Where Do you Place Your Authority?

As human beings we are all born ‘externally referenced’.  What that means is that we look outside of ourselves for the authority to let us know what things are, how to respond to the world, what to believe, etc.

This makes perfect sense because when we’re born we don’t really have any content information letting us know how to respond to the world.  We have to get acculturated by authority figures external to ourselves just to survive.

As we grow along the human developmental journey, at some point, we start to take that authority inside of ourselves so we can think for ourselves and we can ‘author’ our own lives.

This process of taking that authority/authorship from external to internal is an important part of the journey of becoming a leader and of leadership in general.

This Applies in All Areas of Leadership

This applies in all areas of leadership including managerial roles, executive roles, political leadership, thought leadership, leadership as a coach or as a parent, etc. 

This process of gradually taking authority from external to inside of yourself is an important part of human development of maturation and becoming more more of the author of your life.

‘Parenting’ is one of the most foundational areas of leadership.  As children we are being parented by the ‘leaders’ around us but at some point those authority figures are not going to be around anymore.   As we develop hopefully we take the authority inside of ourselves so that we can be an external authority to our children and future generations.

Making This Experiential

If you were to rate your authority, where do you place your authority? Is it outside primarily or is it inside primarily?

Do you look outside for “what should do”?

Or do you from the inside-out determine what you should be doing and believing?

The Best Leaders Do Not Have a Purely Internal Authority

To become more granulated on this subject, the best leaders do not rely on a purely internal authority. They don’t just take authority 100% and command and control what things are.

The best leaders do have a strong internal authority, but they remain open with external checks. This means they look outside to other people for feedback. In fact they actively seek out feedback – especially feedback contradicts their current perspectives.

This includes seeking feedback from the people who they are leading so they can improve their leadership.

This also includes seeking feedback from other leaders whom they agree with (and more importantly those they disagree with) with the desire to learn, grow, and even seeking to disprove their current thinking at times.

Continuing to Make This Experiential

Have you ever been wrong about something in your past? Perhaps you’ve even discovered you were wrong about something you were 100% confident in.  I know I have, many times over. The best leaders are open to feedback and are open to the possibility of being wrong in service of learning and growing.

Here are some more questions to assess yourself and your leadership:

If my authority has been mainly outside, what could I do to take that authority inside so that I can start to become more clear and more of the author of the direction of which I’m leading?

In my roles as a leader (as a manager, parent, community leader, politician, coach, etc.) how often am I in communication with my audience/followers to gather information about what their needs are so that I can best lead them?

How often am I in communication with other leaders/individuals who hold beliefs/perspectives counter to my own?

How open am I to disprove my present ideas in order to learn and grow?

How open am I to the possibility that I may be wrong?

Gloriously Fallibility

One of the primary frames of mind that supports effective leaders in remaining open to feedback is the understanding that we are not perfect as human beings.   We are fallible and we make mistakes. 

I myself have been 100% confident in things that have later been disproven. There are many times I have been incredibly surprised to realize I had been wrong. 

Embracing your fallibility as a human being is an important part of self-leadership.  It opens you up to that external feedback to grow and to become a better leader to whomever you are leading… starting with yourself.

In Closing

I hope you found this article valuable and that you have followed the prompts to honestly assess yourself.

• Where is my authority presently? 
• Is it mostly outside or is it more internal? 
• If it is mostly internal do I have ‘external checks’ to open feedback loops where I can gather information on a regular basis from my followers, other leaders in that domain, and the people whom I disagree with?

What are you taking away from this article? Do you have anything else you’d like to contribute? Leave your questions and comments here. 

Your insights and inputs are encouraged and I wish you a wonderful journey taking your authority inside and remaining open to feedback so that you can learn and grow as a human being and as a leader.