🔵 Use the Oscars to give a best leadership performance

Being authentic as a leader has its place, but often, just like Oscar-winning actors who get rewarded for being who they are not, we must don other personas to reach our full potential, writes executive coach Harrison Monarth. "True authenticity emerges when leaders subordinate ego to purpose. They intentionally craft their communication and behaviors to serve a collective mission," Monarth writes.

Put it into practice: Actors authentically embody their roles, becoming the character in a way that transcends themselves, Monarth writes. "Business leaders can do the same, harnessing authenticity and using it as a calibrated tool to inspire, reassure, and lead effectively."

Golf, like leadership, makes many "fiendish demands" of you and no matter how much you may love the game or your job as a leader, it often doesn't love you back, writes John Baldoni, an author and executive coach, who offers his thoughts in poetic form from his new book "Golf Lessons: Chips, Chunks and Cheers." "'Golf Lessons' is a collection of poetry that captures the spirit of the game and the sense of camaraderie it inspires," Baldoni writes.

Put it into practice: Baldoni also explores the humor found in both golf and leadership with a poem called "The Shank-o-patomus," as a reminder of "the struggle players endure when their shots do not go where they aim, a common occurrence." Wayward shots -- decisions that don't go as planned -- can be a sore point for leaders, too, who also need a sense of humor when things go sideways.

As a communication professional, you should focus on crafting a strategy for responding to federal policy changes with regular and clear updates on how policy changes will affect your industry, according to experts in the communications field surveyed by Ragan. "It's really important to try to cut out the noise of the politics and focus on the policy -- get down to what is being said in a way that is trying to move the needle forward," says Jennifer Butler, vice president of government relations and community relations at Zillow.

Put it into practice: When in doubt, err on the side of communicating more frequently during times of uncertainty, especially when it comes to employees. "I believe in communicating more, not less, with your employee base," Butler says.

CEOs must be the "chief energy officer," who is responsible for creating a culture of belonging that helps others bring out their "leader within," says Bonita T. Hampton Smith, the chief operating officer of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. "To foster belonging, we must choose to be other-centered and other-conscious. This means creating environments where individuals feel safe to share their stories and where their voices are not only heard but respected and valued," says Hampton Smith.

Astrophotographer Josh Dury captured a rare cosmic event on Feb. 28 as seven planets -- Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune -- aligned. Dury's photograph, taken at Mendip Hills, Somerset, U.K., captures 10 celestial bodies including the sun, earth and the moon. It will be the year 2040 before such a planetary parade takes place again.

I have a friend who everyone turns to when their lives go sideways. She is known for her rocksteady calm in the face of trouble. While everyone else is freaking out, she's level-headed. She can find clarity in the chaos and has helped me and many others in times of crisis.

One day, I asked her how she handled things with such courage.

"Courage?" she said with a laugh. "I'm always terrified."

I was shocked. She never showed any signs of being afraid in any situation she found herself in. Instead, as executive coach Harrison Monarth writes, she was giving an Oscar-level performance in leadership. She asked herself what the people around her needed in this moment and she was willing to step into that role, even if she was personally terrified to do so.

This is what authentic leadership looks like. You may not personally enjoy playing that role, but if you can emphasize certain traits, like level-headedness, and moderate others, like your personal terror, you'll be an effective leader.

As Monarth notes: "If you become the leader who people need you to be at a critical moment, that isn't artifice. It is sophisticated and thoughtful leadership -- the kind that deserves applause."

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