1.5 Authentic leadership principles

The literature demonstrates an increasing interest in developing leaders who abandon self-interest while improving employees’ experiences and organisational performance (George, 2004; Boyatzis & McKee, 2005). The servant leadership approach epitomises this doctrine. Servant leadership focuses on accomplishing shared visions and goals by developing employees to their potential. Servant leadership promotes greater leader self-awareness, an internalised moral perspective, balanced processing of information and relational transparency of leaders working with followers to foster positive self-development (Walumbwa et al., 2007). Servant leadership stems from relying on the primary desire to serve (Russell, 2001; Block, 2013; Covey, 1992; Greenleaf, 1991).

Although there is agreement on the basic concept of servant leadership, the characteristics and behaviours of servant leadership in the literature are indeterminate and ambiguous (Russell & Stone, 2002). Servant leaders are motivated by the needs of others over self-interest. They place themselves as servants in their relationship with their followers (Greenleaf, 1991; Pollard, 1996). This mindset is quite different from traditional leadership approaches. Servant leadership emphasises personal integrity and long-term relationships with employees outside the organisation, serving whole communities and society (Liden et al., 2008). The dominant influence of servant leadership results from favourable relationships and referent power built on subordinate trust, loyalty, respect and satisfaction, derived from an employee-centred culture established by servant leaders (Rachmawati & Lantu, 2014). Servant leaders shift authority to followers; therefore, they are non-reliant on formal or institutional power to achieve outcomes. Servant leaders also positively affect the least privileged in society; they want to understand whether followers will benefit or, at least, will not be further deprived. If inequalities and social injustices exist, a servant leader tries to remove them (Graham, 2015).

Servant leadership

Authentic leadership falls within the servant leadership category. Historically, authentic leadership theory was founded in ancient Greek philosophy, which emphasised that authenticity is a construct that embodies being in control of one’s life through the Delphic maxim of ‘know thyself’ (Novicevic et al., 2016). Authentic leadership in the literature of the 1960s came to describe how an organisation reflects itself authentically through leadership (Gardner et al., 2011).

The literature describes authentic leadership as behaviour that defines the leadership role within an organisation (Seeman, 1966). Others argue that it applies to the entire organisation, meaning that all in the organisation behave authentically as if they were a single entity through their responses to responsibility ascribed within the organisation or their reactions to uncertainty and innate creativity (van Aken, 2016). Authentic leaders are mission-driven (George, 2004). Further, authentic leaders are persuasive in asserting that they create greater value than those more financially oriented (George & Sims, 2007).

Dimensions of authentic leadership

According to George, a leader authentically emphasises building legitimacy through honest relationships and ethical actions that, in turn, maximise the efforts of others to achieve the goal. There are five dimensions of authentic leaders (George, 2004):

1. Pursue and display purpose and direction with a passion so people want to follow and thus show the purpose of leadership.
2. Practice solid values. If one is not perceived to have integrity, there will be no basis for trust, adversely affecting followership.
3. Authentic leaders are said to ‘lead with the heart’ and engage the hearts of those they serve, and therefore, align their interests with those they lead. An authentic leader requires empathy and compassion for the people they work with and the courage to make difficult decisions.
4. Authentic leaders establish enduring relationships built on connectedness and a shared purpose of working together towards a common goal.
5. Self-discipline is a key behaviour of authentic leaders to produce results. Authentic leaders take full responsibility for outcomes and hold others accountable for their performance. (George, 2004)

Characteristics of authentic leaders

George and Sims refined their description of authentic leaders’ behaviour to be consistent with personality and core values (George & Sims, 2007) of honesty, ethics and practicality (George et al., 2007). An analysis of contemporary literature produces five characteristics of authentic leaders:

1. They emphasise building the leader’s legitimacy through honest relationships with followers with a sense of purpose, knowing what they are about and where they are headed (Northouse, 2019).
2. They value followers’ input, built on an ethical foundation (George & Sims, 2007).
3. They are positive and truthful, promote openness, and build trust with followers (Farid et al., 2020).
4. They have a purpose which manifests as passion. Passionate people are interested in what they are doing, are inspired and intrinsically motivated, and care about their work (Northouse, 2019).
5. They generate enthusiastic support from followers to improve individual and team performance (Thacker, 2016).

For each of the dimensions of authentic leadership, related characteristics need to be evident for a leader to be effective. Authentic leaders live their values, which is important as others determine a leader’s value through their behaviour. They help others see their work’s value and deeper purpose and create enduring and genuine relationships through connections. Importantly, authentic leaders convert their values into consistent actions on which others can rely.

The characteristics described above mean that authentic leaders display self-awareness, which is the ongoing process of reflection and re-examination of personal strengths, weaknesses and values, signifying that the leader does not stray from their core beliefs. Authentic leaders subscribe to relational transparency, which is the open sharing of their thoughts and beliefs balanced by a minimal exhibition of inappropriate emotions. Moreover, authentic leaders practice balanced processing, which is related to actively seeking opposing viewpoints and giving them fair consideration. They have an internalised moral perspective where the leader adheres to a positive ethical foundation in relationships and decisions and is resistant to outside pressures (George & Sims, 2007; Northouse, 2019; Walumbwa et al., 2011).