Be The Best Version Of Yourself: Being An Authentic Leader

By Chizoba Anyika

Accept your challenges and commit to your goal
If you want to earn the respect of your peers, managers, and your team, then let your work speak for itself. Push yourself up and imbibe the winning attitude. Do not relent even if the chances of winning are very slim. Commit to a cause and stick to it facing your challenges squarely. You will surely succeed but you need to step out of your comfort zone because growth and comfort do not co-exist.

Earn your team’s trust.
An authentic leader creates the right environment for people and ultimately businesses to thrive.
You should be more of a coach and less of a leader. Be genuine. Genuineness helps build relationships with colleagues, garners a higher level of trust, infuses greater productivity, and promotes a healthier work environment.
Today’s employees seek a people-centric manager that is involved not a boss who commands, controls and intrudes. Employees need a committed leader-coach who offers them full support, and an opportunity to reinvent themselves and be creative.
In giving your team the room to explore themselves, trust is magnified, growth is nurtured, and mindset is positively transformed.
In carrying them along, they are empowered and encouraged to ask the right questions because they trust you. At the end of the day, their support magnifies your capabilities and minimizes your flaws.

Seek balance for yourself and your team
A stable work-life balance is essential to job satisfaction so constantly encourage your team to take time out from work to spend quality time with their families and friends, exercise, and get involved in other social activities. Promoting actions that create peace in their personal lives rejuvenates them, and generates power in them. With a peaceful mind, they ultimately give their best to work.

Support causes that you believe in.
Get inspired. Be involved in a cause you believe in and get involved. Be intentional about promoting that cause. For instance, if you love Women’s Development, then get involved with groups whose objectives you believe in, supporting however you can. Find a way to support, motivate, and openly endorse others in your interest groups for their efforts. Carry other women along in career growth and offer your support if you belong to women’s groups.

Social Responsibility
Find a way to give back to the Society. Be impactful and seek ways to improve the quality of life of your Community. In giving back to society you will get a deep sense of fulfillment because you are blessed to be a channel of blessing for others.
The more you give, the more you receive.

Stay connected with who you are.
It is imperative to stay connected with what you are obsessed about, what defines YOU as a person, however unique it may be. Get a hobby and explore your interests. Travel, go for adventures and generally BE YOU.

• Mrs Anyika is the President, the Voice of Women (VoW) Foundation for Peace and Unity