It strikes me that leaders, including me, are at their most authentic when their assignment is aligned directly to their purpose, passion and calling.

Authentic leaders remain true to their values even in the face of failure because they understand the greatest failure of all is the failure to stay true to their values.

My thesis is that authentic leaders are emotionally intelligent and emotionally heathy, in other words, they have healthy hearts.

It occurs to me that authentic leaders not only embrace their life story, they tell it and in the process invite those they lead to participate in that narrative.

Within this series on authentic leadership I thought it would be useful to provide an outline of the book True North by Bill George and Peter Sims.

Authenticity is one of the most powerful attributes of leadership; it is difficult for me to lead others whilst struggling with who I am.