Final notes lit leadership
George: Discovering Your Authentic Leadership
Intro
- interviewed 125 leaders to learn how they developed their leadership abilities
- about life story, self-awareness, values, motivation, support team, integration, empower people
Learning from Your Life Story
it is your personal narrative that matters, not the mere facts of your life.
While the life stories of authentic leaders cover the full spectrum of experiences— including the positive
impact of parents, athletic coaches, teachers, and mentors—many leaders reported that their motivation
came from a difficult experience in their lives.
o used formative experiences to give meaning to their lives. They reframed these events to rise above
their challenges and to discover their passion to lead
Self-awareness
Knowing their authentic selves requires the courage and honesty to open up and examine their experiences.
Practicing Your Values and Principles
Leadership principles are values translated into action. Having a solid base of values and testing them under
fire enables you to develop the principles you will use in leading. For ex- ample, a value such as “concern for
others” might be translated into a leadership principle such as “create a work environment where people are
respected for their contributions, provided job security, and allowed to fulfill their potential.”
Balancing Your Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivations
find a balance between your desires for external validation and the intrinsic motiva- tions that provide
fulfillment in your work.
Intrinsic motivations are congruent with your values and are more fulfilling than extrin- sic motivations.
1
,Building Your Support Team
Authentic leaders find that their support teams provide affirmation, advice, perspective, and calls for course
corrections when needed.
Integrating Your Life by Staying Grounded
To lead a balanced life, you need to bring together all of its constitu- ent elements—work, family,
community, and friends—so that you can be the same person in each environment.
The question is not whether you can avoid stress but how you can control it to maintain your own sense of
equilibrium.
authentic leaders get physical exer- cise, engage in spiritual practices, do commu- nity service, and return to
the places where they grew up. All are essential to their effec- tiveness as leaders, enabling them to sustain
their authenticity.
Empowering People to Lead
the key to a successful organization is having empowered leaders at all levels, including those who have no
direct reports. They not only in- spire those around them, they empower those individuals to step up and
lead.
Thus: It may be possible to drive short-term outcomes with- out being authentic, but authentic leadership is the
only way we know to create sustainable long-term results.
Goffee: Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?
2
,inspirational leaders share four qualities:
They selectively show their weaknesses. By exposing some vulnerability, they reveal their approachability
and humanity.
o Beyond creating trust and a collaborative atmosphere, communicating a weakness also builds
solidarity between followers and leaders.
showing your followers that you are genuine and approachable—human and humane.
o Another advantage to exposing a weakness is that it offers a leader valuable protection. Human
nature being what it is, if you don’t show some weakness, then observers may in- vent one for you.
o The golden rule is never to expose a weakness that will be seen as a fatal flaw—by which we mean a
flaw that jeopardizes central aspects of your professional role.
o pick a weakness that can in some ways be considered a strength, such as being a workaholic.
o if the leader’s vulnerability is not perceived to be genuine, he won’t gain anyone’s support. Instead
he will open himself up to derision and scorn.
Become a sensor: they rely heavily on intuition to gauge the appropriate timing and course of their
actions. Their ability to collect and interpret soft data helps them know just when and how to act.
o While leaders must be great sensors, sensing can create problems. That’s because in making fine
judgments about how far they can go, leaders risk losing their followers.
o oversensitivity in a leader can be a recipe for disaster. For this reason, sensing capability must always
be framed by reality testing. Even the most gifted sensor may need to validate his perceptions with a
trusted adviser or a mem- ber of his inner team.
Practice Tough Empathy: They manage employees with something we call tough empathy. Inspirational
leaders empathize passionately—and realistically— with people, and they care intensely about the work
employees do. Balance respect and task
o real leaders manage through a unique approach we call tough em- pathy. Tough empathy means
giving people what they need, not what they want.
3
, o At its best, tough empathy balances respect for the individual and for the task at hand.
o One final point about tough empathy: those more apt to use it are people who really care about
something. And when people care deeply about something—anything—they’re more likely to show
their true selves.
Dare to Be Different: They reveal their differences. They capitalize on what’s unique about themselves
o The most effective leaders deliberately use differences to keep a social distance. Even as they are
drawing their followers close to them, inspirational leaders signal their separateness.
o most leaders start off not knowing what their differences are but eventually come to know— and
use—them more effectively over time.
o they recognize instinctively that followers will push themselves if their leader is just a little aloof
(cool and distant). Leadership, after all, is not a popularity contest.
o One danger, of course, is that executives can overdifferentiate themselves in their determi- nation to
express their separateness.
THUS: The four leadership qualities are a necessary first step. Taken together, they tell executives to be authentic. As
we counsel the executives we coach: “Be yourselves—more—with skill.” There can be no advice more difficult to fol-
low than that.
Pfeffer: YOU’RE STILL THE SAME: WHY THEORIES OF POWER HOLD OVER TIME AND ACROSS CONTEXTS
Intro
- Using organizational power and influence as a focus, I argue that fundamental theoretical processes
remain largely unchanged in their explanatory power, in part because such phenomena can be linked to
survival advantages.
- 6 unchanged processes
o Hierarchy, perceptions of competence, self enhancement motive, similarity, hedonic sense
making, be with winners
4
George: Discovering Your Authentic Leadership
Intro
- interviewed 125 leaders to learn how they developed their leadership abilities
- about life story, self-awareness, values, motivation, support team, integration, empower people
Learning from Your Life Story
it is your personal narrative that matters, not the mere facts of your life.
While the life stories of authentic leaders cover the full spectrum of experiences— including the positive
impact of parents, athletic coaches, teachers, and mentors—many leaders reported that their motivation
came from a difficult experience in their lives.
o used formative experiences to give meaning to their lives. They reframed these events to rise above
their challenges and to discover their passion to lead
Self-awareness
Knowing their authentic selves requires the courage and honesty to open up and examine their experiences.
Practicing Your Values and Principles
Leadership principles are values translated into action. Having a solid base of values and testing them under
fire enables you to develop the principles you will use in leading. For ex- ample, a value such as “concern for
others” might be translated into a leadership principle such as “create a work environment where people are
respected for their contributions, provided job security, and allowed to fulfill their potential.”
Balancing Your Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivations
find a balance between your desires for external validation and the intrinsic motiva- tions that provide
fulfillment in your work.
Intrinsic motivations are congruent with your values and are more fulfilling than extrin- sic motivations.
1
,Building Your Support Team
Authentic leaders find that their support teams provide affirmation, advice, perspective, and calls for course
corrections when needed.
Integrating Your Life by Staying Grounded
To lead a balanced life, you need to bring together all of its constitu- ent elements—work, family,
community, and friends—so that you can be the same person in each environment.
The question is not whether you can avoid stress but how you can control it to maintain your own sense of
equilibrium.
authentic leaders get physical exer- cise, engage in spiritual practices, do commu- nity service, and return to
the places where they grew up. All are essential to their effec- tiveness as leaders, enabling them to sustain
their authenticity.
Empowering People to Lead
the key to a successful organization is having empowered leaders at all levels, including those who have no
direct reports. They not only in- spire those around them, they empower those individuals to step up and
lead.
Thus: It may be possible to drive short-term outcomes with- out being authentic, but authentic leadership is the
only way we know to create sustainable long-term results.
Goffee: Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?
2
,inspirational leaders share four qualities:
They selectively show their weaknesses. By exposing some vulnerability, they reveal their approachability
and humanity.
o Beyond creating trust and a collaborative atmosphere, communicating a weakness also builds
solidarity between followers and leaders.
showing your followers that you are genuine and approachable—human and humane.
o Another advantage to exposing a weakness is that it offers a leader valuable protection. Human
nature being what it is, if you don’t show some weakness, then observers may in- vent one for you.
o The golden rule is never to expose a weakness that will be seen as a fatal flaw—by which we mean a
flaw that jeopardizes central aspects of your professional role.
o pick a weakness that can in some ways be considered a strength, such as being a workaholic.
o if the leader’s vulnerability is not perceived to be genuine, he won’t gain anyone’s support. Instead
he will open himself up to derision and scorn.
Become a sensor: they rely heavily on intuition to gauge the appropriate timing and course of their
actions. Their ability to collect and interpret soft data helps them know just when and how to act.
o While leaders must be great sensors, sensing can create problems. That’s because in making fine
judgments about how far they can go, leaders risk losing their followers.
o oversensitivity in a leader can be a recipe for disaster. For this reason, sensing capability must always
be framed by reality testing. Even the most gifted sensor may need to validate his perceptions with a
trusted adviser or a mem- ber of his inner team.
Practice Tough Empathy: They manage employees with something we call tough empathy. Inspirational
leaders empathize passionately—and realistically— with people, and they care intensely about the work
employees do. Balance respect and task
o real leaders manage through a unique approach we call tough em- pathy. Tough empathy means
giving people what they need, not what they want.
3
, o At its best, tough empathy balances respect for the individual and for the task at hand.
o One final point about tough empathy: those more apt to use it are people who really care about
something. And when people care deeply about something—anything—they’re more likely to show
their true selves.
Dare to Be Different: They reveal their differences. They capitalize on what’s unique about themselves
o The most effective leaders deliberately use differences to keep a social distance. Even as they are
drawing their followers close to them, inspirational leaders signal their separateness.
o most leaders start off not knowing what their differences are but eventually come to know— and
use—them more effectively over time.
o they recognize instinctively that followers will push themselves if their leader is just a little aloof
(cool and distant). Leadership, after all, is not a popularity contest.
o One danger, of course, is that executives can overdifferentiate themselves in their determi- nation to
express their separateness.
THUS: The four leadership qualities are a necessary first step. Taken together, they tell executives to be authentic. As
we counsel the executives we coach: “Be yourselves—more—with skill.” There can be no advice more difficult to fol-
low than that.
Pfeffer: YOU’RE STILL THE SAME: WHY THEORIES OF POWER HOLD OVER TIME AND ACROSS CONTEXTS
Intro
- Using organizational power and influence as a focus, I argue that fundamental theoretical processes
remain largely unchanged in their explanatory power, in part because such phenomena can be linked to
survival advantages.
- 6 unchanged processes
o Hierarchy, perceptions of competence, self enhancement motive, similarity, hedonic sense
making, be with winners
4
