How to Develop the Authentic Leader in You E-Book

Nicole M. Heimann

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 208

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

We need to shift the current leadership paradigm: to move from the idea of exercising power over others to the practice of using your inner power to influence people. This requires a passionate commitment: to get access to our inner power, we need to get over ourselves first. Truly authentic leadership holds the power from within to create the deep transformation that today’s business world requires. A leader who leads from a place of authenticity “knows” himself: he has gone inward and knows his ego parts, conditionings, sabotaging behaviors, and wounds. He also knows his strengths, his power, his charisma, his essence. When you as a leader choose to invest in your own continuous inner growth, you will also be investing in the biggest growth potential for your organization. When as a leader you raise your consciousness through a process of inner growth, you inherently raise the bar for the organization as well. Authenticity is a never-ending inner growth process, and it opens up the way to create the deep transformations that today’s business world requires. It takes only one visionary and courageous leader to step out and lead the way. In this book author, CEO & Lifestyle Coach, Nicole Maria Heimann shows you how to access and transform the way you lead using her model of integrating “The Seven Dimensions of Leadership Intelligence.”

Leseprobe

Heimann’s passion for leadership and helping to create leaders

who come from the heart really shines through in this book.

Her Seven Dimensions of Leadership is an intriguing look at

what it might mean to be a truly integrated leader.

Full of quotes, stories, and provocative questions to explore,

this book is a helpful guide on your leadership journey.

Ann Betz

Author of Integration:

The Power of Being Co-Active in Work and Life.

This book is dedicated

to my children Jeroen, Pieter and Annelies

to my clients spread around the world

and

to all seekers of truth and authenticity

who have chosen to shift the leadership paradigm

Realness

All the stories in this book are real-life stories.

Names have been changed and companies are not revealed

out of respect for their privacy.

Dear Reader,

I invite you to consider the possibilities for authentic leadership, stimulate your own thinking on this topic, and build your own opinions to guide your growth.

Given the pace of change we are experiencing in business, authentic leadership through inner growth is the most important choice for organizational growth in a corporate culture of cooperation and trust. I offer you the wisdom that I have gleaned from witnessing transformative experiences to develop authentic leaders. I share my beliefs and the lessons I have learned through many years of coaching leaders, and, of course, through my own personal experiences as well.

Today’s younger generation is able to integrate knowledge and experience in new ways thanks to their access to a wide range of ideas and opinions on the internet and the social media. They are demanding this same level of integration from their leaders.

In this book I will show you how I have integrated core understandings about leadership and authenticity. Let’s call them “my truths”. In my work I have had the privilege to witness many moments of transformation where leaders discover “their truths”.

Over time, I have built and honed a process that invites a wide range of leaders to find their authenticity.

I invite you to relax, sit back and get comfortable, sharpen your senses, focus and enjoy reading my book.

I encourage you to get in touch with me when you feel the urge. It would be my honor to work with you on developing the authentic leader in you.

NICOLE MARIA HEIMANN

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.

Do not believe in traditions because they have been

handed down for many generations.

Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumored by many.

Do not believe in anything simply because it is found

written in your religious books.

Do not believe in anything merely on the authority

of your teachers or elders.

But after observation and analysis, when you find that

anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good

and benefit of one and all,

then accept it and live up to it.”

THE BUDDHA

Inhalt

P

REFACE

CHAPTER I

W

HY THIS NEW AWARENESS ABOUT

A

UTHENTIC

L

EADERSHIP?

Working from an authentic place gives you access to deeper wisdom.

Working from an authentic place helps you navigate uncertainty.

Working from an authentic place improves your ability to communicate effectively in both easy and more difficult conversations.

Working from an authentic place invites cooperative leadership.

CHAPTER II

C

ONNECTING WITH YOUR

I

NNER

P

OWER

Authentic leadership is a choice.

Authentic Leadership connects you with your “inner power”.

CHAPTER III

E

XPOSING AND REMOVING THE OBSTACLES

Obstacle #1: Clear all misunderstandings

Obstacle #2: Expose the myth of the protective wall

Obstacle #3: Feel the fears holding you back

CHAPTER IV

A

UTHENTIC

L

EADERSHIP

:

A PROCESS OF INTEGRATION

–

P

URPOSE

, T

RANSPARENCY AND

N

ON

-L

INEARITY

Leading with purpose and vision

Leading in a transparent manner

Leading through a non-linear process

CHAPTER V

I

NTEGRATING THE

S

EVEN

D

IMENSIONS OF

L

EADERSHIP

I

NTELLIGENCE

®

I

NTEGRATING

P

HYSICAL

I

NTELLIGENCE

CHAPTER VI

I

NTEGRATING

E

MOTIONAL

I

NTELLIGENCE

CHAPTER VII

I

NTEGRATING

P

RAGMATIC

I

NTELLIGENCE

CHAPTER IX

I

NTEGRATING

C

OMMUNICATION

I

NTELLIGENCE

CHAPTER X

I

NTEGRATING

H

EART

I

NTELLIGENCE

CHAPTER XI

I

NTEGRATING

N

EUROSCIENCE

I

NTELLIGENCE

CHAPTER XII

I

NTEGRATING

C

ONSCIOUSNESS

I

NTELLIGENCE

CHAPTER XIII

I

NTEGRATION

: B

RINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

B

IBLIOGRAPHY AND

B

OOK

R

ECOMMENDATIONS

A

CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A

BOUT THE

A

UTHOR

Preface

“No problem can be solved

from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

ALBERT EINSTEIN

You are a Masterpiece.

You are an unfinished Masterpiece.

Michelangelo saw the beauty and the strength waiting to be revealed in a block of raw marble. Layer by layer, he chiseled and shaped and set free more and more of his masterpiece, David. He worked through the dust to reach to the core. Working through the dust constitutes the process of inner work you need to do in order to reach the core of your Authentic Self, from where powerful authentic leadership becomes possible.

Over the years, our Authentic Self becomes buried under layers of experience that influence our leadership practices in unconscious ways. Much of this prior experience is unprocessed. Some of it represents old wounds, which feed our egos in unhelpful ways.

Instead of integrating these experiences into our reservoir of wisdom, we adapt by building a protective wall around our core self – our Authentic Self – which is the source of our true inner power. Under these circumstances however, our leadership potential can be compromised.

The truth of the matter is that your organization is a reflection of who you are; a reflection of how far you have expanded in your leadership intelligence.

Leading from your Authentic Self gives you access to your deeper wisdom and helps you to navigate the challenges within your organization.

Your communication becomes more influential because you are more mindful of your intentions. Others feel welcome to work with you in the spirit of cooperative leadership.

It’s time.

It’s time to become the sculptor of your own destiny. It’s time to gently dismantle the protective wall layer by layer, return to the true power of your core, and develop the Authentic Leader in You.

Why should you care?

Because you have the power to make a huge difference. One person cannot change the global corporate reality as it is today, but each CEO, each leader has the power to stand up for a better corporate reality and a better culture, and create ripples to generate a current. When a sufficient number of leaders become active and courageous enough to shape a new reality, a new corporate culture and awareness will emerge.

It is too easy and unacceptable to simply say: “this is how things are, this is how the corporate world functions”.

You are much more powerful than that.

The creation of a new corporate culture is a process that starts from within.

There is a huge potential inside you, waiting to be accessed and unleashed, so that you may integrate many more of the dimensions that make you who you are.

You are an unfinished Masterpiece with unlimited potential. How to develop the Authentic Leader in you is a unique coaching process of going through your layers and getting more and more deeply connected to your essence.

By giving you access to your essence, the coaching process presumes that everything is already inside you. There is a huge potential inside you waiting to be unlocked, similarly to doors waiting to be opened to integrate many more of the dimensions that make you who you are.

In this book I will walk you through my model: “The Seven Dimensions of Leadership Intelligence®”. These seven dimensions are Physical Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, Communication Intelligence, Heart Intelligence, Pragmatic Intelligence, Neuroscience Intelligence, and Consciousness Intelligence.

My book How to develop the Authentic Leader in You is about integration – and how integrating the Seven Dimensions of Leadership Intelligence® leads to authenticity.

Therefore, I will proceed as follows: I will introduce each dimension in a separate chapter, where I will then focus on some aspects which demonstrate the value of integration. Finally, I will show how this contributes to the process of developing the authentic leader in you.

Integrating the Seven Dimensions of Leadership Intelligence® expands your process of authenticity. Integration and authenticity are interrelated and a two-fold phenomenon.

We are going to discover and learn the following principles for “The Seven Dimensions of Leadership Intelligence®”:

The seven dimensions are non-linear.

No single dimension operates in isolation.

All seven dimensions are integrated with one another.

Making modifications in one dimension always has an impact on the rest.

There is no hierarchy in the seven dimensions and they are all equally important.

Intelligence is part of your natural being and not restricted to the brain. (I prefer to use the term “intellect” for the brain)

The intelligences in the Seven Dimensions are accessible as soon as we open ourselves up to them.

We will also explore how integration and expanding the boundaries of intelligence through my model is crucial for navigating today’s complex environment. Cooperative leadership is possible when we are connected to our vision. Vision is fluid. It is both a process and a verb.

I believe that you can transform any moment into an opportunity to become a more authentic leader. My clients are typically “surviving” in the corporate world by disconnecting, because they think they have no choice. Disconnecting means not being integrated and leading – consciously or unconsciously – against our inner self. When we constantly “play a role” and live, lead and act against our own inner nature, we experience energy drains. This can result in making us feel empty, lonely, depressed and unhappy. Most certainly our capacity to perform is weakened. We are less able to develop a culture of cooperation that is positive, innovative, creative, and happy.

My Leadership Intelligence Model is structured to create space for you to reflect. The goal is to enable you to learn new ways to recognize those moments in your work day where you can access your wisdom in new ways, and lead by conscious choice and action.

It makes no difference what type of work you do or at what stage in your leadership development you are; any moment can be transformed into an opportunity to grow and choose to be a more effective and authentic leader. The challenge is to muster up your courage to push the boundaries of your growth. What I mean by this is the boundaries of our humanity. We, the followers, recognize the humanity in you as our leader. That humanity becomes expressed through your deep access to wisdom – through your authenticity.

When you find access to these deeper levels of your wisdom, your work begins to matter in new ways.

The stories in this book focus on real-life situations and true events with leaders in corporate settings. I zoom in on single specific moments in a leader’s work because that is where change happens. Change is a process. Change is not the final outcome of someone’s work. The process of working with a coach to recognize and seize a single moment is similar to acupressure. Through pressing the point of awareness, you allow change to take place in that moment; and from that moment on everything takes on a new course. Once this inner shift has taken place and you have become a more conscious leader, growth will follow: inner growth as well as growth within your organization will happen.

Corporate transformation is urgently needed. We are in the process of shifting from the “age of separation” into the “age of integration.” Einstein said that no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. That is why authentic leadership is a must for corporate transformation. To deny to yourself the journey to authenticity means to stay in the old age of separation. Past solutions no longer work for the challenges you face in the integration age. Your inner shift is a prerequisite for the outer effectiveness in your organization, as both personal leadership and corporate transformation are integrated – part of a whole.

In the integration age, personal leadership and corporate transformation are integrated. They require each other for success. The quality and depth of your awareness have a direct impact on the results you will achieve.

In your role as the CEO or the leader, you have the power to make an impact and give a different meaning to what “work” stands for for the people you lead. Be the change you want to see in your corporate environment – by setting your unfinished Masterpiece free!

CHAPTER I

Why this new awareness about Authentic Leadership?

Trust is the glue of life.

It’s the most essential ingredient

in effective communication.

It’s the most foundational principle

that holds all relationships.

STEPHEN COVEY

Authentic Leadership leads to an environment of trust

Imagine arriving at a communications seminar where 30 strangers are assembled in the room waiting. The seminar room offers a beautiful view of central Paris. Your body is filled with all the emotions that come with new beginnings: curiosity, excitement, enthusiasm, concern. Now, imagine there are no opening remarks and no introduction round of participants in the usual manner that we expect in business meetings. Instead, the first instructions are to walk around the room, look at every single person, and decide for yourself: do I trust her/him or not?

This is the way in which Dr. Stephen Karpman1, intellectual father and inventor of the drama triangle, opened a seminar that I attended. Within the first five minutes of that seminar I rediscovered what I had known all along. Even without knowing a person, nor having had any interaction at all, we “knew” whom to trust and whom not. This “knowing” comes from an intuition, from a deeper place connected to our wisdom; we are truly tapping into the “energy” or “essence”, we are connecting with the “being” of the other person. Without realizing it consciously, we are tuning in our antennaes into the energy of authenticity!

Trust is, therefore, directly related to authenticity: the more we experience the other person as ‘being authentic’, the more we see them as trustworthy. And the more integrated a person is, the more they will be and come across as authentic.

Trust is a complex intangible and is a result of the integration and consonance between your words, actions, and behaviors. Trust is either given or not. Trust is the reflection of who you are and is mirrored back in your organization.

To work towards an environment and a culture of trust means to work towards our own process of authenticity through integration. Gustave Flaubert said: “Success is a consequence, never a goal.” This holds true not only for success but, especially, for trust.

Some questions to ponder:

How deeply do you trust yourself?

How deeply do you trust your own intuition?

What is your default mode: do people have to “earn” your trust and prove that they deserve it? Or do you give trust easily, and only lose it when your trust has been betrayed?

What is your relationship with trust?

How do you see your relationship with trust reflected in your organization?

To put it in the “big picture” context: authentic leadership creates trust, leads to an environment of trust, and is based on a strong foundation of trust.

When we zoom in for a closer look, we find four main reasons why developing the authentic leader in you is essential to leading both a successful and a fulfilled happy life:

1. Working from an authentic place gives you access to deeper wisdom.

The quality of our “doing” – our leadership actions, reflects the quality of our understanding, our wisdom. Wisdom is not about intellectual knowledge. Wisdom is something internal and embodied. It is a quality of our being. Wisdom is a quality which becomes accessible through integration. Wisdom is the part of you that integrates the many different dimensions that make you who you are, so that a holistic view can emerge.

Without authenticity, we cannot access deep wisdom. The reason for this is that wisdom starts from integrating all the outside facts of a reality; it then takes these facts inward and reflects on them in the context of the bigger picture to see the implications for the whole. Wisdom then sinks deeper inward, to receive the subtle unspoken messages, integrating more intelligences, such as our physical intelligence, heart intelligence, and also consciousness intelligence.

These last two processes can only happen when a leader is integrated, in touch with his core essence, his authenticity. That requires a silent, reflective mind able to empty itself and simply listen.

A leader in touch with his wisdom inspires trust.

2. Working from an authentic place helps you navigate uncertainty.

Corporate uncertainty will always be part of your reality. In your role as a CEO your people are looking at you – both at how you lead your organization through uncertainty as well as at who you are and what impact you have on them. The more authenticity flourishes within you, the more and the better you know yourself, the more you are comfortable with the uncomfortable and with the unknown.

To navigate through uncertainty you need to have acute awareness of the different dimensions that make you who you are. The more we are connected to our authentic core, the less we identify with external circumstances, and the more comfortable we are with uncertainty, and the more serenity we exude: we are our own masters.

With expanding authenticity, you as a leader will develop the ability to “trust the process” and make the most of the moment whatever comes your way – you will always remain connected to where you are heading to. As a consequence, you will have access to your creativity as you are more open and comfortably seated in your authentic core.

Because of being deeply connected to your true Authentic Self in any moment, your leadership impact is trust – even in periods of uncertainty.

3. Working from an authentic place improves your ability to communicate effectively in both easy and more difficult conversations.

Even when the message to deliver is unpleasant, the authentic leader is able to communicate it with awareness of its impact and with grace and respect for the other person.

When we are connected to our authentic core, we are automatically connected to a place which in transactional analysis2 is called: “I am OK, you are OK”. Leading and communicating from OK-ness leads to powerful leadership and preserves respect and dignity. It is a life-position and a personal attitude. It is a powerful choice to orient ourselves towards leading from an “I am OK, you are OK”-position. By making this choice and turning it into an integral part of your being, you will experience deeper connections and high quality relationships.

Communicating authentically is based on realness and truth. Realness means the openness to accept things as they are without judging and to work with that reality in a responsible way. Working with the truth is powerful, too, because people appreciate being told the truth – even if it is painful.

Understanding how to be heard and how to reach your stakeholders in an authentic way is essential for influential leadership. The outcome of being real, being truthful, and being heard and listened to as a leader, is trust.

4. Working from an authentic place invites cooperative leadership.

The leadership style of the authentic leader who is in touch with deep wisdom, who is comfortable with uncertainty, and who communicates masterfully and with respect from an “I am OK, you are OK”-position, automatically invites and leads into cooperative leadership. And cooperative leadership, in turn, stands for inclusion, growth, empowerment, positivity, confidence and flexibility.

A leader who is connected to his authenticity builds alliances and creates an environment that invites different opinions and ideas to build upon. Cooperative leadership fosters an “open-to-learning” organization. The authentic leader is not afraid of making mistakes and knows how to turn these into deep learning and create growth opportunities out of the experience. Cooperative leadership chooses to see obstacles not as obstacles but as an information resource to reflect and build upon. This powerful choice invites his counterparts in a creative process.

A leader who leads from a place of authenticity, “knows” himself, has gone inward, knows his ego parts, his conditionings, his sabotaging behaviors, his wounds, and he also knows his strengths, his power, his charisma, his essence. As he is at peace with himself, his leadership is not centered around him but around something bigger than himself. The authentic leader naturally invites his partners into cooperative leadership to join forces for the sake of something bigger than himself.

A cooperative Leader leads from a place of inclusion (“we” rather than “I”) and abundance. Cooperative leadership brings together success and happiness. It is urgently needed and very different from the reality that still exists in many corporations today: thinking in terms of competition, exclusion (“you” and “me”), and scarcity. The latter creates an autocratic, pragmatic leadership style and an environment of “comply up and control down”.

Cooperative leadership is most natural, because it aligns with our true Authentic Selves.

1 Dr. Stephen B. Karpman M.D. is the orginator of the Drama Triangle and the Compassion Triangle. His work has been widely used and studied worldwide.

2 Transactional Analysis is a psychotherapeutic method for studying interactions between individuals.

CHAPTER II

Connecting with your Inner Power

“To me, business isn’t about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s

about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.”

SIR RICHARD BRANSON

Staying true to yourself isn’t easy. Before you can be and stay true to yourself as an authentic leader, you need to explore two important questions:

How do you describe the essence of your leadership work?

How could you be able to lead from your authentic self?

A deep exploration into the answers to these two powerful questions is a process that starts with you but then has a ripple effect out into your organization as well.

These questions bring us immediately to the issue of your inner power. There is a difference between external power – that is, exercising power over others – and inner power.

Connecting with your inner power is like starting the engine to drive growth and organizational change in today’s times. As with every engine, when you turn it off, your vehicle doesn’t drive anymore. When you turn off this dynamic process of your inner growth, you are settling for the status-quo in your organization.

Authenticity doesn’t happen automatically. It isn’t a given. It requires a deliberate commitment to inner growth. Once this commitment is acted upon, there are no limits to expansion and further evolution. Authenticity is a never-ending inner growth process. It is our “essence” and as it is our energy, it has no limits. To take and walk the path to authenticity is possible with effective learning tools and will open the way to the deep levels of change which are needed in today’s business environments.

Leaders on this path build on experience by engaging in a reflection cycle after every action.

<<Action – Reflection – New Action – Reflection … >>

How can we stay true to ourselves without reflecting on our actions? Each experienced action and the reflection that follows leads to truer states of our being. Your experience becomes your teacher.

True authentic leadership holds the power from within to create the deep levels of change that today’s business world requires.

1. Authentic leadership is a choice.

Leading from authenticity is a choice that gives us more inner freedom and a greater responsibility resulting in both more success and more happiness.

When we are willing to do the work of integration, we open up the field of choice. In the beginning it is the choice to integrate. Once the process is set in motion, the field of choice expands, and choice appears throughout the whole process of growth.

When we have choice, we must make a decision. The power of deciding to live and lead from authenticity is that it opens us up for the process of integration. We will explore the concept of integration in depth in chapters IV and V