Leadership Series -2 -Authentic Leadership

Authentic Leadership is one of the most researched topics today amidst all the topics under leadership. This is surely one of the leadership traits that really enables a leader to grow their horizon of influence and create a lasting impact in their sphere of work. The reason why it is being researched a lot is because we are still unsure of how to measure it and how exactly it should look like. We know if a leader is authentic or not, yet we are not too sure of the parameters or measures that makes a leader authentic. We hope the jury will be out soon.

?Let’s understand why authenticity in leadership is so much in demand today. Its in demand because people want someone real, someone who doesn’t say something to them and do something else. In the VUCA world, paradigms are changing, life is day by day becoming more uncertain, amidst the turbulence around, people want to be led by someone who is genuine, who is real and who understands them as a person more than ever and can connect with them.

There is a lot of dilemmas around being authentic in the minds of many leaders as Organizations by the definition of it will have their political overtones and their will be ways of working around the political affiliations of an organization. There is always the dilemma around if being authentic will create challenges for the leader amidst the political affiliations, which is the reason why lot of leaders like to play the game as its played at the place. ?Authentic Leaders are well versed with the political overtones and are able navigate the organization with utmost sincerity, commitment, and transparency. The political overtones do not deter them from doing the right things for the greater good of the organization. These leaders transcend regimes or groups of political affiliations in an organization over a period of time and grow stronger within the organization and create more ?authenticity for themselves as leaders in the process .

Here is my take ?on the traits of an authentic leader ,hope it will enable you to know the one around us more clearly and also help to hone ourselves if we want to be an authentic leader :

?1.??????Authentic Leaders lead with their heart and not just the mind .They are not afraid to show their emotions , their vulnerability and have a penchant for connecting with their teams at a personal level to enable them lead better lives .

2.??????Authentic Leaders do not shy away from having difficult conversations. They are able to provide direct feedback to their teams, because of the level of authenticity the team members take the feedback with utmost sincerity. This quality of authentic leaders enables them to turnaround people and cultures a lot easily than it is for the others.

3.??????Authentic Leaders refrain from creating affiliations for any reason . They don’t play favorites .For them anyone who creates value for the organization is the one to be revered irrespective of any personal likes or dislikes . This trait enables professional behavior and approach in the team . The team realizes , its performance that matters and nothing else .

4.??????Authentic Leaders think and act long term . They are not short sighted and never take the short cut . They create legacies and foundations for the organizations they work . This long term orientation enables them to create significant milestones on the way .

5.??????Authentic leaders are transparent and candid . They ensure that they are consistent and open about their thoughts and actions across levels . This helps to build trust in the team and the team always is ready to walk the extra mile for the leader they trust .