Dear Consultant,
I’ve been the general manager of a successful auto-parts supplier for the last twelve years. I’m known to be a pragmatic boss, but sometimes my management style, or leadership approach or whatever you want to call it, rubs people the wrong way. I’ve had issues with logistics partners not wanting to work with our team and it has been suggested that we’re not upfront in our negotiations. Our parent organization has asked me to look into implementing an Authentic Leadership approach when dealing with my team and other stakeholders. How can I do that?
The issue of perceived honesty and trustworthiness among followers cannot be underestimated when trying to be an effective leader. When people talk about which characteristics they most value in a leader, honesty and trustworthiness are consistently at the very top, above effectiveness, above competence, above likability, etc. (Kouzes & Posner, 2007).
Those who are seen as dishonest immediately lose credibility in almost all aspects of their leadership
Those who are seen as dishonest immediately lose credibility in almost all aspects of their leadership (O’Keefe, 2002). For there to be enough discussion in your organization about a perception of a lack of trustworthiness in your team, especially as it related to your own leadership then you need to act now to reverse this perception.
One leadership approach that is inherently linked to characteristics of honestly and authenticity is the concept of Authentic Leadership, which is an active area of the Leadership literature. It is also frequently associated with ethical leadership and a way to help leaders develop with a framework to inform their own leadership actions. In your own situation, you may ask yourself whether or not your leadership actions, as they relate to your team and to your partners, would adhere to the following four aspects of Authentic Leadership as described by Walumbwa et al. (2008).
1) Self-Awareness –
Do you have significant amount of insight about yourself? The trouble with this one is that you don’t know, what you don’t know about yourself. Sometimes we’re aware of our own personal biases, or we’re aware of when we tend to be overly aggressive or overly passive. When we act irrationally or when we are overly analytic. These behaviours exist in all of us, but Authentic Leaders are aware of these behaviours and they are aware of when they tend to manifest themselves in our leadership practices. We cannot effectively interact with others without a strong understanding of ourselves and our own modes of communicating, assumptions about the world, and biases towards relevant topics. Sometimes this self-awareness is important to provide a rationale for your actions, showing you and others what you stand for. Sometimes this self-awareness is necessary to temper the aspects of yourself that are not beneficial to the situations that present themselves in a leadership context. Some questions that you can ask yourself, or have others assess, to help you understand this factor:
We cannot effectively interact with others without a strong understanding of ourselves
- Do you seek feedback to improve interactions with others?
- Can you accurately describe how others view your capabilities?
2) Internalized Moral Perspective –
This is about having your own set of morals and values that guide your behaviour, rather than being strongly influenced by others. This is not common, most of us cave to pressure from those around us and from society, having your own set of morals and values that guide our actions in the face of pressure from others is an important aspect of Authentic Leadership because it provides a consistent message to followers around a set of values, despite situations that make the moral-route forward, the more difficult route forward. A key thing about this is that the internalized moral perspective must not only exist within you, but it must also come out in your actions. You cannot simply think or say these morals and value, you also need to action on these morals and values. Some questions that you can ask yourself, or have others assess, to help you understand this factor:
Act based on your own beliefs, not based on influence from others
- Do you demonstrate beliefs that are consistent with actions?
- Do you make decisions that are based on your core beliefs?
3) Balanced Processing –
Authentic Leaders need to be able to analyze information in a way that is not biased and is as impartial as possible. Theoretically, someone who had absolutely no stake in the decision regardless of the outcome with no preconceived ideas or biases should have balanced processing when making decisions. This is difficult to do when you’re known for supporting a particular decision; ideally you’d want to gather the opinions of all stakeholders and impartially weigh the pros and cons of all viewpoints before making a balanced decision based on all the facts at hand. You may not agree with all of the stakeholders, and your decision may not be supported by everyone, but you’re perceived to be authentic because you’ve genuinely balanced their opinion against that of others. Some questions that you can ask yourself, or have others assess, to help you understand this factor:
Make decisions in a way that is unbiased and takes into account the opinions of others
- Do you solicit views that challenge your deeply held positions?
- Do you listen carefully to different points of view before coming to conclusions?
4) Relational Transparency –
This aspect of Authentic Leadership relates to your ability consistently communicate your motives and inclinations as well as your emotions. Hiding your emotions or your underlying motives in a relational situation can hurt your credibility when it is determined that you haven’t been forthright. Discussing emotions can be difficult and even inappropriate in some industries, but situational awareness of what is appropriate and what isn’t appropriate is needed to understand how far to go. Being clear about your motives and inclinations is almost always a good idea if you intend on being perceived as an Authentic Leader. Setting the tone of a social interaction by being transparent right from the beginning frequently creates a more consequence-free environment to encourage others to act in a similar fashion. Some questions that you can ask yourself, or have others assess, to help you understand this factor:
Consistently show your motives, inclinations and emotional state with others
- Do you say exactly what you mean?
- Are you willing to admit mistakes when they are made?
These four factors comprise the current thinking on Authentic Leadership. Authentic Leadership isn’t associated with a set of quick and easy steps to follow to become a good leader; it is more about deep introspection and personal development. Authentic Leaders are not simply born with innate characteristics, but they are purposefully developed through acting with intent in all of our behaviours. Start by relating each of the above four factors to your own behaviours; your own understanding of your ability to act with self-awareness, an internalized moral perspective, balanced processing and relational transparency may or may not be clear to you, but the act of putting thought into each of these is a positive start. The next step is to ask others to honestly assess these four factors and how they relate to you and your leadership. Depending on how far you’d like to take this, there is a scale that you can use to measure your current ability to be an Authentic Leader called the ALQ that can be used to show progress as you develop as a leader.
References:
Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z., (2002) The Leadership Challenge, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
O’Keefe, D. J., (2002) Persuasion: Theory and Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Walumbwa, F., Avolio, B., Gardner, W., Wernsing, T., & Peterson, S. (2008). Authentic leadership: Development and validation of a theory-based measure. Journal of Management, 34(1), 89-126.