment
David Askaripour
January 4th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Absolutely beautiful essay. Inspirational and moving. You did an excellent job on showing how these various people were able to “born” creations into the world, through sheer introspection and self-discovery. Something that we all have the potential to do; something that many of us are doing and don’t even know it, due to ignorance of the Self. Thank you, Eric.
Leave a Comment