Discover your Authentic Leadership - Essay Sample

How does one become an authentic leader? How is it that some people are born with exceptional leadership skills while others do not? I ask myself self this question every day in my quest to improve my character and how to relate with others. From the book True north bill George managed to interview 125 leaders of various industries, and he managed to gather one thing in common from all of them: they made the right decisions founded on what they believed in (George, 2010).

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Each leader follows their inner conviction and believes which is their true North. True North represents who you are in principle, and that helps you stay on course as you navigate through the pressures of life. (George, 2010). True North represents one's motivation for doing anything and the value that one adheres to for personal gratification. When somebody follows their true North, their leadership becomes authentic, and it is accepted by others many. When you have purpose and direction, people will want to associate themselves with you and so often come for you for advice (George, 2010). Leadership has its challenges, and sometimes you can find yourself presented with difficulties and destructions, but if you stick to your true North, you will find your way back.

The book Bill George wrote true North in collaboration with his coauthor, Peter Sims, and his colleagues at Harvard Business School, Diana Mayer and Andrew McLean (George, 2010). In his interactions with authentic leaders, Bill George learned that the three most important keys to becoming a real leader were truth, transparency and trust. He realized that the three were crucial in cultivating authentic relationships with people.

Chapter two of the books talk about why leaders lose their way. As early stated, that it is not easy leading and sometimes one can lose their true north and fall prey the pressure of the world.

The chapter provides an example of leaders who were performing well in their field, and they were considered leaders in their profession. Eventually, they failed to maintain the momentum required to stay at the top. Leaders who lose momentum are not usually wrong just that they scummed to the pressures of the world and lost their True North. Not everybody that goes into leadership harbours malicious intent, and it's just that we all have the propensity to do things that we later regret (Watts,2015).

The story of successful leaders and their failure hits close to home. My father was the head coach of the local college team in our state, and he had managed to take the team to the NCCA champions for many seasons. The National Basketball Association teams were considering him as a choice for the post of head coach. In our state, he was as a role model, and he will be often called to graduation ceremonies to speak to seniors. He was a great coach who was adored by his team, and most students went to him for counsel. He was the result-oriented type of a leader, and the more we won trophies, the more he pushed his team to win more. He never knew failure in his career, and so he becomes a big shot, and the college paid him more to retain his services.

Last year was the worst year for my father after experience a season of poor performance that also culminated to his star players suspension for testing positive of performance enhancement substances. The news tainted his career, and he faced harsh criticism for being complicit in the illegal doping scheme.

My father scenario is not unique, and he joins the list of industry leaders who have fallen from grace. One other leader I will mention briefly for comparison purpose is the immediate the former CEO of Nissan who got arrested in Tokyo for under-reporting income of over $44 million within five years and misappropriation company funds for personal gratifications (Thisanka, 2018). In the early 1990s, the CEO rose to fam after managing to save Nissan from bankruptcy and brought the fallen giant back to its feet. (Thisanka, 2018) He received a lot of recognition in the business world, and many awards followed him along with his career until the most recent case.

Both leaders managed the impossible after leading their entities to glory when they in the brink of failure. Both these men were good at their jobs and such led them to achieve significant milestones which came with fame and awards.so why did these great men lose their momentum and failed. The chapter exploits the rooted issues that led to the failure of these two men. The first one is when a leader loses touch with reality by focusing more on the gratification than inner satisfaction (George, 2010). The other reason is the fear of failure, which drives a leader to use wrong ways to maintain their winning streak (George, 2010). For the case of my father was doping of players to enhance performance and for Ghosn was paying accountants to tamper with financial records to enrich himself. The insatiable craving for success also leads many leaders to become greedy, and yarn for more and this makes them use whatever means possible to push for more.

The only way leaders can stay on top of their industries and remain there if they follow the main reason why the joined the career and stick to that yearning and let it be their propulsion and compass even when they find themselves lost. As suggested in the book that leaders who remain true to their True North manage to stay focused and dedicated to themselves.

References

George, B. (2010).True North: Discover your authentic leadership (Vol. 143), John Wiley & Sons. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/why-leaders-lose-their-way

Thisanka Siripala (2018, November 23). Fall From Grace: Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn Faces Financial Misconduct Charges in Japan.

The diplomat https://thediplomat.com/2018/11/fall-from-grace-nissan-ceo-carlos-ghosn-faces-financial-misconduct-charges-in-japan/#:~:text=Tokyo%20Report-,Fall%20From%20Grace%3A%20Nissan%20CEO%20Carlos%20Ghosn%20Faces%20Financial%20Misconduct,arrested%20for%20under%2Dreporting%20income.

Watts, D. (2015). True North: Becoming an Authentic Leader by Bill George. Organization Management Journal, 12(4), 251-252. https://www.trinitydc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/True-North-Becoming-an-Authentic-Leader-by-Bill-George-Wat