The four components of authentic leadership are self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, balanced processing, and relational transparency. Just reading those words, what do they mean? How do they tie into authentic leadership? I thought for sure I knew but I quickly realized there was much more to it. There have been leaders in my career which I feel have authentic leadership for a few reasons which meet some of the criteria for authentic leadership but after reading Northouse’s chapter on authentic leadership I had to go back and really think if what I thought was authentic leadership was.
Knowing who you are, your strengths and weaknesses, and how you impact others is a large task to conquer seems like a very important task in general let alone leadership. Most people do not know right away what their strengths and weaknesses are and it takes some time to think about what they are. Even when you think you have it figured out you may second guess yourself or ask someone else what they think your strengths and weaknesses are just to confirm what you have come up with. Everyone thinks they know themselves and understand themselves but not all do and it is very hard to lead individuals if you do not know.
Without reading policies at your company or doing any research we all know right from wrong. We know what is morally acceptable for the most part and what we should not do. “Internalized moral perspective refers to a self-regulatory process whereby individuals use their internal moral standards and values to guide their behavior rather than allow outside pressures to control them (Northouse, p. 264)”. Doing the right thing whether or not the group thinks it is a good idea is very important for you and for the business. Adding in the policies and procedures a company implies on a leader and following though will come hand in hand if you can do this for yourself in your daily life.
Balanced processing is personally hard for me to do. I am getting better at it in my older years but in my 20s I could not for the life of me wait for someone else to give their opinion and then make my decision. Long before anyone spoke I knew what I thought and that was how it was going to be. With age came the ability to do this, little by little. Understanding someone else’s point of view even if you do not agree and considering their position is important when using balanced processing. This is a key trait that is extremely important in a authentic leader.
Lastly there is relational transparency, which seems to be the biggest problem in the company I work for. Communication is key for everyone when working with groups of people and being able to listen and be honest with your co-workers, subordinates, peers, etc. is important. This seems to be the single largest crutch I have seen in all of my jobs up to this point. It appears that most people do not want to be open and honest, that is not what being successful is all about to them, they want to hide certain things and use them as weapons when needed. This to me seems odd, we are all working for the same company and I don’t quite understand this technique. Now with reading Northouse I understand it is not a technique, it is a crutch because some aspect of leadership is lacking. The key part, in my opinion is “the individuals showing both positive and negative aspects of themselves to others (Northouse, p. 264)”.
Authentic leadership is a behavior that can be seen with people that are not leaders as well. It is not required to be a leader to hold these traits, I am sure you have worked with someone in some way that would fall into this category but they are not leaders and maybe they never want to be. The individuals I can think of with the traits that fall into this are not 100% matched although they are much closer than others. It is interesting how someone can naturally have the majority of what it takes to be a natural leader but when they come into the role, it falls apart. I personally think some people are really good at it but getting pulled in many different directions makes it difficult to maintain. Being a leader where I currently work is a struggle from day to day; relational transparency is not great with most leaders above and below them as well as self-awareness. Proper training to help leaders bring this out and use it would be helpful but how many of them could maintain it? I would imagine not many.
Reference: Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Rachel E Maddux says
Great response and thank you!
I do agree there has to be a cultural shift in order to make a significant change in order to achieve regional transparency. There is a huge lack of trust, which creates a problem for being open and honest; too many people are worried about being thrown under the bus so to speak. Little by little I have tried to show individuals and mentor them on how to be more transparent and authentic but one large issue I see more than not is people being very sensitive to their feelings. Managers can be harsh with their feedback and then people retract and think there is no hope. That is something that needs to change but how do we go about changing that? Obviously personalities are different, is it that some people are just not cut out for leadership and even though they want to be a leader, if they cannot achieve certain things they should stop trying? I do not think so although it will take a lot longer for them to realize how to overcome their weaknesses. I think education about how to become authentic and transparent along with other leadership attributes should be posted publicly. I think it would help if businesses left books or newsletters their employees could read on breaks lying around so people can get it in their head what they have to do and not be told how to do it.
dsb5278 says
I think you raise good questions – how often do we experience authentic leadership and do we practice authentic behavior ourselves? Behaving authentically, particularly in the workplace, can be a tall order. A competitive environment does not usually promote the four components of authentic leadership you discussed in your post. I agree with you that self-awareness has enormous value and is the first place to start. Many people have not genuinely examined their strengths and weaknesses, as this would take understanding and accepting one’s offensive and defensive behaviors. This is a hard thing to do honestly and many have not spent the time doing this kind of soul searching. People often confuse knowing what they like and don’t like with strengths and weaknesses. I think that your skepticism about anyone maintaining relational transparency is valid. It may be too difficult to sustain when no one else in your environment is doing so, and in many cases people take advantage of that kind of transparency. I believe it takes a cultural shift in order to make a significant change. When the majority thinks and behaves this way then authentic leadership can be sustained. However, the shift has to begin somewhere, with someone. So if you and I think it’s the right way to be in the world, then we should endeavor to be authentic in order to influence the shift. I found this great article: How Leaders Become Self-Aware. (http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/07/how-leaders-become-self-aware/) It discusses ways to become more self-aware (the first step to being authentic leader).