Authentic Leaders take great pride in the results their leadership creates. There is nothing wrong in that because Authentic Leaders also put great PRIDE into their leadership efforts. 

P – Authentic Leaders know that leadership is Personal. It’s about people and they respect their people in a way that demonstrates they care about them. An Authentic Leader knows that their own success is dependent upon the success of their people. They work to help their people accomplish extraordinary things. They don’t see working with their people as an expense, they see developing their people as an investment.

R – Authentic Leaders accept Responsibility for all of their actions and decisions. They do not play the blame game. The results produced by the people they lead are their responsibility. They willingly pass along the recognition that comes with success. They accept more than their fair share of the responsibility for anything that goes wrong. Their people’s individual success means more to them than their own.

I – Authentic Leaders work from the Inside out. Their leadership is powered by their heart and guided by their intelligence and experience. Heart based leadership makes it easy to show that they care because when the heart is involved with leading then caring comes naturally.

D – Authentic Leaders know that leading must happen Daily. There are no “off days” or days when the leader can just let their people fend for themselves. For an Authentic Leader everyday is a leadership day. Everyday is a day to demonstrate integrity and interest in the people they lead. Everyday Authentic Leaders invest the time to truly know the people they lead. They invest the time to understand the goals and priorities of their people and what they can do to help them achieve those goals. 

E – Authentic Leaders know that one of the things they have complete control over is the amount of Effort they put forth to develop their people and help them achieve success. They willingly sacrifice some of their own freedoms and success for the benefit of the people they lead. Authentic Leaders have the ability to motive themselves so the example they set is one that people will want to follow. That example leads people to be committed, to their colleagues, to the organization and to the leader. 

Authentic Leaders don’t work to earn a position that people will have to follow. They put PRIDE into their leadership so people will want to follow. 

Do you put PRIDE into your Leadership?