Becoming an authentic leader
All leaders always change things.
Thinking back over the times that I’ve initiated change, one important factor emerges.
I change before I change others.
Sometimes I changed from the outside in. Once, when I was a young man, I was fired. That event radically changed me and the course of my life. Other times, change emerged from the inside-out and always included dissatisfaction, dreaming of a preferred future, and attitude adjustments.
Big hairy deal!
Change agents are dissatisfied with what is. Big hairy deal! Everyone I know is dissatisfied with stuff in their lives but they aren’t change agents.
Change agents dream of a brighter future. Big hairy deal! Everyone I know dreams of a brighter future but they don’t become agents of change.
Dissatisfaction and dreams won’t make you a change agent.
If you want to become a change agent you’ll build on the changes you have experienced in your own life. Think back to graduation, marriage, births, new jobs, divorce, near death experiences, books, people, failures, and other events that changed you. You’re standing on a platform of personal change that empowers your leadership.
Your life-changes are equipping you for authentic leadership.
Failures teach you thing to avoid or modify.
Success teach you things to repeat.
Authentic leaders align with and build on personal changes in order to become effective change agents.
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What keeps some people from building on personal life-change?
How has life-change equipped you for authentic leadership.
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Leadership Freak
Dan Rockwell
Great post Dan… Most of us take a while before we understand that all our experiences in life prepare us for what is next.. if we can learn to focus the lessons learndt into positive elements of change there is no limit to what we can accomplish… Keep up the good work
Rogelio,
Thank you for leaving your first comment and the encouraging word. It took me too long to learn this wonderful lesson. Now I’m on track and loving it.
Best to you,
Dan
How very true Dan. It’s a lot easier to sit around and gripe about all the things that are going wrong in your world than it is to stand up and try and do something about them. Authentic Leaders are the ones that try and change things. Great post!
Brett,
Glad you dropped in and left an encouraging comment. I appreciate it. Come back again anytime.
Best,
Dan
Hi Dan
I always thought ‘change agent’ to be management fad, but this article completely changed my perception!
Best Regards
Vinod
Vinod,
Thanks for leaving a comment. I hope it’s a good thing.
Be well,
Dan
That makes absolutely no sense.
What are your qualifications for leadership other than being fired?
Dan,
Fear of the unknown is always one factor that inhibits change. Even those who are in a position to drive change can be afraid of people’s reactions and can fear failure if it doesn’t go as planned. Here’s a post on how to handle the resistance to change:
http://wp.me/pZiRD-y
Thanks for continuing to blog on leadership. I find your writing to be very beneficial and enjoy the reading each new post.
Blessings,
Chris Paulsen
This is great Dan. If I may attempt to contribute to your message I get a sense that what your asking us to find is that way of listening or becoming acutely aware of the movements of ones own consciousness. when we pay attention to what has happened in our lives we can see how it is all leading somewhere and that it is all a connected process of change, We are continually changing. The more we listen the more we begin to follow our intuitive knowing that brings out an authenticity in a leader that goes beyond the personal realm. The authentic leader now wishes not to change things because of dissatisfaction, dreams or even vision but because he or she is continually compelled by the life giving unifying force that only wants to change and to change everything for the better. I feel like we build on our awareness of the personal (which is so important as you say) and then we go a step further and become fully self-actualized human beings – now standing in a selfless ground of authenticity from which leadership of change can truly flourish. I feel this resonates most with pioneers of Evolutionary Leadership and collective co-learning such as Andrew Cohen see http://bit.ly/jAuwmv