When I first read the words “authentic leader” my mind began to assume what it meant by simply interchanging the word “authentic” to “credible” leader, “genuine” leader, etc. Furthermore, it goes without saying, I had an automatic reaction to the words and began associating it with particular leaders that I have experienced. In a way, I sort of came up with an “authentic leader” mini definition in my head and thought, “ok, this should be an easy topic” as the words compared to the automatic assumptions and associations seemed pretty straight- forward. Well, so much for a wandering mind… I was wrong. Authentic leadership is indeed much more complex. Just to scratch the surface of the complexity, Northouse (2016) points out that not only is authentic leadership difficult to characterize, but “among leadership scholars, there is no single accepted definition of authentic leadership” (p. 196). Thus, the journey of finding its true definition begins!
As described by Northouse (2016), authentic leadership is defined through not one, but multiple definitions, each written from a different viewpoint and with a different emphasis (p. 196). We can see here how my mini definition of authentic leadership is becoming less and less significant. The interpersonal perspective of authentic leadership focuses closely on the leader and what goes on within the leader by incorporating the leader’s self-knowledge, self-regulation, and self-concept. The emphasis of this perspective is a leader’s life experiences and the meaning that he or she attaches to those experiences as being critical to the development of the authentic leader (p. 196). Already, from only one viewpoint, the complexity of authentic leadership is beginning to showcase, so the only thing to do now is press forward and take a look at the rest.
Authentic Stamp Showing Real Certified Product Not Fake
The second part of defining authentic leadership is where the “authenticity” emerges from the interactions between leaders and followers (p. 196). As described by Northouse (2016), this interpersonal process viewpoint of authentic leadership outlines authentic leadership as “relational”; created by leaders and followers together. It is a reciprocal process because leaders affect followers and followers affect leaders (p. 196). Finally, authentic leadership can be defined from a developmental perspective, which views authentic leadership as something that can be nurtured in a leader, rather than a fixed trait. It develops in people over a lifetime and can be triggered by major life events (p. 196). And this ladies and gentlemen, is exactly where it all “clicked” for me!
Going back to the description of what was taking place in my wandering mind, we can see how infant I was in terms of trying not only to define authentic leadership on my own, but also in grasping the concept. I thought as long as someone is “genuinely” leading, or is thought to be a “credible” leader, that they are demonstrating “authentic leadership”. Clearly, from the above definition or in this case, definition(s) provided by Northouse (2016), my infancy left out a whole LOT. I didn’t even include “moral reasoning”, which is quite important (p. 202). However, all that being said, it was the last few sentences described above that got to me the most.
Just to revisit:
Finally, authentic leadership can be defined from a developmental perspective, which views authentic leadership as something that can be nurtured in a leader, rather than a fixed trait. It develops in people over a lifetime and can be triggered by major life events (Northouse, 2016, p. 196).
As mentioned earlier, I also associated people with what I thought to be “authentic leaders” and shame on me. I couldn’t have been further away from it. I was thinking of a few people in particular that appeared as what I thought to be “natural born leaders”. They are the type of people that, even if they don’t want to lead, are thrown into the slot anyways because their personal traits are desired characteristics of leadership. It is safe to say that not only have I learned an important lesson about what “authentic leadership” actually is, but that I should also work on my assumptions about things. Especially considering I tend to associate people with words, I should probably make sure that in the future, I understand what those words mean before I apply them to people…
References
Northouse, Peter G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. 7th ed. Sage Publications.