Authentic Leadership: What It Is, Why It Matters
Authentic leaders are a great asset to any organization. They help cultivate a culture of sharing and honesty and they encourage employees to become mission-driven and focused on company goals.
What is Authentic Leadership?
Authentic leadership focuses on ethical and transparent behavior. Leaders that follow this leadership style are true to themselves and are guided by the principles of the organization.
There are five critical elements of authentic leadership style:
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Transparency
Leaders need to be honest, genuine and straightforward with the team. As a leader, you should be a role model for your employees, consistently showing the right behavior you expect or hope to see in them.
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Self-awareness
Authentic leaders have a strong sense of self, which means that they recognize their strengths and weaknesses. Self-awareness is critical to the personal growth and development of a leader because you won't be able to improve something if you don't recognize that you are weak in a particular area. If you demonstrate to your team your true self and you're not pretending to be someone you are not, your team members will feel more comfortable opening up and admitting their weaknesses as well.
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Listens to different viewpoints
As a leader, you should be able to listen to different opinions before making a decision to minimize biases and partiality. It's important to create a relationship with your team members wherein they will not be afraid to express their opinions.
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With good moral standards
An authentic leader has strong ethical values and high integrity and does what is right in any situation.
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An effective communicator
Authentic leaders are able to communicate effectively and convey their message while being receptive and responsive to the input of others. While there are different ways to share your message, as an authentic leader, you should speak clearly and directly using a language that your team can easily understand.
Why Authentic Leadership Style Matters
Authentic leadership style brings a positive impact to your organization, and it matters because of the following reasons:
Authentic leadership promotes open communication
Open communication creates a good relationship between a leader and his members. It is important to build trust, improve engagement and minimize conflicts. If there's open communication, your members or employees will feel more comfortable talking to you for their concerns and suggestions.
Authentic leadership allows imperfection but will help members to improve
An authentic leader, being self-aware of his imperfections also recognizes and allows the imperfections of others. What's important is for the team members to own up to their shortcomings and are willing to learn and improve. In this case, the role of an authentic leader is to provide the necessary support and resources for their improvement.
Authentic leadership keeps your team engaged
When there is open communication and team members know that they are free to express their viewpoints without being judged, they will be more than willing to participate and stay engaged. It keeps more ideas flowing which can be useful for decision-making.
Authentic leadership fosters transparency
When there's transparency in the team, members will not be afraid to show their whole selves without pretenses. This means that they don't have to nod at everything you say and agree with every decision you make. Instead, members feel free to voice out their opinions, knowing that you will listen to them and consider them.
Authentic leadership promotes job satisfaction leading to a happy workplace
Employees feel happy and satisfied when they know that they can be themselves in the workplace, that their opinions matter, and that it is okay to commit a mistake. It's easier to achieve your goals if you have a positive attitude among your team members.
Knowing the importance of authentic leadership, we at Change Works offer Authentic Leadership Programs that will help current and future leaders become as effective as they can be.