Authentic Leadership and Spirituality Leading with Integrity and Vulnerability

Authentic Leadership and Spirituality: Leading with Integrity and Vulnerability

In 2016, I attended a senior executive leadership course that marked a turning point in my life and career. During a session where we mapped our life stories using a lifeline metaphor, I shared my journey with its peaks and valleys. The facilitator listened intently and asked a question that changed everything: “Have you considered that you might have a calling as a healer?”
That question and events that followed, sparked a profound realization for me—leadership is spiritual. This truth has stayed with me, shaping my journey as both a leader and a healer.

Authentic leadership is about more than achieving organizational goals; it’s about leading with self-awareness, integrity, and vulnerability.
As Brené Brown reminds us in her work on vulnerability, leadership requires the courage to step into the “arena”—to take risks, be seen, and embrace discomfort.

Brown’s insights were inspired by Theodore Roosevelt’s famous words:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

To lead authentically is to embrace this mindset—to dare greatly, knowing that true leadership comes with risks and requires resilience. For me, spiritual principles provide the foundation to step into the arena. They ground me in my purpose, help me navigate challenges with clarity, and ensure that I lead from a place of alignment and service.

How do you embrace vulnerability and spirituality in your leadership? Let’s start a conversation—I’d love to hear your perspective.