What JCI has taught me about Authentic Leadership?
What JCI has taught me about Authentic Leadership?
Posted By admin |29 Apr 2017

JCI (Junior Chamber International) is a membership organisation for young professionals and young entrepreneurs that empowers it's members to learn new skills, grow their networks, give back to the community and experience leadership. Through 150,000 members worldwide, 5,000 local chambers in 120 countries, an army of volunteer self-development enthusiasts is bound to provide profound insights across all areas of personal and professional improvement; especially when it comes to leadership.
In this article I wanted to explore some of the things I have learnt, given the following context:
- Everything done in JCI is voluntary and non-remunerated
- All members have full-time jobs or businesses and must juggle involvement of JCI outside of personal and professional commitments
- With a President, Deputy President, management team and group of committed and engaged members - running a chamber is similar to running a small organisation (more on this later)
- Honesty - always say what you mean and mean what you say.
- Integrity - treat all in the same manner you would want (not expect!) to be treated yourself
- Humility - always take less of your share of the praise and more of your share of the blame should be re-written. Take none of the praise and all of the blame.
- Trust - trust your team completely and they will trust you. If they don't, it's your fault because, and this will come as no surprise to anyone, there's a reason they don't trust you. If this is the case, work towards building it back up. It's all you can do.
If you have got this far; first, thank you for taking the time to read this. Secondly, I have a bonus point which I’m referring to as the ‘Authentic Leadership Curse’ which I will happily share with. Connect with me on LinkedIn and I’ll share my private post on this bonus, a perhaps most important point.