Be Authentic

I was recently asked the following question:

“If you were to give one piece of advice to someone starting their first management role, what would it be?”

My answer was just two words: Be Authentic.

In my experience, being authentic seems to me to be the only sure-fire way of being a successful leader. But what does ‘authentic’ mean? 

The Oxford English Dictionary defines authentic as:

‘known to be real and genuine. Based on facts; accurate.’

Ok, so we now know that in order to be authentic, we need to be real, genuine, and based on facts and accuracy. How does this then translate into leadership?

Let’s explore this a little further. Type ‘authentic leadership’ into your favourite search engine and see what you get. Google returns 1.2 million results, so no hope of reading all those! My favourite definition though is the following:

‘leadership that emphasises building the legitimacy through honest relationships with followers which value their input and are built on an ethical foundation. Generally, authentic leaders are positive people with truthful self-concepts who promote openness. By building trust and generating enthusiastic support from their subordinates, authentic leaders are able to improve individual and team performance.’

The concept of authentic leadership dates back to ancient Greece, but has more recently been championed by former Medtronic CEO and Harvard Business School Professor Bill George. In his book, ‘Authentic Leadership’[1], Bill identifies five essential dimensions of authentic leadership: purpose, values, heart, relationships and self-discipline. This tallies with the more widely held view of authentic leadership covering four fundamental areas:

·      Self-awareness: understanding your own strengths and limitations and the drivers or values that influence your decision making.

·      Transparency: open sharing of the leaders’ own thoughts and beliefs in a reasoned, non-emotional manner.

·      Open-minded: actively seeking differing viewpoints and non-judgemental consideration of those viewpoints.

·      Moral consistency: ethically values driven and consistently so – walking the walk.

The leaders I see having most success consistently apply these fundamentals to their own leadership, taking time regularly to review and evaluate their own performance. So how does your own leadership measure up? Are you being an authentic leader, or are you putting on an act when you lead?

If you want to improve your leadership and become more authentic, the first step is definitely self-awareness. It is vital to understand who you are and what makes you tick in order to become the most effective version of you. To help with this process it is worth referencing Stephen Covey, who’s book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’[2] outlines the things you need to focus on to be more self-aware and more effective personally. There are a number of other ways of improving self-awareness, from feedback and disclosure to psychometric testing; it is a matter of personal preference which route you decide to choose, but becoming more self-aware is a critical step towards more authentic leadership

[1] George, B. (2003). Authentic leadership: Rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting value. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

[2] Covey, S. (1989). The seven habits of highly effective people. New York: Simon and Schuster.