Are you a Scrooge? Or maybe you are more of a Grinch? Do you aspire to be a Santa Claus leader, but don’t know how to start? Take this fun true/false assessment to see if your leadership style is more Mr. Potter than George Bailey.

1. You have a fun, non-work holiday event planned for your team.
2. You encourage diversity of thoughts and opinions and you make sure you are not surrounded with like-minded people.
3. You usually accept invitations to your coworkers’ life events (bridal shower, graduations, weddings)
4. You often deflect praise for a project and make sure people on your team get the credit and congratulations.
5. You know the names of your colleagues’ spouses, significant others and children.
6. You follow several friends at work on different social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc).
7. You know a few interests or hobbies of the people you work with.
8. There is no difference between the person you are at work and the person you at home.
9. You are comfortable sharing your failures with the people who work for you.
10. You admit when you are wrong.

If you answered with more than 7 TRUE responses, then congratulations – you are an authentic leader who clearly values his or her colleagues. If you answered with more than 5 TRUE responses, you are doing pretty well, but with a few changes you can really elevate your authenticity status. If you answered with only 2-3 TRUE responses, bah-humbug! You are well on your way to Grinch-hood. Time to brush up on your authentic leader practices.

In its simplest terms, authenticity is being true to yourself. But the practice of authentic leadership is so much more than that – it also about being true with others. Authenticity is the continuous process of building self-awareness, as well as being transparent with others. One important and often overlooked element of authenticity is vulnerability. Many leaders struggle with being open about what they don’t know. But when you acknowledge that you have knowledge gaps and ask for advice, you’ll be surprised at the trust you can develop.

Make authentic leadership a goal for 2018. If you think you need some help developing authenticity in your leadership team, Powers Resource Center can help. Check us out at https://www.powersresourcecenter.com/leadership-assessments/

Happy Holidays everyone!