Oct 09, 2025 Developing & Enhancing a Leadership Persona: Intro & Part 1
At Embassy Consulting Services, we’re proud to introduce The Bushey Perspective—a recurring series of leadership articles written by Keith Bushey, whose decades of service and “in-the-trenches” experience inform every paragraph. To honor Keith’s style, we publish his work as he writes it: candid, practical, and unvarnished.
Below you’ll find the opening of his first piece. We’ll release additional sections weekly and maintain a link to the complete article for those who prefer to read it in one sitting.
Introduction
This article deals primarily with behavior, habits, and mannerisms. Allegedly, some people are born leaders, but my observations and experiences are that leaders are made and not born with such qualities. Just as each of us is a bit different on the outside, we are also a bit different on the inside, and it is my belief that various people have different proclivities with respect to the potential to learn and acquire different skills. We have all seen people who seem to gravitate well to certain tasks and not so much for other disciplines. While I do believe that some people seem to have greater potential than others to achieve leadership skills, it is by no means absolute.
Generally, we are who we are because of our upbringing, environment, education, and experiences. In that vein, it is my hope that this article, based on my years of experience and accumulated scar tissue in the leadership arena, will be useful to those who follow me in those trenches. Hopefully, it will also contribute to all the other factors which play a role in who they are and what they ultimately become. The majority of these thoughts are mine alone, but I have received some great input from a few others whom I recognize and respect as great leaders. Finally, the readers should feel free to disagree or add and subtract various other factors as deemed appropriate.
The topics are provided in no particular order of importance, but in my opinion, all are essential to the issue of developing and maintaining a leadership persona. It is my hope that readers will retain this document in a conspicuous place, revisit it from time to time, make additions and deletions consistent with their perspectives, and find it helpful to the critical task of mentoring those who will follow them in the leadership trenches.
Practice Authentic Leadership
The top three essential ingredients of authentic leadership are personal integrity, a deep belief in the mission and values of the organization, and a genuine caring for the members of the organization. People are smart and employees are quick to recognize the difference between those who just say the right things and those who truly embrace the things that they say. Those who just “go through the motions” are painfully obvious, as is their lack of credibility.
Want to read the complete article? Click here. For more leadership insights from Keith Bushey check out The Bushey Perspective →