Authenticate Your Leadership Quotient

I noticed them appearing around the same time my eyesight started to get worse. One minute, I’m surfing the internet highway, and the next, I am taking a test to click on all the pictures with a wheel to continue. I know this test is meant to determine whether I am real or a bot, but I tense up, squint at the screen, and contemplate to get my glasses as I scrutinize whether the tiny round object is a wheel or a trash can. One wrong move, and I have go through five additional steps giving my personal information and possibly having to change my password just to authenticate. In writing this blog, I found out that CAPTCHA actually stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart“

Invoking my childhood pretend voice from Transformers, I smile when I pass the test on the first try as I declare, “Authenticate!” What a great feeling to be affirmed as real!

In leadership, it’s essential to constantly reflect on leading with authenticity. A leadership quotient is an actual metric that can be used to measure a person’s ability to lead. Focusing on leading with authenticity is the foundation for success in that metric. While it’s important to study leadership and seek a mentoring relationship to grow in your leadership capacity, regardless of your experience level, it’s also important to have a concrete understanding of the critical components of authentic leadership. Here are 5 Critical Components to Authenticate Your Leadership Quotient:

1. Check for Genuine Emotional Connection: Just as bots are tested for their ability to interpret subtle human prompts, leaders should ask themselves whether they genuinely connect with their team emotionally. Regardless of role and vocation, our work is about human connection, not checking boxes on an agenda. Are you actively listening and responding with empathy or simply following a script to move from one issue to the next?
2. Test for Personal Values Alignment: Similar to verifying CAPTCHA responses, leaders should reflect on whether their actions and decisions are aligned with their core values. Waiting until a crisis to determine your core values is too late. Invest time to reflect on your core values up front, commit them to memory, and even share them with your team overtly as a form of accountability and clarity. Consistent alignment indicates authenticity in leadership.
3. Validate Purpose-Driven Actions: Just as a bot is identified by its inability to interpret nuances in behavior, leaders should assess whether their actions are driven by a deeper purpose or are just reactive. Reflect on whether your leadership decisions promote long-term growth and integrity. Leaders can make purpose-driven actions concrete by clearly defining their long-term goals and ensuring decisions align with that purpose rather than reacting to short-term pressures. Regularly reflecting on past decisions and involving the team in purpose-driven discussions helps maintain focus on growth and integrity.
4. Acknowledge Uncertainty and Ask for Input: Like a bot can’t fake understanding, authentic leaders acknowledge when they are uncertain or don’t have all the answers. A leader can demonstrate vulnerability by openly admitting when they don’t have all the answers or when a decision is particularly challenging. By asking the team for their insights and input, the leader fosters collaboration and shows that leadership isn’t about having all the solutions—it’s about guiding the team toward a shared purpose together. This transparency builds trust and reinforces a purpose-driven approach.

Leading with authenticity isn’t an automatic moment based on typing a series of keystrokes—you can’t fake it. It’s also a constant process. It takes true character to want to build lasting relationships, care about the work and mission, and own your mistakes, shortfalls, and the need to get help from others. As you continue to build your leadership quotient, set reminders, like your computer does, to ask you to authenticate.