What does come to your mind when you hear the word authentic? Honesty, truth, sincerity, openness, integrity? You are right. Authenticity is a great word with great meanings. An authentic person is someone who is true to himself or herself, someone who is honest and open, and someone who believes in his or her abilities. As such an authentic person does not hide anything from others and lives with integrity.
What does come to your mind when you hear the word leadership? Being in front of others, taking the lead, guiding others, setting directions? I agree. Leadership may also remind us of fighting for others, being an example, and taking responsibility.
Now, let’s put these two words together. Authentic leadership is about guiding others with sincerity. It is about setting directions with integrity. It is about taking the lead while being open to others. It is about standing up for others with sincerity and taking full responsibility by being true to the self and others. Does that sound good?
Before the year 2000, leadership was not a popular word in the management world let alone authentic leadership. It was all about management and how to manage and control people. It was thought that leaders were born and not made. Leadership was limited to political leaders who would take risks and fight for their people. It was not practiced by executives in companies.
With the beginning of the 21st century, however, books on leadership started to show up more and more. Management books, on the other hand, started to decline. It was thought that management was no longer enough. Leaders needed to be developed. Companies gradually believed that without leadership they could not thrive in their business.
Recently, authentic leadership is being preached. For leaders to be successful in leading people and companies, they need to be vulnerable, honest, and trustworthy. They should not try to imitate others. They need to be themselves and stick to their core values at all times. That is the key to real success.
In his book, the True North, Bill George says, “the authentic leader brings people together around a shared purpose and empowers them to step up and lead authentically in order to create value for all stakeholders”. This is indeed a great definition of authentic leadership.
My definition of authentic leadership is similar. Authentic leadership is about being true to the self, acting with passion and integrity, having respect and love for others, and not following the crowd but inspiring the crowd to move toward achieving a great vision with hope and faith.
What is YOUR definition of authentic leadership?
