Exercising Authentic Leadership with Dr. John Bennett

Welcome to another episode of The Authentic Change Podcast, I am Mike Horne, your host and I am joined today by Dr. John Benett Director of Graduate Programs and Professor in Behavioral Science at McColl School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte. But these are only two of his roles, Dr. John Bennett has also been the President of Lawton- Associates for almost 25 years.

In today’s episode, Dr. Bennett shares his vast expertise on conducting authentic leadership, he dives deep into the meaning of integrity and trust, and the crucial importance of keeping in alignment with the mission and values of the organization.

• [2:05] Dr. John Bennett shares about his professional journey.
• [5:22] Dr. Bennett was at the Red Cross for over a decade, what kept him there so long?
• [8:35] The benefits of having a mentor and a mission.
• [9:18] How did authenticity shape Dr. John Bennett’s career path?
• [12:11] How authenticity differs from integrity?
• [13:08] Dr. Bennett shares his definition of integrity.
• [16:55] There are times when relationships are not built on trust.
• [17:58] Dr. Bennet talks about his work teaching leaders to build self-awareness and how that creates a cascading event impacting many others to be their authentic selves.
• [21:10] What to do when encountering people in an organization who are not invested in others’ success and development?
• [23:59] Dr. Bennett talks about organizational values.
• [26:40] People enjoy working with and for happy people.
• [29:58] An organization needs to connect and commit to their people taking in consideration the different individualities involved.
• [31:17] People are at the center of all organizational activity and all human enterprise.
• [32:48] Moving from possibility to probability.