I’ve been told my book The Savage Leader includes too many sports stories. Given that, why not double down and write an entire article about sports?! In all seriousness, I believe there are leaders in all walks of life and sports offers so many great examples of leadership, both good and bad. Strip away the unrelenting obsession with highlight clips and you’ll see leadership in action. You don’t need a deep understanding of sports to see and learn lessons from both the coaches and players.

In the time since I published The Savage Leader, people have asked me to go deeper with each Savage Principle. “How can I be authentic as a sales person?”, “How can I became more values-centric as a leader?”, or “How do the principles apply to me as an individual contributor?” are questions that have emerged. In response, I have directed people to the Key Takeaways in the book and Challenge at the end of each chapter. But, I want to go further as The Savage Leader was intended to be both easy to read and easy to apply.

I am kicking off a series of posts to bring the principles of The Savage Leader to managers of teams. The Savage Manager starts here.

What is a Savage Leader? How do I become a Savage Leader? Those are among the many questions that I hear from people when they hear the name of my book - The Savage Leader: 13 Principles to Become a Better Leader from the Inside Out.

Savage Leaders have three attributes in common and are those leaders who are bold enough to look inside themselves for what matters most and anchor their lives and careers (and actions!) to those values. In addition, there are 13 Savage Principles that will help you on your path to becoming a great leader, a Savage Leader.

One of the foundational principles in The Savage Leader is about using communication to build meaningful, long-lasting bonds with your team. Savage Principle #3 is “Forge Unbreakable Bonds with Your Tribe” and highlights how active listening, curiosity, humility, and the use of powerful questions will improve your leadership communication while also building and deepening relationships with your team members.

Below is an excerpt from The Savage Leader that highlights the importance of active listening and provides practical tips to start being a better listener. A Savage Listener.

Be more authentic. It’s a charge and aspiration for each of us. Be more authentic with ourselves and our teams.

Salespeople and other customer-facing employees can also benefit by being more authentic with customers. But what does it mean to be authentic? Being authentic is first and foremost about staying true to our values and not wavering in the face of adversity or pressure to hit external metrics or goals. It also requires expressing vulnerability, standing behind your words, and connecting with people in a more meaningful way.

I believe that great leaders and salespeople are built from the inside out. The path to becoming more authentic starts with a commitment to being more authentic followed by introspection and hard work to practice greater authenticity in your work and life. To get started, consider the following three steps.

While I had long been aware of authenticity as a leadership principle, I don’t think I truly embraced it personally until I started writing my book, The Savage Leader. For much of my professional career, I had focused on showing the world the “Smart Darren”, which meant the “Accenture Darren” and “Berkeley Haas MBA Darren.” Not the “real Darren”, whatever that meant.