What Is Authentic Leadership
Authentic Leadership - Two Different Meanings
We need to distinguish between two somewhat overlapping meanings for the term "Authentic Leadership". First, Authentic Leadership (we'll capitalize it) is a term used by Bill George, Former Chairman and CEO, Medtronic, in his book of the same name. In the book, written in 2003, he focuses on the need for better corporate leaders who espouse and act consistent with higher order business ethics and ethical values. The approach outlined by George focuses on the "leader as person", and could be classified as a "self-awareness approach to leadership and leadership development.
There's a second meaning to authentic leadership. In the helping professions (counselling, facilitating, etc) authenticity refers to being open, honest and real. The idea originates with the Humanistic School of psychology that emerged in the 1960's which suggests that we cannot help others unless we share ourselves openly and honestly -- that we are "real".
There is overlap between authentic leadership (small letters) and Bill George's work (capitalized).
While authentic leadership sounds like a good thing (how can one argue with being honest and real), it may be that being completely and utterly authentic can be problematic for modern leaders in our complex organizational world. First there is a danger that a leader will lose the distinction between him or herself as a person, and him or herself as a leader, which is a constrained role within a constrained context. Second, and a very practical issue, is that complete and utter honesty and openness is not always possible in a world of proprietary knowledge, actions that must be kept hidden in the planning stages, and so on.
Those that end up subscribing to the need for authentic leadership need to recognize its limitations.
For more information about Bill George's book on Authentic Leadership click here
