19 October, 2010

Trying to lead with Authenticity

This week in my Leading in Community Course, we were asked to describe how we lead with authenticity. I thought I would share with you all:

This week we move into the Authenticity Frame as we continue to look at how our values, decisions, and behavior affect others as we lead in community. Focusing solely on the Authenticity Frame and using Lead with Authenticity (LWA), briefly explain how you lead wtih authenticity. Which of the LWA assessments resonates most fully with your uniqeness as a leader (e.g. personality type, conflict style, etc.)? What are the difficulties in leading with authenticity? How do you overcome them?

It is my belief that an organization can only be as effective as the people in it. A strategic manager or executive must transcend themselves for the benefit of the whole organization for mission, values, initiatives and impact. As I further my career working with nonprofits in a very changing sector, I want to take advantage of the opportunities afforded to me to excel as a strategic thinker to prepare for the desired career in nonprofits as an authentic leader.

Values

Values in my mind are one of the most important aspects in being a successful authentic leader, employee and volunteer, as this drives many other aspects discussed in this assignment. The core values I work to maintain are Ethics and Transparency, Empower Others, Share Knowledge and Value Others. If strategic management is focused on mission, values, strategic initiatives, and impact, the core values I strive for relate to each. Ethics and transparency have been particularly important to me as a nonprofit professional, particularly in fundraising. To show my nonprofit employer and other nonprofits I volunteer or consult, I maintain a membership with and promote use of three professional associations: Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), American Association of Grant Professionals (AAGP), and Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration (CCVA). Through these organizations, I am held to annual commitment to ethical standards and codes. By adhering to these, it fulfills the values of an organization and allows me to fulfill strategic initiatives in the most transparent way possible. Empowerment of others has also become a core value in my work. Authentic leaders recognize their capacity will not address every need in an organization and thus surround themselves peers that build a team to address the strategic initiatives of the organization. Empowering others to make decisions and accomplish tasks is not limited to those who surround a leader but also those up and coming in the nonprofit community. I look for opportunities to share my knowledge and access to information so that other nonprofit professionals can better fulfill the missions of their organizations.

Social Skills

While I do not place all my self-interpretation and understanding from personality tests, I do pay attention to general findings as they relate to the dynamics of a situation. I have found my Myers Brigs profile to be insightful and helpful in dissecting my actions and work. After taking the Myers Briggs typology several times, I maintain the INTJ profile (Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging) as it does affect my social skill and how I work with others. I recognize I’m very much an idea person and thus have to work with others to come up with the details to make ideas become functional. Being an INTJ has also been instrumental in working with others in a nonprofit setting, as the INTJ type serves with good will. This enhances my ability to work in the nonprofit sector to guide others in the mission of the organization.

Leadership Skill

A growing need in most organizations, and an opportunity where I have developed skills, is the ability to be a leader in a multi-generational environment. The ability to work with those younger and older than me as well as showing others as a leader how to work in a multi-generational environment has been one of the beneficial leadership skills during my career. In utilizing it, it has enabled me to lead groups in completing activities as they relate to the organization’s strategic initiatives.

Aside from this particular leadership skill, I find myself to be a leader who values other individuals and their contribution to the work, solicit input and ideas from others to make the work stronger, and try to remain a servant and authentic leader in all that I do. I would consider myself a collaborative leader. When placed in a capacity of formal leadership, I feel I can provide appropriate leadership for strategic management. However, within my current work capacity, I unfortunately do not have the appropriate leadership level of responsibility, so I try to fulfill these leadership qualities as best I can in the situation I find myself. I find that in my volunteer career, I am able to utilize this much more effectively, allowing for truer authenticity as a leader within the organizations with which I am involved.