If you ever think that a term like Leadership has been completely defined or is not in need of continuous improvement… you would be wrong! A great explanation of this issue is included in a summary of a TED Talk offered by Shelley Prevost a few years ago entitled: “Lead Like A Girl”.

“As leaders, we can find ourselves feeling like we have to cut off the other parts of ourselves in order to focus solely on the part that makes us a leader. So we don’t talk about our children or our partners, we forget how we act around them, and we assume that this is a different part of our personality. However, Prevost believes that it’s these seeming paradoxes that make us great leaders-we don’t just have to be a leader; we can be a nurturing leader. Or a funny leader. Or a thoughtful leader. We can create our own definitions.”

It has taken me quite some time to get past an early-career leadership practice when I standardly felt the need to “put on my Director’s face” in order to correctly deal with a challenging issue. For much of my career I believed that I had to totally change my “regular” leadership personality/style to effectively address ever-changing situations. However if you follow Shelley Prevost’s great leader beliefs…being ultra-direct, nurturing, thoughtful, funny and many other traits are all human elements that contribute to make us “Leadership-Whole”.  And doesn’t that just follow being authentic?

Bottomline:  Today, think about checking YOUR own definition of leadership.  Does it match up with who you are and what you stand for?  Or are you trying to fit into someone else’s definition of leadership and thereby losing your sense of authenticity, trust and believability?