How great it would be if we had no fear?  How great it would be if we could be effective and inspiring leaders and people love us as their leaders?  Yes, this is possible by being authentic.  To lead others we must learn to lead ourselves first and to lead ourselves we need to be authentic.Authentic means being genuine, which means embodying our true selves into our life.  To be authentic we need to be open, honest, transparent and consistent.  It is all about being the person you know in your heart you always wanted to be.There was an in-depth study by Harvard Business Review of effective leaders ranging from 23 to 93 in age.  Every individual interviewed had a different opinion of what an ideal leader looks like, with each individual having a unique combination of characteristics, skills and styles that led to their own success.  The one common theme was that all the leaders were consciously or subconsciously taking in their real-world experiences continuously, and using those experiences to frame who they were at their core.  As a result, they found the “purpose of their leadership and learnt that being authentic made them more effective”.Authentic leaders demonstrate behaviours which enable you to trust in them all the time.  They take ownership of their mistakes.  They show the necessary courage to defend their people and processes.  They speak truth all the time.  They build teams and create friendly environment.  According to a research done in Turkey, Authentic Leadership (AL) has a positive relationship with employees’ creativity; employees’ creativity has a positive impact on innovativeness and AL has a positive relationship with innovativeness.AL has nothing to do with your designation and salary.  Instead, this form of leadership comes from your being and the person that you are.  It can be developed well before we reach managerial level or even before we enter into the professional world.So be an authentic leader.@AnkitIttanImage Credit: Google Search