Are you leading or are you following?
Leadership is a responsibility and most people do not want the responsibility of leading people. To lead people firstly means you must lead yourself and be accountable to the responsibility of leadership. This makes you an authentic leader – the real deal.
How do you lead yourself? What is your process?
Many people lead by title – position. This is not leadership. Authentic leadership is accepting the responsibility of bringing about a change in oneself first. This results in leadership authenticity, which allows you to bring about a change in others.
When the people you lead see that you are changing, they change with you. Everything duplicates, good and bad.
Leaders change people for the better. What do you need to change first to become an authentic leader?
I live my life by the FLITU principle, which governs on a daily basis every decision I make to ensure that when I’m leading people I’m aligning with my values:
Family
Loyalty
Integrity
Trust
Unity
My values and principles govern the leadership decisions I make.
The highest calling of a leader is to be a change agent and to bring about a change in people, but firstly the leader must be prepared to bring about a change in themselves.
This is why there are less leaders and more followers – because it is human nature to resist change and so much easier to lead behind the title or position the leader has been given. This results in the leader stifling the organisation they lead.
Leaders are called leaders because they lead people. People follow leaders. The greater the change a leader is prepared to make, the greater the influence they will have to lead people – follow me.
One of my yearly goals is to ensure I am not the same person and same leader I was twelve moths ago. I want to grow and change as a person and as a leader, having different thinking which drives the authenticity of leadership I crave.
If there’s one thing I want more of in my life it is to have more influence.
The more influence you have, the more influence you have as a leader and the more people you will have following you because of what you’ve done for them by bringing about a catalystic change in their life. Leaders change people and this is why there is less leaders and more followers because it takes a lot of energy and focus to bring about a change in peoples’ lives.
Under your leadership, who have you changed for the better?
As the leader, what do you need to change so that you become a more effective and authentic leader?
The accountability and responsibility required to be an authentic leader is a major reason why there are less leaders and more followers.
Authentic leaders are effective because they are able to unite the team of people they lead with complete focus on a specific goal.
South Sydney’s first Premiership since 1971 – 43 years later, was the result of not just the players but the entire Coaching Staff and Support Staff uniting with the Head Coach to achieve this goal.
During this years Premiership we all changed and grew.
Do you want to be a leader or do you want to be a follower?
