One of my all time favorite television shows is a serial that ended a few years ago after 8 seasons – The West Wing. One of the first episodes had to do with getting a non-entity governor from one place named Jed Bartlett to be President. Josh Lyman was the strategist for one of the other candidates and wasn't really getting his way there. He drops in to see Sam Seaborn who is another top-quality guy working with an insurance company but not enjoying his work. In the conversation, Josh Lyman says that he is going to see Jed Bartlett. Seaborn says, "If he is the real deal, will you let me know?" to which Lyman replies, "Of course, I will." He finally ends up seeing Jed Bartlett and realizes that he is the real deal and the story evolves around how he became President and served two terms. I remember that scene because of the phrase – "If he is the real deal, will you let me know?"
The 'real deal' has to do with authenticity. Susan Tardanica writes an article in Forbes entitled, 'Authenticity: Your Greatest Leadership Asset.' She says, "Research reveals that when we believe a leader is the real deal – a person of integrity and character – we are much more likely to go the extra mile and stand by them in the best and worst of times."
Authenticity is a word that we hear now and then, but it's not something that we grapple with. Yet in the corporate world, especially after 2003, there's been a renewed activity about authenticity and what it is all about. This comes out of a book released in 2003 called Authentic Leadership by Bill George. That is something that we ought to think about. What is authentic leadership? How can we lead with authenticity? How can we be the real deal and get the people who work with us, for us, under us, to follow us, knowing that we are authentic leaders?
Leadership guru, Warren Bennis said, "Letting the self emerge is the essential task of leaders." The article went on to say that "Leadership is, first and foremost, all about you. If a leader hasn't journeyed inside first to get clear on his or her values, strengths, passion and vision, their lack of authentic grounding will cause them to behave in inconsistent ways, eroding trust and undermining their leadership effectiveness."
It's, first and foremost, all about you and me. Being about us, involves both, the good things that happen to us and the bad things. Sometimes we discount the bad things; we try and put them down and say, "Let's not look at it from that perspective." Yet, some of the not so good things that have happened in our lives, often, if allowed to be looked at from a positive standpoint, can shape who we are.
Former Chairman and CEO of Novartis, Daniel Vasella, had an incredibly tough childhood that shaped who he was in taking Novartis into being the fifth largest pharmaceutical company in the world. He was born in Switzerland in 1953, developed asthma at the age of 5 which forced him to spend summers away from home separated from his parents for 4 months every year, was left with someone who had alcohol problems during that time. At the age of 8, he had TB, followed by meningitis. He was sent to a sanatorium for a year, his parents rarely visited him and he was very lonely. He remembers his most painful times as being held down by nurses as they gave him lumbar punctures. Out of that came this lack of compassion that was there with the doctors. At 10, his 18-year-old sister passed away from cancer. Three years later, his father died during surgery. His mother then went to work in a distant town and he saw her only once every 3 weeks. All of this shaped who he was as he went into medical school. He then went on to join the pharma industry to see whether he could make some kind of change. It came from discovering who he was and what he had gone through that made him such an authentic leader.
Sudanshu Pansule, writing in the Economic Times today, says, "Authenticity is a state in which the leader or the sportsperson has discovered the highest state of integrity towards their craft and themselves." He's really talking about Sachin Tendulkar and looking at authenticity through him and his career. The 'craft' is what we do and 'themselves', who we are. What we do and who we are – somehow those need to be in perfect harmony, or at some point we will realize that there is a gap in our integrity or our authenticity.
I was reading this article in Harvard Business Review, 'Discovering Your Authentic Leadership' written by people from Harvard and Stanford Universities. They talk about one of the top guys in the Nixon administration, about how he came to a point where he had to make a decision about whether to follow the orders that he was being given or not. They talk about Jon Huntsman, who worked for H.R. Haldeman, President Nixon's Chief of Staff. Haldeman wanted to entrap another California Congressman who was opposing a White House initiative. His plan was to plant an illegal person in that company and bring disrepute to the organization. He told Huntsman to call the plant manager and get him to take in the illegal person. Huntsman says, "Fifteen minutes into the conversation I realized that I couldn't do this. The values that accompanied me since childhood kicked in and halfway through my conversation I said, 'Let's not do this. I don't want to play this game. Forget that I called.' That was the end of my working with the second most powerful person in the country."
But there has to be a sense of harmony and equilibrium with who we are and what we do. Otherwise, there's going to be a disconnect in terms of the authenticity that we bring to our leadership.
So what would be authentic leadership? Kevin Kruse, writing in an article for Forbes says, "There are four things that must be part of authenticity for leaders:
1. Authentic leaders are self-aware and genuine. They are self-actualized individuals who are aware of their strengths, their limitations, and their emotions. They also show their real selves to their followers.
2. Authentic leaders are mission driven and focused on results. They are able to put the mission and the goals of the organization ahead of their own self-interest, their ego, want of power and money.
3. Authentic leaders lead with their heart, not just their minds. They are not afraid to show their emotions, their vulnerability and to connect with the people who are around them.
4. Authentic leaders are able to focus on long-term goals and show people who they are. They don't just work for the immediate, not for beating quarterly estimates, but look for the long haul as George did as CEO of Medtronic and Bezos has done for Amazon. They're in for the long haul. Authenticity works itself out in the long haul. Over the long haul we begin to notice who are authentic leaders and who are not.
What would be questions to ask ourselves today about whether or not we are authentic?
1. What's most important to you? What do you stand for? What are your core values? Have you ever taken the time to identify them?
2. What are you good at? What are your strengths? I had a professor who told me, "Don't ever try to bring your weaknesses to be your strengths; you end up bringing down your strengths to average and mediocre. Understand your weaknesses but concentrate on your strengths.
3. What excites and inspires you? What are you passionate about? Are you doing things that you are excited about?
4. What do you want? What is your destination, not just for your company but also for your own life? Where do you see yourself headed?
It's all about being authentic. The real you! Is that what people around you see? For that, you need to be comfortable with who you are. You need to put to rest some of the demons that sometimes come up to say, "I've had a bad life and so on." To be able to take those negatives and make them positives in my life. My hope and prayer for all of us is that authenticity will be our greatest leadership asset. Remember this – leadership IS about authenticity and authenticity is about you.
Let's pray together. Almighty God. You are the only one who can bring that kind of harmony and equilibrium into our lives, where we can look at who we are and what we do and bring them both into good balance. Help us to be authentic people. Help us to lead with authenticity. I pray for each one on this call, that You would give us the wisdom to be authentic leaders. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.
• "The West Wing" Season 1. Jed Bartlett, Josh Lyman & Sam Seaborn.
• Susan Tardanica, "Authenticity: Your Greatest Asset." http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/09/08/authenticity-your-greatest-leadership-asset/2/
• Warren Bennis: "Letting the self emerge is the essential task of leaders." "Authenticity: Your Greatest Asset." http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/09/08/authenticity-your-greatest-leadership-asset/2/
• Daniel Vasella, former Chairman & CEO of Novartis. http://hbr.org/2007/02/discovering-your-authentic-leadership/ar/pr
• Sudanshu Pansule, "Mastery in Sport, Leadership Comes With Authenticity. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/guest-writer/mastery-in-sport-leadership-comes-with-authenticity/articleshow/27492309.cms
• Jon Huntsman, founder & Chairman of Huntsman Corporation & H.R. Haldeman, Chief of Staff in the Nixon Administration. http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/09/08/authenticity-your-greatest-leadership-asset/print/
• Kevin Kruse, "What Is Authentic Leadership." http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/05/12/what-is-authentic-leadership/
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