Authentic leadership of utmost importance
The importance of being an authentic leader has been highlighted by the director of the AUT Centre for Innovative Leadership on the heels of leadership week last week.
How to be an authentic leader
Stephen Drain, who has been the director of the centre since it formed in 2009, says being an authentic leader starts with knowing yours skills, talent and knowledge.
“Lead from your strengths. What you’ve got will be more powerful.
“To generate followers you must first engender trust, which is not easily given. Trust is fragile and is lost when leaders are dishonest, especially with themselves. So the first thing we do is ask: what skills do you bring to the table? Let’s build on those.”
Leadership Week
Leadership Week this year had a theme of "Great New Zealand Teams” and is an annual event that highlights the strategic relevance and value that great leadership provides for New Zealand and showcases the work being done to develop the nation’s leadership capability.
The week is run by The Sir Peter Blake Trust.
Drain kicked off the Centre's activity for the week with an opening speech on authentic leadership at the 2nd Annual Strategic Talent and Leadership Development Forum in Wellington.
He chaired the first morning of the forum introducing presentations from Nathalie Grey from Fonterra and Emma Rutherford from Vodafone NZ.
Next was a leadership workshop for the Committee for Auckland's Future Auckland Leaders Programme with centre leadership coach Jas Singh facilitating a workshop on "Engaging Leaders" - both being engaged and engaging.
“This week puts a focus on leadership. What I see about this week is that it’s focusing on the unknown leaders as well. Leadership exists at a lot of levels.”
Leadership in 2011
With the 2011 Rugby World Cup rapidly approaching Drain says leadership at these different levels will be apparent.
He says the captain of each of the teams is a leader, but as are the 15 other players on the field and teams as a whole are too.
“Those 15 guys on the field are just what you see of course. There are a lot of other parts of a team. These leaders are role models for others in the community.”
From his perspective leadership is going to be important in seeing the All Blacks take out the 2011 Rugby World Cup title as well.
“Obviously I couldn’t give advice about how to play rugby,” he says. “But I can give insights into how teams perform best. The All Blacks are technically the best in the world. It’s not about not having the skills; it’s about not being in the groove as a team.”
The centre