Are You an Authentic Leader?

Most successful leaders out there realize the benefit of building a great relationship with a business coach. For me, this relationship started a little over three years ago with Brian Strock at the Cassara Clinic. The growth I’ve seen along the way (in both businesses) has been because of Brian’s involvement and how he’s shown up in my life and I’m forever grateful for his direction and counsel.

A good business coach will challenge you to think differently about your business and how you approach your business as well as the relationships in your business. They’re often the sounding board for new ideas, possible changes, discussing and working through problems, and helping to keep the owner’s focus on advancing the business to the next chapter of its life.

A good business coach will also help our progress as leaders as well as business owners.

Being a leader is often thought as being synonymous with being a business owner. While this may be true by definition, the actions and supporting attitude of the business owner will define in what context the business owner is leader.

Are they leading because that’s what it says on their business card and because they’re the one paying their team or are they leading with a level of authenticity that is palpable by the team?

Do they lead by example and empowering their team or do they lead by commanding and fear?

Are they leading by transparency (making sure the entire team knows the future and path of the business) or are they simply telling people what to do and how to do it?

Are they commanding people on how to do something and focusing on their mistakes or are they teaching people by sharing with them why they should do something a certain way and the benefit to the client in doing it that way?

Brian recently shared this great post with me, which was written by Bill George. Bill shares that being an authentic leader means staying focused on your calling and purpose. I believe that, in today’s commoditized world of financial services, having a clear vision of what your calling and purpose is in this business is so very important to earning the trust of new client relationships and keeping the client relationships you’re already privileged to serve.

When clients ask themselves “Why should I do business with this person?” or “What makes this person different than every other advisor I’ve ever met?” are you confident that you can communicate that effectively?

If not, start with why and work from there. It’ll be the foundation for how you look at your business, those you lead, and those you serve.