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The “Real Deal”
An authentic leader is someone who’s genuine, the real deal, that knows their sense of purpose. They’re true to their values. And they really understand who they are. They have to do a lot of work processing that.
In the old days, we used to think the smartest person in the room made the best leader. We’ve learned that’s just totally wrong. If you have an IQ over 120, which most all leaders do, the real key is not IQ, but EQ, or emotional intelligence as my colleague Dan Goldman says. And to be a good leader, you have to integrate the head with the heart. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk, says the longest journey you’ll ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart. So can you integrate those two things? Your heart is where qualities like courage, passion, compassion, empathy, all those qualities reside.
And so it’s not just about being a good analyst, it’s having the judgment. It’s having the support of people, knowing how to read people, knowing if they’re with you, or not with you. Knowing yourself, having the self-awareness to know your own weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and strengths, and surrounding yourself with people who are better than you are in areas where you’re not as good.
When I first published Authentic Leadership back in 2003, I felt like I was swimming upstream. Today, I feel like we’re going with the tide because authenticity has become the gold standard for leaders. And this is very exciting to me, more and more, the leaders being chosen in the corporate world, in the nonprofit world, education, are truly authentic people. In my new book, Discover Your True North. We profile 101 authentic leaders, all the way from people like Oprah Winfrey, Indra, Nooyi to Paul Pullman, Arianna Huffington, Howard Schiltz, Mike Bloomberg, Hank Paulson, and some really fantastic people I’ve met over the years and had the chance to interview, talked to them about their leadership. They’re the real deal.
Following Your Moral Compass
When you think about your life and your career, are you climbing the ladder? Or are you following your compass? I was climbing the ladder. I thought it was a straight line to the top. Was I ever wrong about that. The reality is, leadership’s a journey, as John Donahoe of eBay says, that there’s not a specific destination. And you go through many phases. In your early years, everything you measure is individual accomplishments. Your grades, the positions you hold, the schools you went to, all those things, your individual jobs. And then it morphs over time into the real leadership phase, when you’re stepping up to take on major leadership roles. I think that’s when you have to flip the switch from thinking it’s all about you, to realize all about the people on your team, you’re nothing more than a servant of the people you lead your servant leader.
And the best leaders have that kind of attitude. And you go through some rough times. I don’t know anyone who has gone through leadership without hitting the wall as we say, without having a rough time. But I think that’s where you learn, is in that crucible of challenges either early in your life, or in the midst of your career. I remember I was facing a situation many years ago, 30 years ago at Honeywell, where I was on the way to the top, but inside, I was deeply unhappy. And I finally had to face myself and listen to my wife’s counsel and advice. And that’s when I kind of reopened the door to go to Medtronic. And it led to the best years of my professional career. But if I hadn’t gone through that, that period I felt like I was kind of wandering through the Gobi Desert, without any signposts, and not really knowing where I was going. And you have to do that. But then, you can realize your full potential as we call peak leadership.
Then the third phase is the one I’m in now, since I left Medtronic, I left fairly early in my late 50s. Now it’s part of generativity, of giving back, having a chance to work with many organizations, many leaders and teach a lot of people at Harvard Business School, serve on a number of boards, corporate boards, nonprofit boards. Now I’ve had the privilege of taking time doing some writing, and some speaking about leadership. So I’m in the final phase, if you will, and I hope to keep going till I kick the bucket.