247: Hortense le Gentil on Authentic Leadership

Hortense le Gentil is an executive coach, author, and leadership expert who has worked extensively with C-suite leaders on authentic leadership and personal transformation. She's the author of the book, The Unlocked Leader which has been read and recommended by Ralph Lauren, Arianna Huffington, and Marshall Goldsmith among others. Hortense argues that too many leaders remain trapped in the outdated myth that they must be superhero leaders - infallible, unflappable, and fearless, even though the human leaders who embrace empathy, vulnerability, and authenticity are proven most effective.

In the episode we discuss the following:

• Hortense had been ignoring her inner voice and had become physically ill for not making the decisions she knew she needed to make. But thanks to a dream of her wise grandmother, Hortense decided to find her “path of roses” and make choices she knew she needed to make.
• As CEO of her company, in a room full of engineers, she gained the trust of the engineers, not by pretending to be one but by honestly admitting what she didn’t know.
• As Hortense said, the world doesn’t need a repetition of someone else. The world needs us to be courageous enough to be ourself.