Authentic leadership, while stemming from transformational leadership, is an integral part of leadership. As I was reading through the lesson regarding this theory, I found myself thinking of quite a few people, myself included. I’ll explain why.
Authentic leadership is interpersonal. It stems from the relationship the leader has with their followers. This type of leadership comes from having great relationships (Williams, 2018). As in my previous, I’ve mentioned I have been a server for a long time. I was a closing server, meaning I made sure everyone else was doing their jobs, and I closed the restaurant down. I was required to have great relationships with my co-workers, as I needed them to respect me and listen to me to get their job done. If they didn’t respect me or didn’t have a good relationship with me, then who knows how much work would have gotten done. When they respect me as a person, they become better followers.
Secondly, authentic leadership is intrapersonal. The leader has to be able to be true to themselves and to be a leader to themselves as well as their followers (Williams, 2018). I had to be able to lead myself and stay to true to my beliefs, to be the leader that my followers needed. I couldn’t become a leader if I was slacking on my job or if I was making excuses to myself to not get my job done. I had to always pep talk myself to keep my head in the game.
Lastly, authentic leadership is developmental. Authentic leadership can be acquired or learned. Life events that change a person can develop a person’s authentic leadership ability (Williams, 2018). While this doesn’t apply to me in my server example, it does apply to me when I was a child. I always followed my mother, but when my father passed away, I had to step up and become a leader for my little brother. I didn’t want him to see my mom or I hurting, so I had to be strong and help him develop himself, as well as be a leader for him.
As you can see, authentic leadership is a great theory, and perhaps we all have a little authentic leadership in us that just needs to be found.
References:
Williams, Jason (2018). Authentic Leadership. PSYCH 485.
Tristan T Dickey says
Jessica,
I am also a server and unfortunately was a closing server for some time. I was not a fan at all, mainly because I liked to leave as early as possible, but I also know how upset everyone gets at the end of the night when they want to go home and you tell them to sweep their tables again. There’s nothing worse than a server that just got cut and wants to get out!
Circling back to the topic, I agree that authentic leadership is strongly correlated with interpersonal relationships. After all, there’s almost no way to keep strong relationships with co-workers, friends or family without being as genuine as possible. This perspective outlines authentic leadership as relational, created by leaders and followers together (Eagly, 2005). That means that not only does the leaders actions control the scenario but, the followers responses have equal repercussions.
Elaborating more on the intrapersonal perspective, leaders must understand themselves to the core. According to Northouse, leaders must have purpose, values, relationships, self-discipline and heart. Other than relationships every one of those core components comes from within and is crucial to being a genuine leader.
My only disagreeing point is in your definition and example of developmental perspective. Yes it is true that majority of your growth will come from outside of serving however, some of can come from your experience as a server. I have learned a lot about myself and what I am willing to tolerate from people from my serving position. Unfortunately it has caused me to be a little less caring for people but, I still do my best to assume everyone is a good person, despite how poorly they treat you at times.
Good read, I liked your input.
References:
Pennsylvania State University. (2018). Lesson 12: Authentic leadership. PSYCH 485.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Authentic Leadership. Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.