5 Authentic Leadership Moves That Earn Respect and Results

Can you be an authentic leader and still drive top performance? Host Bernie Borges explains five ways to lead with authenticity to achieve fulfilled leadership, and performance results.

Watch this episode of the Life Fulfilled Podcast on YouTube

🗝️ Here are 3 key takeaways on leading with authenticity:

1️⃣ Know and live your values: Document your core values and make decisions that reflect them. Consistency in values builds trust, inspires teams, and provides a foundation for both fulfillment and results.

2️⃣ Lead with head and heart: Go beyond the surface and build real connections. Recognize your team's humanity, invite genuine conversations, and be present for your people, not just in a performative leadership role.

3️⃣ Embrace openness and accountability: Share failures and lessons learned. Take ownership when things don’t go as planned and engage your team in honest discussions about how to improve, demonstrating that authenticity isn’t about perfection.

Main takeaway:
Authentic leadership is the gateway to both fulfilled teams and strong performance. Leading with presence, openness, and genuine care creates trust and inspires people to do their best work.

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Get in touch with Bernie to explore:
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Music attribution:
Old Bossa Twin Musicom
Suno

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Transcript

Bernie Borges [00:00:00]:
Can you be a truly authentic leader and still drive performance? Many leaders worry that being vulnerable or too human might weaken their authority or results. But what if the opposite is true? Authentic leadership is nothing new. I'm not the first to cover this topic by any means, but my take on authentic leadership connects it to something bigger, something deeper and more impactful, and that's fulfilled leadership. Fulfilled leadership is the practice of leading with head and heart where the leader experiences purpose and alignment and their people feel valued, trusted and inspired to give their best work. And in current times, authenticity and leadership are just not optional. It's expected of leaders when you lead teams of people in fast paced and often stressful work environments. Today I'm going to share five ways to lead authentically and show you how doing so not only builds trust, but unlocks real fulfillment for you as a leader and also drives performance in your team. And I'll also share a personal story that impacted my career as a leader and the people that I've led through head and heart Leadership and why this Matters if this is your first time here, I'm Bernie Borges.

Bernie Borges [00:01:40]:
I'm the founder of Fulfilled at Work Academy and the creator of the Fulfillment Centric Leadership Method that I teach leaders at organizations. And I call myself the Fulfillment Architect. I invite you to subscribe to my channel to catch more insights on the impact of fulfilled leadership. I want to begin by discussing why authenticity matters. Today more than ever, people are burned out. They're disengaged, they're disenchanted, they're lacking trust in their leaders. And when they leave, their motivation for leaving is usually to leave their leader more often than it is to leave the company. People crave real leadership, someone they can believe in.

Bernie Borges [00:02:29]:
And too often leaders don't know how to lead with authenticity. I mean, let's face it, it's not taught. And they think for some reason that their job is solely to drive KPIs and results, even at the expense of their people's wellness. Sometimes leaders prioritize performing a role over being themselves and consequently they don't experience fulfillment because they're always in performance mode. Fulfilled leadership equals alignment between how you lead and who you truly are as a person. In other words, it's head and heart leadership. Now I'll address the elephant in this conversation. Authentic leadership is not about oversharing and it's not about solving your people's problems.

Bernie Borges [00:03:25]:
It's about leading with head and heart to earn trust, loyalty and commitment from your people to give you their best work to achieve the results that you need to achieve. Let me tell you a personal story from my very first leadership role. Early in my career, someone on my team tragically was murdered in her home. I didn't know what to do except to lead with head and heart. Now I didn't overthink it. I simply focused on really getting to know my people, not just managing them with my head. Now this experience became a foundation for how I led people for the rest of my career. Whether in corporate roles or in my own business.

Bernie Borges [00:04:16]:
This approach was effective. I've led teams where loyalty, deep trust, innovation, collaboration, and best effort were the norm. And ultimately this has given me immense fulfillment as a leader. The tragedy that I told you about occurred several decades ago. Fast forward to today and it helped inspire me to develop the fulfillment centric leadership method that I teach to organizational leaders. So I want to offer you five ways to lead authentically. Number one Know your values and live them out loud. Document your values and publish them to your team.

Bernie Borges [00:05:01]:
Discuss them with your team. Be clear on your non negotiables that are anchored in your values. Make decisions that align with those values. For example, if one of your values is customer delight over short term profit, well, releasing a new product before it's fully ready is a decision that wouldn't align with this value. You experience fulfilled leadership when your decisions are aligned with your values. Number two Invite real conversations after the tragic loss of one of our team members, I took time to have deeper conversations with my people. Now, I didn't cross any lines. I simply went beyond surface level conversations.

Bernie Borges [00:05:51]:
When someone displayed a photo of a pet, I would ask their pet's name, which usually led to conversation about the pet. And I made a point to remember the pet's name for future conversations, which makes an authentic connection. The same is true of a photo of a spouse or a family member. Just asking their name can spark conversation that shows that you care about their humanity. It's that simple. Now in full disclosure, I consulted with HR to make sure that I didn't cross any boundaries. But it's common sense to avoid questions that can cause someone to feel uncomfortable. I always wanted the individual to feel safe in our conversations, and I was always willing to share a little bit about my pet and my family, and I realized that this may not be comfortable for some leaders.

Bernie Borges [00:06:45]:
The key is to show your humanity in conversation however you choose to do it in a way that's safe for your employee. Fulfilled leadership happens with deeper relationships and connections with the people on your team. Share failures and lessons learned Authenticity is not about perfection. If you think your team expects you to be perfect, think again. When something doesn't go as planned or targeted, talk about what didn't work and what you learned from it. In most cases, if your team failed at something, your responsibility is to take ownership of the failure. You own it as your failure. Tell your team that in the eyes of your boss, you as the leader are accountable for the failed outcome.

Bernie Borges [00:07:41]:
They will respect you for this approach. Engage your team in open and honest conversation about the failure and the lessons learned, and then whatever commitments you want to make as a result of this failure. Fulfilled leadership includes accountability, not passing blame to others. 4. Lead from presence, not performance. I alluded to this earlier. Drop the performative leader Persona. Be present, minimize or manage interruptions.

Bernie Borges [00:08:16]:
I remember a conversation that I had with a leader that I reported to in a corporate role. During our conversation, he was interrupted by his boss, which is okay, that happens. Where he failed was he didn't return to our conversation ever. It was never finished. This sent me the signal that he didn't care about me. He only cared about performing for his boss. And I understand that he needs to deliver for his boss. I get that.

Bernie Borges [00:08:47]:
But his disregard for me lost my respect for him. And to be blunt, he didn't get my best work after that incident. And when I left, I was leaving him, not the company. No matter how busy you are, always, always connect with your people as a human, not as a performative role. Fulfilled leadership isn't attainable if you're always in performance mode. Fulfilled leadership is attainable when your people say that you're the real deal. Number five Recognize the human before the role. Acknowledge the full person behind each job title.

Bernie Borges [00:09:34]:
When each person leaves for the day, they're on the same journey as you. They're managing their health just like you are. And maybe they're managing the health of a loved one too. Maybe like you are. Hopefully they're prioritizing a fitness routine like hopefully you are. They have career goals and aspirations just like you do. They have relationships that they're navigating just like you do, and they probably want to have impact on someone or something. I call that legacy, just like you do.

Bernie Borges [00:10:11]:
These are the five life pillars that we all navigate. Health, fitness, career, relationships, and legacy. No matter the title, for each person on your team, acknowledge each one as a person. As I said earlier, it's not your job to manage their personal lives. But if someone's going through something like a divorce, for example, recognize that it's a difficult time for them. Ask how you can support their work to ensure that the business goals are met. Under these circumstances, you don't need to dive into any of the details of their personal life. Just show support for getting the work done under the circumstances.

Bernie Borges [00:10:57]:
Simply show compassion and understanding, especially during life's tough moments. Fulfilled Leadership builds trust, collaboration and legacy as well as success at the beginning of this video, I asked if you can be an authentic leader and still drive performance. Hopefully you can see that the answer is clearly yes. In fact, it's how you achieve both performance and fulfillment. So my challenge to you is this. Where in your leadership are you being performative and what would it look like to lead more authentically starting today? I hope these insights have inspired you to embrace authenticity as the gateway to Fulfilled leadership. Fulfilled Leadership is a success strategy at work and overall in life because you're a leader in some capacity at work or outside of work. If you are not subscribed to the Fulfilled Leadership YouTube channel, please subscribe.

Bernie Borges [00:12:05]:
Tap the subscribe button now and if this topic resonates, visit fulfilledatworkacademy.com to learn more. See the show notes for ways to Contact me if you want to discuss your situation. I offer a no cost, no obligation strategy call I'm Bernie Borges, founder of Fulfilled at Work Academy and creator of the Fulfillment Centric Leadership Method which I teach to growth minded organizations and I want to be your fulfillment architect.