By now you’ve heard me speak of all kinds of leaders. Great leaders, lousy leaders, lazy leaders, high-capacity leaders, and so on. You’ve read the descriptions of servant and selfless leaders, autocratic leaders, emotionally intelligent leaders, inspirational leaders, and some leaders who just aren’t leaders at all! There is a leadership theory and description for just about every kind of personality and way of doing things you can possibly imagine. Some are behaviors, some traits, some learned, and some in the form of natural gifting, but for certain, leaders come in all shapes and sizes and we all know the kinds of leaders we would choose to follow, if we indeed were given the choice!
Recently I met a leader who really impressed me. They were highly gifted, yet extremely humble. They were certain as to their mission and created a way of doing things that caused their organization to be crystal clear on how to reach their objectives. They were people-oriented and highly relational, though unwavering in their passion to get the job done. After spending only a few minutes with this leader, I knew that they would do exactly what they said they would do. Their team was equally committed.
This leader was a great example of a variety of leadership styles, but primarily authentic leadership. This is a leadership theory that is relatively new in leadership scholarship, though the style has been around for eons. Authentic leadership has become of interest primarily as a response to the failings of many organizational leaders in private and non-profit sectors, governments, and churches. People have become weary of hearing yet another story of a leader who fell from grace, often due to a lack of integrity. People are searching for leaders they can trust, and authentic leadership provides this because it focuses on leaders who are genuine, real, honest, and good.
One academic definition is “a pattern of leader behavior that draws upon and promotes both positive psychological capacities and a positive ethical climate, to foster greater self-awareness, and internalized moral perspective, balanced processing of information, and relational transparency on the part of leaders working with followers, fostering positive self-development.” (Walumbwa, 2008). Whew! That’s a mouthful. In a nutshell, authentic leaders are:
Self aware – They have invested the time to look within and know who they are and what they stand for.
Ethical – They will do the right things and you can trust them.
Thoughtful – They think things through and make informed decisions.
Relational – People come first. Even if it is not their natural personality, they invest in the people on their team and look for what’s best for the people they serve. Always.
One of the great things about authentic leadership is that it can be learned. It is behavior based. There are some leadership styles that stem from natural gifting, such as charismatic leadership, but in the case of the authentic leader, they don’t have to be born that way. A person can make a decision to become an authentic leader. I want to be one, and I hope you do, too.
Lead well.