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⏳ Read Time: 4 min

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📌 What’s inside:

• 🎭 The pressure every leader faces to imitate success

• 🧠 The research: Authentic leadership and performance outcomes

• 💡 3 ways to lead more like yourself — not your mentors, peers, or heroes

📖 The Work Beneath the Work

Every coach has done this.

You watch a press conference from a legendary coach, hear a line that lands, or notice how they carry themselves on the sideline — and part of you thinks, I need to be more like that.

As a coach, have you ever said any of these things?

• Talked about “The Process” (Nick Saban)

• Preached on a “Next Play Mentality” (Mike Krzyzewski)

• Emphasized the simplicity of “Do Your Job” (Bill Belichick)

Think about something as simple as “Trust The Process”. It’s great. It’s short, it’s sharp, and it’s true! When Saban says it, it works because it fits his wiring — calm, methodical, relentless in preparation. But when other leaders copy the line without the conviction or system behind it, it can sound hollow.

It’s a script, not a conviction.

That’s the trap.

Leadership language is easy to borrow. But borrowed language without authentic belief eventually becomes noise.
And in today’s environment — where every press conference, podcast, and post offers a blueprint for how to lead — it’s easy to start sounding like everyone else.

Before long, you’re not leading like yourself anymore. You’re performing someone else’s version of leadership.
Authenticity is what creates trust. And trust is what creates culture.

📊 Research Insight: Authenticity Outperforms Imitation

Decades of research confirm what experience already tells us: the most effective leaders lead from authenticity, not imitation.

In a study published in The Leadership Quarterly (2021), researchers found that authentic leadership — acting in alignment with one’s values, purpose, and personality — directly correlates with higher engagement, stronger trust, and sustained team performance.

Earlier work by Walumbwa et al. (2008) found that authentic leaders build more resilient teams because their people sense consistency — they know what to expect, and that predictability creates psychological safety.

Put simply:

🛠️ Putting It All Together:

💡 5 Ways to Lead Like Yourself

1.  Clarify what’s core.

   1. Write down the three values that define you when you’re at your best.

   2. Use them as a filter for decisions, conversations, and accountability.

   3. When you’re unsure what to do, return to who you are.

2. Catch the mimic.

   1. Notice when you start adopting someone else’s tone, phrasing, or leadership rhythm.

   2. Ask yourself: “What am I afraid won’t work if I do this my way?”

   3. Often, imitation comes from insecurity, not inspiration.

3. Lead from your wiring, not your wishes.

   1. Every leader has natural strengths — empathy, intensity, humor, precision.

   2. Instead of wishing you led like someone else, double down on what makes you effective when you’re fully yourself.

4. Seek reflection, not replication.

   1. Learn from great leaders, but don’t copy them. Reflect on why their approach works, and translate that into your own context.

   2. What principle can you apply in a way that fits your personality and team?

5. Connect before you conform.

   1. Every environment pressures you to fit in — especially competitive ones.

   2. But your influence is strongest when it’s rooted in authenticity.

   3. Your team doesn’t need a replica of someone else’s leadership. They need a real version of yours.

🏁 Conclusion: The Work that Impacts the Rest

The best leaders don’t look alike, sound alike, or act alike.
They’ve done the hard work to know who they are — and they lead from there.

Next Monday, November 3rd, we’ll share something that helps you do precisely that. PowerBook 2 - Know Your Voice, Coach From Identity is designed to help every leader do precisely what we describe above. To get it….

Pre-Order The Full Book: Lead Yourself First!

When you pre-order, you’ll get:
✅ Immediate access to the next two PowerBooks as soon as they’re released
🗒️ A downloadable implementation guide for PowerBook 1 - You Are The Culture
🎥 Access to our monthly leadership webinars inside the BETTER Community
📗 A physical copy of Lead Yourself First when the full section is complete

🛠️ Want to win more? Know Yourself First.

Just last week, nearly 400 leaders signed up for our 5-day leadership course based on your Voice!

It will be sent to your inbox starting the Monday after you take the assessment and run for that week.

The assessment takes 10-15 minutes. Take it below.

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