Authentic Leadership Blog

The practical application of a theoretical leadership concept such as Authentic Leadership has always been at the forefront of my brain and work (sometimes these two are even aligned). In my last blog entry I reported of my current undertaking: to investigate about what employees think of Authentic Leadership. Is it a recognized leadership quality? What do people affiliate with the term authenticity in leadership? Do they consider it as an important leadership trait? Questions like these and more preoccupied eight interviews so far and together the participants and I had pretty intensive conversations about this topic. With surprising results!

Without wanting to talk too much about the materials that are lying partly raw and untouched at the bottom of my iPod I still want to pick out one issue that seems to be important to those people I have already talked to.

Setting up employees for success

The quality employees appreciate most in their managers is a genuine desire to help people succeed. This is a clear outcome of our conversations, no matter what person I spoke to. I heard tales of managers people worked for decades ago, or current bosses; women and men alike, no matter the age or years of work experience: the most admired, recognized, appreciated and liked leader behavior is the active and conscious development of subordinates. It also can come in many forms: direct (working in the same office) or remote (working in a different state); frequent or random; personal or via training seminars.

Whenever an employee feels that their work is not only acknowledged, but that they professional forthcoming and their personal growth is an important objective for their boss, they will return it with great loyalty and good work results.

Implications: the leader’s superiority is at stake

If it is true that authentic leadership, amongst many other qualities, is associated with the development of followers, then we need to consider the implications. First, it is hard work for managers! How many leaders and managers think they have the time and energy to actively support their employees’ professional growth? It takes not only will power but a conscious wish for others to succeed – in addition to their own work loads, their own development, their own career aspirations etc. Second, many leaders might ask themselves: where will it lead? Will I become redundant? Will my employees know more than I do, become more powerful than me, or more valuable for the organization? For less visionary managers these might seem like valid arguments against a conscious decision to want their employees be set up for success – at every single opportunity. They might fear to lose their superior status as the boss, the ‘maker’, the one who knows best.

This issue has been discussed in the German business literature for a long time. In preparation for an exam I’ve been reading about the term “Selbstführung” (self-leadership), leadership that does not make the leader redundant, of course, but assigns her/him different tasks: coaching, advising, facilitating the self-leadership of employees. In the long run, some argue, the leader will become less important, an outcome that some managers may experience as “Narzisstische Kränkung” (narcissistic mortification). Others even question if leaders would still carry the “Feuer der Führung” (the the flame, or spirit of leadership) within them once they have been disillusioned of their own superiority and been made into facilitators of others’ success. This status of managers is called the ‘post-heroische Form der Führung” (post-heroic form of leadership), and it has been pointed out that it might be rare to find the appropriate leadership material for this kind of role for the reasons just mentioned.

Creating new leaders through authentic leadership

Of course, we are all geared towards looking after Number One first. I’m not so naïve to suggest that employees have to come first, regardless of the manager’s own professional and personal situation. But once this is settled, I believe that it is the role of a manager to make sure their employees are supported as intensively as possible. The reasons for me are quite obvious: great employees reflect a positive picture on the leader to outsiders. Unmotivated or unprofessional subordinates do the opposite: they will make their managers look bad, too. Furthermore, many managers wish for more loyal, participating and interested employees. Well, what goes around comes around: if they invest in them, they will get back what they put in. In other words: if managers actively help their followers to become the best that they can be, they will not simply work for them but with them. And third: the organization as a whole will benefit enormously if leaders help create a more independent, stronger workforce.

Hence: the post-heroic leadership concept resembles that of authentic leadership. Authentic leaders are said to create leaders out of their followers and to have a self-transcendent attitude that works in the favor of the greater good. And as we have just learned, it is indeed an appreciated quality of managers in the eyes of employees. The only thing that managers and leaders need to learn if they want to become greater, more authentic leaders is to let go. Let go of their idea of superiority, pride and status.

They will not lose anything, quite the opposite: they can only win.

Please send your comments to this blog or email me at andrea.derler@gmail.com

References:

Kieser, A. & Kubicek, H. (1992): Organisation, 3. Aufl., Berlin/New York
Link, J. (2004): Führungssysteme, 2. Aufl., München
Simon, H. (1996): Die heimlichen Gewinner (Hidden Champions): Die Erfolgsstrategien unbekannter Weltmarktführer, Frankfurt am Main/New York
Wimmer, R. (1996): Die Zukunft von Führung: Brauchen wir noch Vorgesetzte im herkömmlichen Sinn? In: Organisationsentwicklung, 4/1996, S. 46-57
Winterhoff-Spurk, P. (2002): Organisationspsychologie: Eine Einführung, Stuttgart