WorldWide Drilling Resource

31 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® OCTOBER 2014 The Un-Comfort Zone II by Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. Authentic Leaders Don’t Need Power to Rule How to lead when you don’t have power. In my previous article, I wrote about leaders havingAIM, which is my acronym for the key characteristics of leadership: Authenticity, Innovation, Motivation. In this article, I will expand on the charac- teristic of Authenticity. Over the years, I have enjoyed many leadership roles, some of which I have written about in this column. Most of my leadership positions have been as a volunteer in the nonprofit sector of the economy: community groups, business associations, youth organizations, etc. One of the challenges of being a leader to volunteers is you do not have the traditional inducements of the car- rot and the stick. You can’t motivate them with money (since there is no pay), and you can’t threaten to fire them (well yeah, you could, but then you’d have to recruit another volunteer, and in some organizations finding volunteers is diffi- cult). In short, you must motivate with authenticity. The good news is, once you learn how, you will also be able to use these methods even when you do have the traditional ones. Authenticity is about credibility, it’s about being genuine, legitimate, trust- worthy, and believable. Today, we have become skeptical by the growing num- ber of scams and con artists. We have all encountered fakes and phonies. When an item of quality becomes popular, you can be sure a knock-off is not far behind. Sometimes, the quality of the imita- tor is as good or better than the original. Man-made gemstones are an example. Today, many gems can be manufactured using heat and pressure, and when fin- ished, they are perfect and flawless. While they are chemically equivalent to the original, they are still not the same. They are no longer rare, so they are no longer precious. People still want natu- ral stones, but how can you tell the dif- ference? It is the flaw in the gemstone that proves its authenticity. When it comes to leadership, the authenticating flaw is vulnerability. Au- thenticity is simply being who you are. It is not about being perfect; it is about refusing to compromise on value and principles. Making mistakes is a part of learning. An authentic leader is not afraid of failure. The authentic leader begins by lead- ing by example. He shows his people he will be as passionate about the orga- nization’s goals as he expects them to be. He places high importance on build- ing relationships. He is interested in em- powering his followers and encourages their own leadership skills. He looks to improve strengths - not criticize weak- ness. He has empathy for his followers. An authentic leader will look for oppor- tunities to partner with an individual’s goals, interests, or passions, and tie them to the organizational goals. When you are concerned about the goals of the group, people will know and follow. You can’t fake caring. One of my most fulfilling leadership experiences was as the Cubmaster of my children’s Cub Scout Pack. I took over a small pack with 18 boys which had been losing members for years. The previous leader had done every- thing by himself for years; he was burned out. He no longer had the time or incli- nation to run the group, and so, eliminated all but the most essential activities. I wanted to restore the pack and have it doing all the many exciting activ- ities other packs were doing. To do it, I needed more parent volunteers. To get more parents, I needed to recruit more kids. That was the easy part. I would go into the schools and show a video of all the fun things boys would get to do as Cub Scouts, then I would invite them to bring their parents to a meeting and sign up. Most of the parents were look- ing for a situation where they could drop their kids off, then pick them up later. It meant I needed to recruit parents to become leaders. To the group at large, I spoke of growing the pack and restoring all the fun activities. We all had the same goal of creating the best experience for our children. I then formed a committee for each activity, and one by one, asked individual parents to take on the respon- sibility of one committee. Pretty soon, we had one of the most active packs in the city; which in turn attracted more children, and of course, more parents. The interesting thing about leadership is, leaders emerge. When people see the benefits of leadership, they are more likely to volunteer. Finding my own re- placement was easy. When my sons graduated to Boy Scouts, the pack had grown to more than 60 boys. Today, the pack’s enrollment is around 200. When you are an authentic leader and demonstrate how much you care about the goals of the entire group, your followers will be motivated to do more and be more. Robert Robert is an author, humorist, and innovation consultant. He works with companies that want to be more com- petitive and with people who want to think like innovators. For more information on Robert, visit www.jumpstartyourmeeting.com or contact him via e-mail at admin@ worldwidedrillingresource.com