Personal Mastery: Authenticity

Leadership from the Inside Out remains one of my top picks for teaching leaders how to become the best leader they can be...starting within themselves. Over the next week, I will post segments of my in-depth review of this book.

This is the THIRD of the series about Leadership from the Inside Out (second edition)

Personal Mastery—Leading with Awareness and Authenticity

Authenticity: To be authentic, leaders have what Daniel Goleman (author of Emotional Intelligence) calls self awareness and self regulation as well as awareness of others and mastery over interpersonal relationships. In short: Know self, first, then know others. For Cashman a couple of major points jump out:

--We lead both by character and coping and of the two, character is the more lasting and revealing. Leading with character we give off authenticity, trust, openness, courage and compassion. In a sense, we become vulnerable and ironically, more human.

--When we lead by coping—dealing with emergent issues that jump up at us—we lead out of a need for image, safety, security, comfort and control.

--While both have their place in a leader’s repertoire, character is the better place to begin any leadership relationship.