Authentic leadership: it sure seems to be the Jedi of all leadership theories. Those who are authentic leaders are “purposeful, value centered, relational, self-disciplined, and compassionate”, and they must possess “self-awareness, an internalized moral perspective, balanced processing and relational transparency” (Northouse, 2013, p. 267). This whole idea sounds like a leader who is too good to be true. Authentic leadership truly demands the best out of every leader. But what if, bear with me, what if everyone, leader or not strove for this type of mentality?
There are those of us who are not in validated leadership positions. Be it that it is because you are student, or a stay at home parent, or just sitting low on the corporate ladder, sometimes it is hard to apply leadership principles to our own lives. It is quite well known that every psychology student at one point or another, or always, is apply what they are learning to themselves. I find it is a rather tricky and sometimes unhealthy habit. But when learning about leadership sometimes it is truly impossible to apply it in our lives when we aren’t in the leadership role. Sometimes it is down right difficult to understand because there are those of us who have literally never been even close to being a leader in a validated position. But authentic leadership? Now that is a lesson on life.
I want to look at three components of authentic leadership and how it could truly be a good prescription for humanity in general. First the concept of internalized moral perspective, then relational transparency, and one positive psychological attribute, confidence.
Internalized Moral Perspective:
In layman’s terms, internalized moral perspective is basically knowing what you believe and living by it despite other’s opinions and influences. Northouse (2010) explains it as a self-regulatory process in which you have control over how much or how little you allow outside influence (p. 264). If we truly get down to the nitty-gritty of who we are by taking away societal expectation and conventional norms and live by what we believe in quite possibly we could function better and make clearer decisions. Authentic leaders who have internalized moral perspective are seen as being consistent because they live by what they know is true (Northouse, 2013, p. 264). You don’t have to be a leader to find the need to be consistent.
Relational Transparency:
Relational transparency is simply being honest and open (Northouse, 2013, p. 264). This pretty much speaks for itself. By adding internalized moral perspective and relational transparency, you are not only living by your moral but you are being open about who you are to others. There is no room for wrong assumptions when people know who you are. Honest relationships bring stability.
Confidence:
Confidence has been threaded throughout many leadership theories as a key compenet of good leadership. No one can expect to follow someone who doesn’t believe in themselves. If you don’t believe in yourself, how can anyone else? This doesn’t just pertain to leaders. It pertains to everyone. Confidence seems harder and harder to come by lately as more and more information is revealed about how everything we do is wrong (has anyone visited a “super mom” blog recently or a food blog recently?).
But when you add all three of these components together, internal moral perspective, relational transparency, and confidence it could truly be a successful formula not only for leaders, but for humanity in general.
References:
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications
pjt140 says
I like the idea of applying Authentic Leadership theory to everyday life. I believe that the internal moral perspective is related to the concept of internal locus of control which is mentioned in the Path-Goal theory (Northouse, 2013, p. 141) in connection with “Subordinate Characteristics.” I believe that the aspect of relational transparency is unique to authentic leadership as in the other theories the relationship between leaders and followers is more scripted. The trait theory lists self-confidence (Northouse, 2013, pp. 23-24) as a one of the major leadership traits, which comes close to “confidence” as defined in authentic leadership. This makes sense because without confidence a person cannot be a leader or inspire others.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (Sixth ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.