Polished vs. Authentic

I had coffee with a young emerging leader this week. She is learning leadership by the bootstraps (the best way in my opinion). During our conversation she said, “sometimes leaders can be too polished.” We went on to discuss how leaders that are too polished want to make leadership look good. They want to say the right things and make leading look gorgeous and important. But in reality, the best leaders to learn from and to work for are more authentic than polished. (more…)

Should the principles of leadership change over time? Should each new generation of leaders redefine what leading is? It is my belief that the principles should not, and need not, change. Leadership strategy and navigation techniques will change as the conditions demand, but sound principles of leadership do not change over time. What does change, however, is the person who is responsible to lead with those sound principles. (more…)