Leadership Skills

Leaders are those individualswho have a vision that can inspire others to work with them

to achieve it. Leaders may be

described as confident, charis-

matic, and passionate, but the real-

ity is that they come in all shapes

and sizes, and, like so many things

in life, there isn’t just one right way

to be a leader. And there’s certainly

no shortage of advice on how to be

a leader. Countless essays and

books have been written on the

subject. To the average person, it

can be a little overwhelming and

confusing.

Yet one trait stands out above

all others: Leaders should strive to

be authentic.

What does “authentic” mean?

According to Merriam-Webster.com,

one definition of authentic is “not

false or imitation; real or actual,” and

that’s what it means in terms of

leadership. Authentic leaders lead as

who they truly are without imitating

others or pretending to be some-

thing they aren’t. This doesn’t mean

that they don’t learn and develop

over time or change their leadership

style based on their experiences. It

means that they stay true to their

real self and lead from that

perspective.

Why is authenticity important

for leaders? It removes any pre-

tense about who they are and how

they should act—freeing them to

leverage their own strengths. It

also builds trust across the organi-

zation because the team is getting

the real person rather than a

leader pretending to be someone

else. No organization can succeed

in the long term without trust.

Also, authenticity burnishes a

leader’s reputation. A highly

respected leader attracts high-

caliber talent that helps the orga-

nization find further success. This

self-reinforcing cycle can help

teams reach new heights.

Leverage Your Strengths Everyone has strengths and weak-

nesses or areas for improvement.

As a leader, it’s important to

remember that no one on your

team expects you to be perfect, but

they aren’t as forgiving if you

aren’t honest with yourself about

your limitations. In most cases, if

you’ve been selected as a leader,

you probably have significant

strengths that outweigh any weak-

nesses you may have, so it’s impor-

tant to leverage these strengths and

build on them while you work on

your areas for improvement. If

you’re upfront about the areas

you’re working on, your team will

support you and even cheer you

on as you develop new strengths.

When I became a manager, it

wasn’t the first time I had led a

group, but it was the first time that

I was the official leader of a sizable

team. Everyone on my team knew

this, and I readily admitted that I

was finding my way. At first, I was

apprehensive because my predeces-

sor was a well-liked and successful

manager with many years of expe-

rience. Our team was considered a

high-performing team, and I didn’t

want to mess things up. Though I

had attended some management

and leadership courses, I was still

unsure about how I wanted to

lead. I was fearful that the team

wouldn’t accept me as their leader

and that I would fail as a result,

but I was confident in my abilities

and resolved to focus on the things

that I knew I could do well.

By focusing on my strengths

and leveraging them as much as

possible, I was able to excel in

these areas while I learned in other

areas. For example, planning and

organizing have always been one

of my strongest skill sets. As a

The Importance of Being AuthenticHow many times have youworked with or for a person you

thought was being straightfor-

ward and honest, only to find out

later that he or she was fooling

you and others to achieve some

goal? Good leaders don’t do this.

1 4 S T R AT E G I C F I N A N C E I A u g u s t 2 0 1 2

frontline manager, my job was

more focused on accomplishing

the goals set by the senior leader-

ship team, so I leveraged these

skills to help my team accomplish

the goals successfully. In the

meantime, I developed and honed

my influencing skills by working

with my mentor and my current

manager to improve in this area.

Had I approached the role as a

know-it-all new manager, I would

have been dogged by the image I

had to uphold rather than leverag-

ing my strengths to buy time to

work on my areas for improvement.

My team supported me because

they got the real me, not some

impostor, and in the end my first

manager role was a success that led

me to increased responsibilities and

bigger roles in the future.

Build Trust At this year’s IMA Annual Confer-

ence & Exposition, Stephen M.R.

Covey closed out the event with a

session called “The Speed of

Trust” that was based on his book

by the same name. In his speech,

Covey talked about how high-trust

organizations tend to be collabo-

rative, innovative, creative, and

effective, while low-trust organiza-

tions tend to be the opposite. In

high-trust organizations, things

get done faster and at a lower cost.

Covey builds a strong case for

trust in organizations, but his

advice won’t change a thing if

you’re practicing his principles

only for the sake of following the

latest things you’ve learned about

leadership. To be truly effective,

you can’t simply imitate his

ideas—you have to sincerely

believe in them and live them in

an authentic way. Otherwise, those

you lead will surely see right

through your efforts.

One of the best examples I have

of an authentic leader occurred

several years ago when a new

leader took over a group I was in.

The previous group leader was

successful and had built the group

around her leadership style, which

was very different from the new

manager’s style. There was notice-

able apprehension among team

members as the new leader took

over. But the new manager essen-

tially laid everything on the line in

an all-hands meeting focused on

helping the team get to know him.

He talked about his values and

ideas and answered questions

about himself as a leader. He put

himself up for close scrutiny by

the team and won a lot of respect

and trust in the process.

Not only did he explicitly state

his values and leadership approach

in a single meeting, but he pro-

ceeded to live by them in his suc-

cessive interactions with the team.

Actions do speak louder than

words, and as our relationship

with the new leader developed, we

realized that his actions were con-

sistent with his words from that

first all-hands meeting. His level

of candor and transparency built

even more trust with the group.

He started with the right idea and

didn’t try to hide who he was or

how he wanted to lead. He was

authentic, and the trust he earned

as a result helped our group evolve

into that high-trust organization

that Covey described in his talk.

Burnish a Reputation Every leader has a reputation. It

may be ill-formed from little

information, or it may be support-

ed by a long history of leadership.

Regardless of how this reputation

is derived, it sticks with you wher-

ever you go in an organization,

and, in some cases, it may follow

you to different companies. It may

change over time as you gain more

experience or take on different

assignments, but it’s always there.

Again, one of the surest ways to

build a solid reputation is to be

authentic in your approach to

By David J. Elrod, CMA, CPA

LEADERSHIP

A u g u s t 2 0 1 2 I S T R AT E G I C F I N A N C E 1 5

1 6 S T R AT E G I C F I N A N C E I A u g u s t 2 0 1 2

leadership. Stick to your core prin-

ciples. Doing so earns you a lot of

respect and makes people want to

work for you. The more people

who want to work for you, the

more likely you’ll attract high-

caliber team members who can

help you reach even greater

heights. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle

where success breeds success.

In one of my previous compa-

nies, my team in Finance supported

a large internal organization that

generated most of the revenue for

our company. The leader of that

organization was a young, charis-

matic guy who had spent his entire

career with the company, rising

steadily through the ranks to be-

come a senior vice president. De-

spite his relative youth, he was a

very popular leader who attracted a

lot of the top talent in the company,

and those who worked for him

were extremely loyal to him, includ-

ing those on the Finance team who

supported his organization.

My first impression of him was

that he seemed like an average guy

at the company. He had a huge role

there, yet he was down-to-earth and

straightforward. There was no blus-

ter or sheen that came with his title.

Instead, what you saw was what you

got, and this permeated his leader-

ship style. His authentic approach to

his role won him many fans and

made him successful, and that

approach helped him attract the top

people to perpetuate his success.

Stay Authentic Authentic leaders focus on their

strengths and work on their weak-

nesses with their team’s support.

Because they’re authentic they can

quickly build trust within their

team, and this trust lays the foun-

dation for success. An authentic

leader builds a strong reputation

that attracts high-performing peo-

ple who help perpetuate that suc-

cess. Though they may develop

their leadership style and change it

over time, they never lose them-

selves in the process. So, remem-

ber, despite all the leadership

advice out there, above all, be

authentic. It can be the difference

between success and failure. SF

David J. Elrod, CMA, CPA, is a

finance director at Microsoft and

dean of the IMA® Leadership

Academy. You can reach him at

[email protected].

LEADERSHIP

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