The wise leader and authenticity
Dr Suzi Skinner ?and I are looking forward to publishing The Wise Leader early next year. The Wise Leader brings together perspectives from the world of wisdom with insights from the world of leadership, in service of creating practical pathways for leaders seeking to become wiser. The book is structured around five mantras:
The wise leader is wholeheartedly committed to his/her own development and (Suzi's research tells us) they reflect differently to other leaders. They have a more sophisticated approach to self-awareness and are able to transcend their own beliefs and values in service of working more effectively with others. This enhanced capacity to self-transcend means they think differently about change, and are able to engage differently with the people they seek to influence. They understand the significance of dialogue and are able to leverage their awareness of selves to engage in true dialogue.
In this short series of Linkedin articles, we seek to illustrate the significance of the five mantras with reference to oft cited attributes of wise leaders. In this article we focus on?authenticity.
Traditional attempts to facilitate self-awareness are flawed. The leadership literature usually depicts people as unitary entities defined by a single set of beliefs, motivations, and experiences. To become a great leader, so the logic goes, a leader must develop a deep understanding of his/her ‘true’ self, then behave consistent with that self at all times. Behaving in accordance with one’s true self is often referred to as being authentic. But there is no evidence to support the idea that there is one me or one you. The only evidence for the existence of a single self is our subjective sense of being. This sense of self is comforting but illusory. There is more evidence to support the idea that we are many.
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Authenticity, from a multiplicity perspective, is not about grabbing onto one of our selves and trying to push away other aspects of ourselves we don't like. Authenticity through a multiplicity lens is about embracing all different aspects of our selves, pulling them towards us, getting to know them. We want our different selves to know each other and learn to dance together. This perspective on self acknowledges the complexity of self. The wise leader doesn’t place herself in a two-by-two matrix or categorise herself as one of sixteen different types. The wise leader embraces her complexity, is adaptable, and can bring the most effective version of herself to the situation.
This perspective on self leads us to a very different view of authenticity. Authenticity, through this lens, is about the extent to which our different selves are aware of each other and work together collaboratively. Dr. Mary Watkins, a clinical and developmental psychologist, says that one aspect of healthy psychological development is the progressive elaboration of different internal characters, and the continuous enhancement of imaginary conversations between those characters. Professor Tatiana Bachkirova distinguishes between the mature ego and the immature ego, our place on the scale depending on the extent to which all our various selves work effectively together. Our task, therefore, is to first seek to understand our different selves, and then to learn how they might work together more effectively.
This perspective on self and authenticity is important! When we undertake 360 surveys for example, if the person briefing us encourages us to identify our one true self, if they define authenticity as the capacity to behave the same way in every scenario - they are doing us a disservice. Perhaps this is why some research suggests that undertaking a 360 survey diminishes performance in up to 30% of cases. Instead the debriefer should be encouraging us to think about what the data tells us about how we show up differently in different situations. In each situation - which self is running the show? How might all our selves work together more effectively so that the most appropriate self, or selves, show up in the right scenario? We have recently developed a 360-by-interview process that helps people acess this much more sophisticated perspective on selves.
In the book we elaborate on these ideas and suggest practical ways in which leaders can become more selves-aware, and ways in which OD specialists can build wise leadership development solutions for those in their organisation.
If you’d like to know more about?The Wise Leader, please check out our?website .
Facilitator | Coach | CreatorI Unlocking individual and team potential through the expert use of image cards
2 年Thanks for sharing Dr Paul Lawrence and very exciting to hear about the book! The idea of multiple selves and many identities rings true and i'm keen to hear more!
CAREER, LEADERSHIP AND LIFE COACH WITH A SPECIALIST FOCUS ON CHALLENGING ASSIGNMENTS. ENJOYS WORKING WITH THOSE FROM A NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING BACKGROUND PARTICULARLY CHINA/ASIA. TRAINED ETHICS COUNSELLOR. MENTOR.
2 年Interesting, Paul. It seems out of step with the research of the world’s emerging wisdom psychologists co-authored by Igor Grossman and a team of researchers - wisdom is a moral eco-systemic relationship with the world. There is no wisdom without a moral, ethical view of things. It has little to do with a ‘true’ self, whatever that is - it is more about a constructed ‘true’ north I guess. Authenticity is undergoing a slow interment, overdue in my view. The other foundation to wisdom you allude to is the ancient invocation to ‘know thyself’, which is foundational. It is hotly followed by epistemic humility. Hence the wisdom of not claiming to be wise.
Executive Coach, Leadership Coach, Psychotherapist, Innovation & Change Specialist
2 年Great post! One of the approaches I used in my leadership coaching is psychosynthesis. The process of personal psychosynthesis involves becoming aware of and then integrating our many 'subpersonalities' into our personality. It also enables a deepening awareness of a 'Self' who can then 'conduct' the selection of the most appropriate subpersonality to show up for a particular situation. I felt this was well-aligned with what you describe.
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2 年There is so much truth in this approach Dr Paul Lawrence! I fully agree. A thoughtful debrief of a 360 can be an excellent means to foster self-awareness but over-reliance on it has its drawbacks; ie. limiting the self when "strengths" are overused. Transcending the "now that we've done your 360 approach..." allows us to respond authentically to the complexity of each situation.
Positive Adaptive Leader Mindset - Global Team & Executive Coach (MCC - ICF, MCC - AC)
2 年So powerful to be thinking about the ways in which our selves can dance with each other. This can feel like a lifelong task and yet it is something that can make a huge difference to our self-belief and our wellbeing. Tailoring 360 feedback to this idea of embracing our many identities is so important as we continue to validate our clients (and ourselves) for all the different parts of who they are!