In my thesis, I focused on the function of organizational leadership and the personal leadership development techniques claimed by leaders. Working with a variety of leaders, I gained insights into how leaders function. After sifting through the collected data, reading my notes on their thinking processes, reviewing methods of influence, analyzing their personalities, ascertaining their motivations, reflecting on how they build and maintain relationships, learning about their experiences with successes and failures, and studying their opinions around change and personal growth my curiosity piqued regarding leadership. I was motivated to study further and made more effort to learn and understand how leaders function. The concept of centered leadership premised on authenticity emerged from this project.
I was fascinated with the fact that most of the leaders I studied could have been better leaders, and I was shocked to learn that most were not good leaders. Their organizational performance could have been better at best, and they struggled to get their people to perform as expected. Only one leader led his organization through steady growth over a 10 to 15-year period and then sold the company for hundreds of millions of dollars. The critical thing I learned from my study was that a leader holds a position, leadership is influence, and the difference is significant.