The Call for Authentic Leadership

EN: This article is a brief Q&A session (five items) with a CEO and author of a few books on leadership. As such, it's pretty choppy.

• Ethics are essential to a leader: integrity, stewardship, and good governance. A leader without a moral compass will be at the mercy of the moment, and will lack the grounding to push back against investors who consider share price to be more important that the organizational value.
• An "authentic" leader must have a deep sense of purpose and a commitment to building an enduring organization. His actions are guided by a long-range vision.
• A leader must communicate the mission and the values on which it is based consistently, and he must demonstrate his genuine dedication to them by conducting himself accordingly.
• He must foster these values in his subordinates as well and seek out those who share his core values, as they are requisite to pulling in the same direction.
• To achieve authenticity, a leader should be attentive to his behavior at work and at home. If the two are incompatible, he's not being authentic.

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