Analysis of Authentic Leadership: A Detailed Report

This report delves into the concept of authentic leadership, exploring its core principles and various perspectives from prominent figures like Bill George, Bennis, and Kevin Kruse. It examines the key characteristics of authentic leaders, including self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and their impact on employee motivation and organizational performance. The report analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to authentic leadership, providing a comprehensive overview of the subject. It also discusses the importance of developing authentic leadership over time, the role of mentors and coaches, and the significance of leaders being true to themselves and their values. The report concludes by highlighting the benefits of authentic leadership, such as improved productivity and the ability to foster trust and confidence among employees. The report also discusses the importance of leaders showing their genuine self to the employees. This assignment is a great resource for students studying leadership and management, and it is available on Desklib, a platform that provides past papers and solved assignments.

Authentic
Leadership

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Leaders are the persons who are having large number of followers. The terms authentic
leadership implies that all leaders are trying to make good and effective relations with their
employees in order to execute their working according to plans and policies. Authentic leaders
are valuable in enhancing overall performances of workers so that they can easily work in a team
in order to achieve good and effective results (Algera and Lips-Wiersma, 2012). Many leaders
have argued that this leadership is an alternative source in order to generate share prices and
profitability ratios over different ethics and people of the economy. This is the valuable and
growing field of studies in research which are based on academics and they had developed from
obscurity from the starting of overall mature concepts. They are taking support from other
sources to evaluate accurate data because they are not able to produce their original work.
TASK 1
According to Bill George (2016), Leaders are working effectively in order to achieve
their goals and objectives. Most of the firms who are settled in their ventures are focusing on
development of authentic leadership at the working organisations. This form of leadership are
expanding all around the business who are working on larger scales. Authenticity have emerged
as one of the important form of leadership. He stated that if person want to become a leader then
he had to work hard in experiencing the work executed by them. Each persons gets success in
their ventures by passing through different stages and they are experiencing roles of leadership
from more then a year. There is always a key by which persons recognises his strong and weak
points and work on them in order to achieve success in their ventures. The most important
element of authentic leadership is emotional Intelligence and there can be ups and downs in
intelligence level thus it is described as authentic leadership. This factor is not changeable in life
cycle of adults thus this can be developed in effective ways. The first and the most valuable step
is the journey which is gaining self awareness and confidence. There was an interview conducted
in order to find out the true facts by conducting in depth form of interviews and there were 175
authentic leaders at work place. The research and development acts were based on evaluating
role of creating self awareness which are beneficial in developing abilities and skills of leaders.
Leaders are mostly focusing on creating trust and confidence among all their employees. Trust
are mainly based on three factors like their capacity to do the working, reliability factor and
motivation factors related with employees in order to execute their working in planned and
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effectual ways. If persons are truly authentic then they are showing up their essence same every
time and not changing their views. Likewise authenticity never implies motivation factor or
capacity of employees to do the work (Hannah, Avolio and Walumbwa, 2011). The employees
are always influenced by they outcome they received by the hard works which are done by them.
Authenticity in leadership is an important aspect but they are very important in order to achieve
effective leadership results.
Strength of article given by Bill George
 It is beneficial task in motivating employees as they are able to improve productivity at
work place.
 Research activities are very useful task which are related with finding out those areas
where persons can grow and take up challenges in order to become good leaders.
 Authentic leadership is developed over time and persons can become success in their
ventures when they were failure at times because it helps them to grow by learning from
their mistakes.
Weakness of article given by Bill George
 Persons should never be judge by his capacity to do the work as they are having effective
skills by which they can easily carry out their work operations and gain competitive
advantages for firms.
 Emotional intelligence factors are different for every individuals and these should be
measured differently for each individuals.
Managerialism vs. Critical
Managerialism are combining ideology and management in order to carry out all their
task in planned and systematic ways (Gardner and et. al., 2011). The employees are involved in
decision making process and this is valuable in taking good and effective decisions for all the
problems. Managerial knowledge is beneficial in order to improve to working which are
executed by societies and various cooperation.
Critical is related with adopting plan and policies by which work have to be completed in
order to gain effective results and this can be achieved by moving through difficult stages which
are essential in order to achieve leadership.
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According to Bennis (2016), The term authentic leadership is developed by analysing
the nature and characteristic of person and this is not based on any styles. Leadership is
described as the characteristic that a person posses which helps them to grow in their ventures.
All human being grow by being a failure at some points and this weakness helps them to grow in
their ventures. Authentic leadership is developed from outside and this is not based on inner self
of persons. If persons wants to become authentic leaders then they should develop styles which
are flexible in their working and they should adopt all skills and capacities of all persons working
in a team. These leaders are mostly developing as good coaches and mentors which are valuable
in achieving making the person learn about different aspects and grow in their ventures thus
achievement of success. They are adopting vital tasks in order to achieve high leads in
supervising employees to achieve growth. At times authentic leaders have to take decisions
which are vital for business like they are terminating all those employees who are not working in
order to achieve all assigned goals and objectives. They have to face difficult situations when
they are going against the wish of persons and firing employees, this developed negative
environment at work place but this is needed in order to grow and make the working
environment healthier (Peus and et. al., 2012). These type of decisions which are vital have to
adopted while retaining authenticity.
These leaders are constantly growing at work places and they developing skills in order
to grow and achieve success in their ventures. At this stage person have to adopt various roles
which helps them to grow and achieve success in their ventures. Each person become leader
when they are able to perform any task which are given to them thus called as multi tasker
Leaders are gaining success in their ventures when they are trying to learn from difficulties
which are faced by them. Example: The persons who giving their best services in music industry
or athletics are called as authentic leaders because they are growing by learning from their
difficult tasks. This is possible because people are spending their times in practising in order to
make themselves perfect (Hassan and Ahmed, 2011). People are mostly learning new things
from their own self development and evaluation process as it helps them to become perfect in
their ventures because they are knowing those aspects which helps them to grow easily in their
ventures. They are always accepting difficulties faced by them thus it helps them to grow. These
leaders are always loyal towards their work. They are very courageous because it implies that
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leaders are having self confidence and dedication because they are facing every difficult situation
with courage and courtesy. Authentic leaders are very sensitive with needs and values of other
persons because they are trying to promote their skills at work place which helps them to achieve
growth and success in their ventures (Hsiung, 2012). Persons are born with same skills and
abilities but these can be changes while they are growing in their business operations. Persons
are becoming leaders by learning through their negative points and this is valuable in managing
their angers and they had a feeling of victims in their business operations. Persons are felling
inadequate because they have to guide other persons how to carry out work operations and apply
tactics in order to solve all the challenges
Strength of article given by Bennis
 Authentic leaders are developed as mentors and coaches and they are guiding people in
order to become successful in their overall operations.
 These types of leaders are listening to people and they are very much sensitive towards
their needs and value perspective.
 They are growing by learning from their negative aspects which helps them to become a
leading and successful person. It is truly said that person is always learning by facing
failures and difficulties.
 The styles are always outward and they are not developed from inside a person.
 Authentic leaders are providing true supervision and guidance to their employees which
helps them to grow.
Weakness of article given by Bennis
 Person not always grow by being a failure if they have skills then they can easily achieve
success in their life.
 Difficult situation does not help a person to grow instead it teaches them how to cope up
with different situations and does not become a failure.
From the view point of Kevin Kruse (2017) Authentic leadership has developed at
work place because people are following other work plans and they are not taking efforts in order
to develop their own views. It is truly said that personality factors are emerging outside the
working environment. The leaders are most confused in those situations when there employees
are not having trust on them and they are not following any rules and regulations thus they want
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to leave this place and are willing to work at another place. From the past history it has been
analysed that authentic leadership are part of science which are based on modern management
concept and people are willing accepting this at their work places (Peterson and et. al., 2012).
Kevin have argued that authentic leadership comprises of following factors as:
Leaders are most aware and genuine: The individuals which are self actualized and
they are aware of their strong and weak points are called as authentic leadership. They are mostly
working in order to show their own self to all their employees and not believes ins showing fake
images. They are not having two faces and they are similar in all respect in front of everyone.
They does not believe in hiding any of their mistakes. They have evaluated that the concept of
self actualized are those journey which are not having any end points thus cannot be completed.
Authentic leaders are focusing on results and they drive mission: The firms are
focusing on on achieving their self interest and they are not concerned about mission and their
goals. They are performing their jobs in order to achieve effective results and not for their own
interest or monetary values (Laschinger, Wong, and Grau, 2013).
Authentic leaders are leading people with their heart: Authentic leaders are not using
using their minds in order to complete their business operations but they are focusing on their
heart. They does not having any fear while showing their emotions and making connection with
their workers. It does not imply that leaders are soft hearted. In order to make communication in
direct relations are most valuable task in relation with all the successful outcomes. It is mostly
carried out with empathy and directness because empathy implies problems with their solutions.
Leaders are always aimed to achieve long term goals: This is an essential model of
Kevin model as the larders of firms are always focusing on achievement of long term values that
are gained by shareholders and not only dealing with their quarterly estimates. Example: George
and Bezos were leading amazon and they have realised that in order to nature company and
individuals it requires more of hard working and patience and all the approached which are
followed at work places and these forms are paying dividends in larger amounts for desired time
frames.
Strength of article given by Kevin:
 Leaders are not having two faces they are similar in all their aspects and behave equally
with their employees.
 There main aim is to achieve targets for firms and not to gain profitability.
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 Leaders are loyal in performing their duties and obligations thus they can achieve all their
targets in desired time frames.
 There main targets are related with achieving targets which are useful for their business
operations.
 Leaders are friendly with their employees thus development of positive working
environment.
Weakness of article given by Kevin
Leaders should not be to much polite with their employees they should develop strict
plans so that employees can execute their working in planned and effective ways.
Leaders should be strict at times when there is need in order to resolve issues that are
faced by workers.
According to Vuckovic (2016), Authenticity is not about a person focusing on
themselves about their own development but its main aim is to make alignment with character,
beliefs and values in order to perform all activities in planned and effective ways. This style of
leadership is most effective in order to explore all ideas, values and purpose which are related
with self development aspects. The stories which are narrated are valuable in order to explore
ideas which are linked with vision of business (Neider and Schriesheim, 2011). The leaders are
not only driven by values of shareholders. It is very essential for leaders to evaluate how they
will be motivating themselves and their employees in order to achieve all business goals. They
should develop fun loving environment in order to complete all their business activities. Leaders
should always be clear about their gaols which their employees had to performed. There should
be strong and effective communications between all employees at work place because it helps in
easily passing all the important and valuable message to workers. The capacity in relation to
make all the employees show their presence are also liked with this concept. Authenticity should
make alignment with the spoken words and in turn all words should be attached with emotional
effects.
Congruent implies that all the situations will be aligned at one hand. If leaders want to
conducts large meetings and he notices that on the final day there were only 6 people who have
attended the meeting then it results in disappointing leaders as they were not success in their
plans and the meeting will be continued (Laschinger, Wong and Grau, 2012). Leaders should
know every aspect linked with culture in which all their activities will be taking place.
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The authentic leaders are not given any right to reveal the personal details of their
employees who are working at business places, they should not talk about themselves at every
time but should show concern for their employees. This concept is valuable in making leaders
focused towards each and every aspects at work place.
Strength of article given by Vuckovic
 Leaders should develop healthy relations with all their employees so that they can easily
communicate with all the employees if there is any change implemented in their business
operations.
 They should have proper known about organisational cultures in which there activities
are operating.
 If leaders want to conduct any meeting then they should consult with their employees
about the schedule of meeting so that every one can attend them.
Weakness of article given by Vuckoic
 Effective strategies should be formed in order to monitor all working condition in which
employees are executing works in order to achieve targets.
 There should be not be any differentiation among employees so that they can work
according to business plans.
According to Steve Jobs (2017), Authentic Leadership are having insight, this is reflected as
their future vision statement and they working in order to achieve these tasks. Insight is related
with understanding the time durations in which all activities had to be completed in order to
achieve their targets. These leaders are in great need of discernment and wisdom for the current
time durations. They should aim at evaluating all types of critical circumstances in order to
determine action plans which will be needed for their operations and gain clarity in all there
business operations. Example: The founder of Apple Steve Jobs are one of the greatest example
in the present times. While he was returning after declared as CEO he developed an insight in
order to reboot business and dominate the entire society.
Leaders are demonstrating initiatives as they are moving forward with their business
operations. They are not distributing work to employees if there are facing difficulty in order to
perform the operation. This is the main reason why people are described as authentic leaders as
they are working for welfare and achieving productivity for business activities. They are
providing training to employees in order to make workers familiar with the operations how it
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will be executed. Leaders are taking initiatives in order to achieve success and make the
employees learn different concept which will help them to grow in future time.
Leaders are fighting in order to remove all types of difficulties from work places and
creating healthy work environment. The initiatives of leaders are always indispensable because
they are developing confidence, communication and courages in order to achieve trust of
employees (Leroy, Palanski and Simons, 2012).
The leadership factor of person cannot be measured but it is evaluated by the number of
people who are acting as there followers and they are doing business according to their plans.
The life of leaders are not integrated and they are generating higher values from all these
ventures. Leaders are working for the welfare of total business they are motivating their
employees in order to achieve targets. This is is the most important factor as it increases
productivity at work places.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that Authentic Leadership are important factor
as it helps persons to guide and monitor all employees so that working will be executed in
planned ways. Motivation is an important tool used by leaders in order to satisfy their employees
and achieve their targets in desired time frames. Leaders are having followers who are working
according to their plans in order to achieve their targets.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journal's
Algera, P. M. and Lips-Wiersma, M., 2012. Radical authentic leadership: Co-creating the
conditions under which all members of the organization can be authentic. The
Leadership Quarterly. 23(1). pp.118-131.
Gardner, W. L. and et. al., 2011. Authentic leadership: A review of the literature and research
agenda. The Leadership Quarterly. 22(6). pp.1120-1145.
Hannah, S. T., Avolio, B. J. and Walumbwa, F. O., 2011. Relationships between authentic
leadership, moral courage, and ethical and pro-social behaviors. Business Ethics
Quarterly. 21(4). pp.555-578.
Hassan, A. and Ahmed, F., 2011. Authentic leadership, trust and work engagement.
International Journal of Human and Social Sciences. 6(3). pp.164-170.
Hsiung, H. H., 2012. Authentic leadership and employee voice behavior: A multi-level
psychological process. Journal of business ethics. 107(3). pp.349-361.
Laschinger, H. K. S., Wong, C. A. and Grau, A. L., 2013. Authentic leadership, empowerment
and burnout: a comparison in new graduates and experienced nurses. Journal of nursing
management. 21(3). pp.541-552.
Laschinger, H.K.S., Wong, C.A. and Grau, A.L., 2012. The influence of authentic leadership on
newly graduated nurses’ experiences of workplace bullying, burnout and retention
outcomes: A cross-sectional study. International journal of nursing studies. 49(10).
pp.1266-1276.
Leroy, H., Palanski, M. E. and Simons, T., 2012. Authentic leadership and behavioral integrity
as drivers of follower commitment and performance. Journal of Business Ethics.
107(3). pp.255-264.
Neider, L. L. and Schriesheim, C. A., 2011. The authentic leadership inventory (ALI):
Development and empirical tests. The Leadership Quarterly. 22(6). pp.1146-1164.
Peterson, S. J. and et. al., 2012. RETRACTED: The relationship between authentic leadership
and follower job performance: The mediating role of follower positivity in extreme
contexts. The Leadership Quarterly. 23(3). pp.502-516.
Peus, C. and et. al., 2012. Authentic leadership: An empirical test of its antecedents,
consequences, and mediating mechanisms. Journal of business ethics. 107(3). pp.331-
348.
Online
George, B., 2016. The Truth About Authentic Leaders. [Online]. Available through:
<http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/the-truth-about-authentic-leaders>. [Accessed on 29th
September 2017].
Bennis. B., 2017.Authentic leadership is built on your character, not your style. [Online].
Available through
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2015/11/10/the-true-qualities-of-
authentic-leaders/#1b0fe619f74d>. [Accessed on 29th September 2017].
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Kruse. K., 2017. Authentic leaders are self-aware and genuine. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/05/12/what-is-authentic-leadership/
#5ff2b73cdef7>. [Accessed on 29th September 2017].
Jobs. S., 2017. How Steve Jobs Reinvented Leadership .[Online]. Available through:
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/insead/2011/10/10/how-steve-jobs-reinvented-
leadership/#50ee78667bce>. [Accessed on 29th September 2017].
Vukovic. A., 2016. Executive Leadership in managing challenging programs through fostering
partnerships in competitive & globalized environment .[Online]. Available through:
<https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alexvukovic>. [Accessed on 29th September 2017].
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