"Everyone is a leader. Each and every single one of us."
What is Authentic Leadership?
Authenticity is rooted in humanistic underpinnings. Humanism places a large significance on self-actualisation which is considered to be the highest point of human achievement, in order for one to live their purpose and fulfil their own destiny.
Authentic leadership theory identifies three factors in the development of authentic leadership:
Positive Psychological Capabilities — resilience and balanced reasoning enabling leaders to overcome difficulties, see alternative perspectives and consider information objectively to face challenges.
Moral Reasoning — decision making processes used to address ethical dilemmas.
Critical Life Events — life stories that enable leaders to gain a sense of compassion and humanism that can help relate to a follower/employee.
Avolio (2005) further defined authentic leadership into four significant components:
- —Self-awareness: The foundation to understand how you see the world, how you obtain and give value. Self-awareness allows you to take a deep dive into your own personal characteristics whether they be good or bad.
- —Internalised Moral Perspective: Being able to live up to your internalised set of values. Understanding your own values can help you to withstand external pressure to be in alignment with your own thoughts and peace of mind.
- —Balanced Processing of Information: The ability to review all information and process this in an unbiased way, making decisions that are good for the group and accepting critical feedback.
- —Relational Transparency: Presenting your true self to those around you, whereby your outward actions are consistent with your internal values. This helps build transparent and honest relationships with others.
"Being authentic is not about being perfect, but it is the willingness of having a strong understanding of one's strengths and weaknesses, in addition to embodying a strong desire of working towards a purpose."
Why is Authentic Leadership Important?
We lead in a variety of ways. On one hand we can lead professionally — from leading client meetings, facilitating workshops and being responsible for employees. Alternatively, we can lead in a personal capacity, navigating through life and acting as our own leader through the choices we make, the opportunities we embark on and the risks we take.
Research has posited authentic leadership is the strongest predictor of job satisfaction, commitment to an organisation and happiness at work. Through authentic leadership we begin to recognise how our unique approach differs to others, how our responses to situations and challenges require our ability to find what drives and motivates us.
In this moment as a leader, being bold and confident is great, but being authentic is empowering.
Authentic Leadership at Work
We have all experienced a time where we have experienced a lack of communication, missed opportunities or dishonesty from leaders. When individuals work in environments that demonstrate a lack of confidence in their leader, automatically one begins to feel a lack of purpose, commitment and satisfaction in their work.
Authenticity can be infectious. Leaders are the example of how one should portray and voice how they feel. Understanding various personality styles of team members creates a sense of psychological safety, which is one of the key predictors of overall team performance and sense of belonging — team members are able to speak freely without any fear or judgement.
Authentic leadership normalises the uncertainty of others' working styles and evokes a sense of acceptance between team members, to enable a high performing workforce and an inclusive working culture.
Being Authentic at CAIA
CAIA as an organisation has given me the platform to bring my entire self to work. CAIA has allowed me to express my opinions professionally, to actively demonstrate my strengths in a variety of contexts and to be given ample responsibility. As a business psychologist here at CAIA I feel inspired by the work that I do — it has empowered me to go above and beyond to deliver a service of excellence that maximises my own potential, aligns with my purpose and executes the organization's vision.
I have realised that authenticity is a journey of introspection, a process that can take time and can cause some level of discomfort when defining one's drives and motivation. Being authentic is the simple fact of adding one more opinion, one more personality, one more strength to a diverse and dynamically changing world. A liberating feeling of being in control of who you are, to bring out the best version of yourself and others.
A Few Questions for You to Reflect On
1. Ask yourself, what do you value? Focus on what brings you happiness, peace of mind and is in alignment with your external actions.
2. Ask yourself how the people around you would describe you — does this reflect the person you want to be?
3. Make a list of a few things you would like to work on — communicating more effectively, being more assertive, etc.
By Tunrea Khaira
Business Psychologist, CAIA