For years, I framed leadership success as performance: projecting confidence, having the answers, and staying in control. It works until it doesn’t. Like many, I had been measuring leadership effectiveness by how convincingly someone showed up, how much they had polished their talking points, how diplomatic they appeared, and how professional they looked rather than by how deeply they understood themselves.
When I learned about authentic leadership as a Harvard Business School student, it challenged my fundamental beliefs about leadership.
What I’ve learned since is simple, but potentially uncomfortable: the most effective leaders aren’t the most polished. They’re the most self-aware.
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