3 Ways To Be An Authentic Leader From FINCA Impact Finance CEO Andree Simon

Just like each employee and company is different, each leader is unique. Employees don’t want to work for a leader who is a carbon copy of every other leader—they want someone who is uniquely themselves and true to their beliefs. To be successful, leaders must be authentic.

The key to authenticity for future leaders comes down to one idea: be true to yourself.

When I interviewed Andree Simon, CEO of FINCA Impact Finance, for my book, The Future Leader, she told me a story that still sticks with me:

“For a long time, I thought that leaders had to look and behave a certain way and that they had to behave with absolute authority and never show weakness. I had the opportunity to work with this amazing coach. She made this comment to me at one point: ‘You know, it’s kind of like you’re wearing a gorilla suit a lot of the time. You’re zipped up inside this hot, sweaty suit. But you’re really not acting like yourself.’ It was a really liberating thing to hear. I took that gorilla suit off and I became true to myself in terms of what I believe in as a person and how I communicate with people, and I allowed myself to be really confident.”

By many accounts, Andree isn’t your typical leader, and her role as president and CEO of FINCA Impact Finance also isn’t typical. Instead of staying in her office like many CEOs, Andree spends half the year visiting employees and customers in remote locations around the world, including Tanzania, Pakistan, and Haiti. She doesn’t try to fit into a mold—she is just herself. To be successful in the future, Andree believes all leaders need to remove their gorilla suit and be true to their authentic selves.

Here are three ways from Andree to be yourself as a leader:

1. Take Care Of Yourself

Being a leader can be stressful. With so many outside forces, many leaders fall into the trap of focusing on what other people expect them to do instead of who they really are.

Andree regularly takes time for self-care, which allows her to stay in tune with her own beliefs and strengths. She gets up every morning to exercise, no matter where she is in the world, and spends time meditating and doing yoga before she begins her day. She believes the workplace should encourage physical and emotional health.

Taking time for herself gives Andree the energy on long days, which are becoming more common in our hyper-connected world. Leaders can’t constantly be giving without replenishing themselves and staying true to their own beliefs and values.

Taking time for yourself as a leader reminds you that you are a priority. It helps leaders stay in tune with their own emotions and be true to themselves.

2. Be A Learning Leader

Authentic leaders are always learning and improving to become the best versions of themselves. Andree calls it being a “learning leader.”

“Every business has been so impacted by changes in technology,” she said. “You can’t lead an organization through all the changes that are going to be necessary unless you are willing to change yourself. You have to have a learning mindset. You have to balance the confidence that you need to have as a leader of a global organization with the necessary humility to admit that you don’t know what you need to know.”

Andree believes people who don’t want to learn won’t be successful at the helm of changing businesses. Becoming a learning leader means continually expanding your knowledge base and staying up to date about what is happening within your organization and the competition. Learning leaders are true to themselves as they realize areas they need to improve, grow, and learn.

3. Don’t Have All The Answers

No one knows everything. Some leaders fake it and pretend they have all the answers, but authentic leaders realize when they need help and know-how to ask questions.

Andree aims to build a team of experts around her who will help her make the best decisions for the organization. She says one of the biggest changes she made when she stopped wearing the gorilla suit and came into her own as a leader was bringing questions to people and listening to their answers. Instead of trying to fake it like she knew everything, she now feels more powerful when she turns questions to the group to elicit feedback and work through issues together.

Andree told me this: “I think that being able to ask questions and collaborate with confidence has actually made it possible for people to see that I’m telling them the absolute truth when I tell them what I know, and it’s given me the opportunity to build trust with people that I couldn’t have ever built if I had kept wearing that gorilla suit.”

Every leader is unique and different, which is the beauty of our world. Leaders who are true to themselves and don’t feel like they need to fit a certain mold will build strong relationships and see success. Future leaders must be authentic to build trust and encourage others to follow their visions.

Andree sums it up this way: “Be the best leader that you are and don’t try and follow a model that somebody else tells you you should be.”

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