Authentic self and leadership

There is a simple trick for managers to be more effective and fulfilled in our leadership work and it is this: Be Yourself.

But the difficult part is in knowing who that is!

My experience is that it is not unusual for managers to lose touch with who we are really, or never to have figured it out really anyway. Part of our leadership work is to understand how our view of who we are has been conditioned and constructed during our life experiences. Just as important is for us to understand how that view of who we are shapes how we operate and how we relate to others and how much that view can get in our own way when we attempt to exercise leadership and bring about beneficial change. More importantly our leadership can grow in leaps and bounds if we can get beyond our typical small view of ourselves –and ironically the more egotistical amongst us often have the smallest view – and if we can tap into our own intuition and creativity, our sense of purpose and meaning, and even appreciate the very essence of our own and others’ humanity.

How could managers do that and what difference might it make?