Page 158 - CPAAC_Fall2015

Discovering Your Authentic Leadership
Think of your life as a serving as a source of honest feedback when
house. Can you knock they need it most.
down the walls between
the rooms and be the Integrating Your Life by Staying
same person in each of Grounded
them?
Integrating their lives is one of the greatest
challenges leaders face. 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. Think of your life as a
house, with a bedroom for your personal life, a
study for your professional life, a family room
for your family, and a living room to share
with your friends. Can you knock down the
walls between these rooms and be the same
person in each of them?
As John Donahoe, president of eBay Market-
places and former worldwide managing direc-
tor of Bain, stressed, being authentic means
maintaining a sense of self no matter where
you are. He warned, “The world can shape you
if you let it. To have a sense of yourself as you individuals to step up and lead.
live, you must make conscious choices. Some-
times the choices are really hard, and you
make a lot of mistakes.”
Authentic leaders have a steady and confi-
dent presence. They do not show up as one
person one day and another person the next.
Integration takes discipline, particularly during credit lines were exhausted. With the share
stressful times when it is easy to become reac-
tive and slip back into bad habits. Donahoe
feels strongly that integrating his life has en-
abled him to become a more effective leader.
“There is no nirvana,” he said. “The struggle is
constant, as the trade-offs don’t get any easier
as you get older.” But for authentic leaders,
personal and professional lives are not a zero-
sum game. As Donahoe said, “I have no doubt
today that my children have made me a far
more effective leader in the workplace. Having
a strong personal life has made the difference.”
Leading is high-stress work. There is no way
to avoid stress when you are responsible for
people, organizations, outcomes, and manag-
ing the constant uncertainties of the environ-
ment. The higher you go, the greater your
freedom to control your destiny but also the
higher the degree of stress. The question is
not whether you can avoid stress but how you
can control it to maintain your own sense of
equilibrium.
Authentic leaders are constantly aware of
the importance of staying grounded. Besides
harvard business review • hbr.org • february 2007
Purchased by Ken Hampian (kchampian@charter.net) on March 15, 2013
spending time with their families and close
friends, 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
Now that we have discussed the process of dis-
covering your authentic leadership, let’s look
at how authentic leaders empower people in
their organizations to achieve superior long-
term results, which is the bottom line for all
leaders.
Authentic leaders recognize that leadership
is not about their success or about getting loyal
subordinates to follow them. They know the
key to a successful organization is having em-
powered leaders at all levels, including those
who have no direct reports. They not only in-
spire those around them, they empower those
A reputation for building relationships and
empowering people was instrumental in chair-
man and CEO Anne Mulcahy’s stunning turn-
around of Xerox. When Mulcahy was asked to
take the company’s reins from her failed prede-
cessor, Xerox had $18 billion in debt, and all
price in free fall, morale was at an all-time low.
To make matters worse, the SEC was investi-
gating the company’s revenue recognition
practices.
Mulcahy’s appointment came as a surprise
to everyone—including Mulcahy herself. A
Xerox veteran, she had worked in field sales
and on the corporate staff for 25 years, but not
in finance, R&D, or manufacturing. How could
Mulcahy cope with this crisis when she had
had no financial experience? She brought to
the CEO role the relationships she had built
over 25 years, an impeccable understanding of
the organization, and, above all, her credibility
as an authentic leader. She bled for Xerox, and
everyone knew it. Because of that, they were
willing to go the extra mile for her.
After her appointment, Mulcahy met per-
sonally with the company’s top 100 executives
to ask them if they would stay with the com-
pany despite the challenges ahead. “I knew
there were people who weren’t supportive of
me,” she said. “So I confronted a couple of
them and said, ‘This is about the company.’”
page 7