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Authentic leadership

The idea of authentic leadership dates back to the ancient Greek era when the famous aphorism
"Know Thyself' appeared. This concept became famous in our contemporary times, and many
business and academic scholars tackled the subject and tried to explicate it.

A. In his two books “Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting
value (2003), and True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (2007), Bill George,
a Harvard professor and CEO of Medtronic described authentic leadership as" a style that
is consistent with a leader's personality and core values, and that is honest, ethical, and
practical" (2003, 2007).
George also defined authentic leaders as “People of the highest integrity, committed to building
organizations…who have a deep sense of purpose and are true to their core values who have the
courage to build their companies to meet the needs of all their stakeholders, and who recognize
the importance of their service to society.” (2003, 2007).
George argued that authentic leadership requires constant development and growth. Also,
identified three stages for the leadership "journey."
 Phase 1: the Leaders prepare themselves for the leadership.
 Phase 2: The Leaders start leading by taking on new challenges until they reach the
'peak' of leadership.
 Phase 3: The Leaders start seeking opportunities to spread their leadership wisdom to
others and give back to the community

Strengths:
 Ability to maintain trust and cohesion among the team. Leaders empower their
followers and guide them through the tasks in an empathetic and honest manner.
 Ability to build positive and rewarding relationships. The leader-followers
open relationship, which does not mean everything is always happiness and
agreement, creates an authentic environment, where people know their place in
the organization and the direction the team is working towards. Leaders listen to
people’s ideas and thoughts and focus on their development.
 Consistency. The leader’s inner values, combined with the operational objectives
of the organization, are at the heart of the way the team operates, which means
that followers know what to expect in both good and bad times. Northouse wrote
in his book Leadership: Theory and practice (2007), "Authentic leaders do not
compromise their values, but rather use those situations to strengthen their
values."
 Guarantee the ethical and moral standards are high. Since this style
emphasizes the use of integrity as the direction for leadership, the organization
can have a stronger ethical foundation. "Authentic leaders do not seek self-gain,
but want the organization to succeed and prosper, along with the subordinates."
(George 2007)

Weaknesses
 Ambiguity around specific contexts, such as authentic leadership's moral
compass. Northouse pointed out, “Whereas authentic leadership implies that
leaders are motivated by higher-order end values such as justice and community,
the way that these values function to influence authentic leadership is not clear”
(2007).
 It can cause contradicting objectives within an organization. The leader’s
values might not always align with the organization’s direction and interests.
 Might hinder an organization’s ability to make quick decisions. The speed at
which decisions are taken can be jeopardized as the leader seeks to gather
feedback and listen to other opinions before using his or her judgment.
 Leadership style can take years to develop. According to George's three-step
pathway to authentic leadership shows, leaders will need time to gain experience
and self-develop their style and understanding of their values before they can start
considering themselves as authentic leaders.

B. Luthans and Avolio (2003) defined authentic leadership as "a process that draws from
both positive psychological capacities and a highly developed organizational context,
which results in both greater self-awareness and self-regulated positive behaviours on the
part of leaders and associates, fostering positive self-development" (p. 243)
Avalio et al argue that “Authentic leadership is positively related to engagement as
authentic leaders strengthen the feelings of self-efficacy, competence and confidence of
their followers, as well as the identification with the leader and the organization, which
results in higher levels of engagement “(Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Gardner, Avolio,
Luthans, May, & Walumbwa, 2005).
According to their theory, four characteristic dimensions describe the behaviour of the
leaders and allow them to be recognized as authentic:

1. Self-awareness: the knowledge that leaders have about their strengths and weaknesses.
2. Relational transparency: being faithful to one's values and expressing this to others; this
involves the open sharing of information about one's thoughts and feelings
3. Balanced processing: the leader’s capability to set and show goals and objectively
examine the evaluation of relevant information before making a decision.
4. Internalized moral perspective: self-regulation behaviour according to personal values
and principles when facing group, organization, or social pressures, which is expressed in
ethical decision making and ethical behaviour;

Strengths: Walumbwa et al. (2008) showed that authentic leadership is significantly


predictive of employee outcomes, including satisfaction, commitment, and performance.
However,

Weaknesses: there is currently little evidence published to demonstrate the relationship


between authentic leadership and objective measures of job performance or organizational
functioning.
Examples of authentic leaders:

• Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of the Civil Rights Movement


• Sam Palmisano, former CEO of IBM
• Jack Welch, former CEO of GE
• Anne Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox
• Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple
• Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady

References and Links:


https://youtu.be/r6FdIVZJfzg
Avolio, B.J., Walumbwa, F.O. & Weber, T. (2009). Leadership: Current theories, research, and
future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 421-449.
Avolio, B. J., Reichard, R.J., Hannah, S.T., Walumba, F.O., & Chan, A. (2009). A meta-analytic
review of leadership impact research: Experimental and quasi-experimental studies, The
Leadership Quarterly, 20(5), 764-784.
George, B. (2003). Authentic leadership: Rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting value. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
George, B., Sims, P., McLean, A. N., & Mayer, D. (2007). Discovering your authentic
leadership. Harvard Business Review, 85(2), 129.
Luthans, F. & Avolio, B.J. (2003). Authentic leadership: a positive developmental approach. In
K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton, R. E. Quinn (Eds.) Positive organizational scholarship:
Foundations of a new discipline (pp. 241-58). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Northouse, G.P (2019). Leadership theory and practice, Los Angeles, Sage
Walumbwa, F.O., Avolio, B.J., Gardner, W.L., Wernsing, T.S. & Peterson, S.J. (2008).
Authentic leadership: development and validation of a theory-based measure. Journal of
Management, 34, 89-126.

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