The Leadership Fingerprint™
There’s a lot to who you can become by understanding who you are.
The fingerprint is a metaphor for the individual and the uniqueness of each person. Just as the lines in a pattern of swirls and whirls make unique physical fingerprints, the individual’s leadership fingerprint is formed by a series of factors: intelligence, the emotional and spiritual characters, DNA, social background, family heritage, economic opportunity. It is an evolving composite of our experiences, perspectives, strengths and shadows, our views of the world, our optimism or pessimism, our relationships, our work, and how they have shaped who we are as a person.
The well-defined Leadership Fingerprint is the measure of authenticity.
Everyone is unique in thought, character, and action. It is this uniqueness that constitutes the leader’s fingerprint. It is through this fingerprint that we touch others; it is the composite of everything that has been received and developed; it is the instrument of our actions. To be effective, the leader must understand his fingerprint - his strengths and shadows - and he must work to stretch beyond that which handicaps him. For example, if he is uncomfortable speaking before a crowd, he needs to realize his fears and move through them to be able to verbally influence others and articulate the vision and mission.
It is not enough to study other leaders and copy them; that
strikes a dissonant note in the minds of the followers. To be a trustworthy leader, you must lead out of the self, from your own identity and reality – the print of the authentic self.
The leader must discover a sense of independence and autonomy. She must recognize and examine the forming factors, and accepting them, choose to use and express that which she owns. Often, the fingerprint elements are discovered and realized in a time of crisis or tragedy.
Martin Luther King was a young pastor chosen by the older pastors to lead. He was bright, young and energetic, articulate, and did not carry the baggage of the older men. King put his fingerprint on paper in “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
The discovery of one’s Leadership Fingerprint today will determine who leads tomorrow.