Leadership with "the YOU" in Mind

Authentic leadership is not a destination, but rather a continual striving. The outcomes of authentic leadership should be seen in those you are leading. Can they be authentic? Can you be authentic? You see, it is cyclical in its very nature; the more YOU bring to work, the more YOU your employees can bring to work. Does this mean you can bring all baggage, bad habits, unhealthy routines, unproductive ideologies and more to work with you? NEWS FLASH: You already do! Whether it is unconscious, unintentional or unplanned; you will bring all of you to your leadership role. We can only hide behind fake personas for so long. That mask you are wearing needs to go! If you are not defining your purpose and looking at how aligned you are with your values; you just as well experience riding a bike with square tires. It won't work. This does not mean we need to bring all our nuances to work and word vomit them on all those around us. But, it does mean we need to be continually working on the baggage we have, the bad habits we developed, the unhealthy routines we embrace and the unproductive ideologies we need to let go of. How? We need to keep "the YOU" in mind. What is that? Well, look in the mirror. Reflect. Reflect with intentionality. Know what your values are. Know what your purpose is. Then zoom out. Can other people see what my purpose is and am I living out my values. You can start a small practice today of reflecting each day on how you can do better tomorrow. You can start a team practice of a stand up meeting at the end of each day were as a team you reflect. Then create a plan for the next day and put it into action. Now, if the reflections are the same every day, we need to dig deeper--- and YOU drive that process. Then remember it is better to be "goaling" rather than to write goals where you remain stagnant after you achieve them or even worse regress to a point where you need to keep writing the same goal. That "ing" means striving, creating, building, being, and if we could create a word, YOUING.