Authentic Leadership. Leadership 200 Essay. By: Stephen Matthew Wisniew. CGSC Small Group 2 E. Dr. Heller, Instructor

Transcription

1 Authentic Leadership Leadership 200 Essay By: Stephen Matthew Wisniew CGSC Small Group 2 E Dr. Heller, Instructor

2 The best advice is not to learn to get along with others, but to learn to get along with yourself. Self awareness and the inner life, have more to do with leadership than the external perceptions and skill in performance of display. Moreover, our expectations about the external world are formed by our internal self, and lead to an external change. As an authentic leader, we have to practice what we would like the external reality to be. The leader has to dig deep into the inner workings and recognize self-deception s way to disorder authenticity. It is a journey of experience and discernment, humility, awareness, and action. As self-conscious beings we can alter our existence in the present from a past we may feel we cannot escape, and lead authentically into the future: You can always make something out of what you have been made into 1. Action leads leadership. Authentic action arrives to authentic leadership which relies on how decisions are made. Bob Terry, in Authentic Leadership: Courage in Action, describes authentic leadership as the following: Authenticity is knowing, and acting on, what is true and real inside yourself, your team and your organization AND knowing and acting on what is true and real in the world 2. Authentic leadership becomes challenged by the paradoxical nature of issues and decision to be made and the responsibility that it engenders for the leader. This paper means to explore the ideas of an authentic self leading to authentic leadership and is not intended to form techniques and best practices for leading an authentic organization. However, it is assumed that the organization will have an indirect positive effect from personal authentic leadership. Peter G. Northouse in Leadership: Theory and Practice (2010), maintains that Authentic leadership represents one of the newest areas of leadership research. It focuses on whether 1

3 leadership is genuine and real. 3 The choice to be authentic presupposes that action derived from authenticity will be of the same origin. Cashman states that Leadership is not something we simply do. It comes from somewhere inside us. Leadership is a process, an intimate expression of who we are. It s our being in action. At its deepest level, leadership is authentic self-expression that creates value. 4 The definition for authentic leadership, according to Northouse, has three viewpoints: intrapersonal, developmental, and interpersonal 5 ; however, it is the first viewpoint that we shall explore. Intrapersonal authentic leadership focuses closely on the leader and what goes on within the leader. It incorporates the leader s self-knowledge, self-regulation, and selfconcept. 6 Furthermore, authentic leadership characteristics-from an intrapersonal perspective by Shamir and Eilam (2005), says that authentic leaders: exhibit genuine leadership; lead from conviction; are originals, not copies; and base their actions on their values 7. Additionally, the authors contend that the development of authentic leadership relies heavily on the life story of the leader and the meaning the leader attaches to his or her life experiences. 8 Finally, Shamir and Eilam believe that followers need to have realistic perceptions of their leaders, and they need to affirm the legitimacy of the leader and the leader s behavior. 9 Thus, through these definitions there is the recognition of the importance to identifying the authentic self, but also recognizing that coworkers or subordinates assist in defining the parameters of authenticity. Authentic leadership begins with personal awareness. Questioning and discerning our actions creates this awareness into how and why we act; however, if we are unconscious to our decisions, or do not examine them, we have eliminated the possibility of authenticity and comparison with inauthenticity. Kevin Cashman (1997) in Innovative Leader, asks, Do our actions originate from deep within ourselves, or are they coming from a more superficial, limited 2

4 space? Is our leadership arising from our character, the essence of who we are? Or is it only coming from our persona, the external personality we ve created to cope with life circumstance? 10 Jean-Paul Sartre, in Existentialism and Humanism states that, Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself. That is the first principle of existentialism. 11 Furthermore, man by his actions moves himself toward a future and in so doing realizes his actions in that regard (p.28). Consequently, when we say that man is responsible for himself, we do not mean that he is responsible only for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men 12. Therefore, a commitment to personal genuineness naturally follows a concern for others, or all of humanity, and as a leader, it too can mean for the organization. It follows; therefore that which we make of ourselves in turn affects others. If we choose authenticity, then that commitment resonates from our actions and supports others in our relationships; whether personal or professional. Our existence depends primarily on our subjective understanding of life. Sartre says, that before that projection of the self nothing exists; not even in the heaven of intelligence: man will only attain existence when he is what he purposes to be 13. Our purpose as individuals has to be identified for ourselves first, then through our actions to commit to that purpose. When this idea of purpose finally manifests, Sartre contends that we will feel anguish, abandonment, and despair 14 as responses, thus indicating that the soul searching is not something without emotion or life-changing development. It may point to the feelings of isolation that leaders often feel as they become more responsible over time, and in different roles and encounters. Let us examine a military example that Sartre gives us to expand upon the anguish a leader may encounter: 3

5 When, for instance, a military leader takes upon himself the responsibility for an attack and sends a number of men to their death, he chooses to do it and at bottom he alone chooses. No doubt he acts under a higher command, but its orders, which are more general, require interpretation by him and upon that interpretation depend the life of ten, fourteen or twenty men. In making the decision, he cannot but feel a certain anguish. All leaders know that anguish. It does not prevent their acting, on the contrary, it is the very condition of their action presupposes that there is a plurality of possibilities, and in choosing one of these, they realize that it has value only because it is chosen. Now it is anguish of that kind which existentialism describes, and moreover, as we shall see, makes explicit through direct responsibility towards other men who are concerned. Far from being a screen which could separate us from action, it is a condition of action itself 15 What is the cause of such feelings and why would they need to occur, especially as part of building authenticity or as part of leader development? Anguish comes to mean that we view our actions as affecting every human and it is anguish pure and simple, of the kind well known to all those who have borne responsibility 16. Abandonment, the other outcome Sartre speaks, evidences through awareness, that as a responsible being, you are alone in your actions with little more than yourself to guide you along. There are, however, others or staff, and colleagues, but the reality is that the decision has to be made by a leader who assumes the responsibility for the action. Moreover, feeling is formed by the deed that one does; therefore I cannot consult it as a guide to action. And that is to say that I can neither seek within myself for an authentic formulae that will enable me to act. 17, so in a position as leader, we may have feelings of abandonment as we have to trust ourselves in our decision making based upon our subjective faculties-and in some difficult and complex situations, our intuitions. Finally, despair recognizes our limitations in physical being, experiences, situation that we limit ourselves to a reliance upon that which is within our wills, or within the sum of probabilities, which render our actions feasible 18. We may as leaders be confronted with no real 4

6 control or bound by situational constraints which by their nature could evoke despair because we feel limited in our purposes or intent. Authentically understanding these related feelings to responsibility and decision making come to highlight an emotional and engaging internal discussion and response about the importance of the issues. This can serve as an awareness to the real and our commitment to right action. The paradox of leadership and authentic leadership engenders a sense of emotional harm to our thoughts; however, the leader s challenge is not only to recognize and gain awareness of these outcomes, but to be able to function with purpose in the midst of them. Anguish, abandonment, and despair do not serve to hinder, but rather offer a realistic and subjective view of the greater responsibility that authentic leadership espouses. This is a call to purposeful action and there is no reality except in action. It goes further indeed, and adds, Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is. 19. The authentic leader s has a personal call to action. Cashman offers, if we want to be more effective with others, we first need to become more effective with ourselves Commit to authentically getting to know your total self. Practice being what you wish others to become. 20 Action is the essence of authentic leadership, what Cashman calls expression as the true voice of the leader 21. Expression from leaders to the paradoxical events of life and tragedies faced today, require authentic leaders who are reflective, values based, and trustworthy. According to Bill George in Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value, authenticity comes to mean, being yourself; being the person you were created to be 22 in contrast to what he says the leadership experts have developed into lists of leadership characteristics one is supposed to emulate. They describe the styles of leaders and suggest that 5

7 you adopt them 23. George (2003) views inauthentic leaders as those too responsive to the desires of others [and] are likely to be whipsawed by competing interests, [and] too quick to deviate from their course or unwilling to make difficult decisions for fear of offending 24. The authentic leader realizes that finding the authentic self is a journey difficult with anguish, despair, and abandonment. If you are comfortable with yourself and fail, or you die, it doesn t matter; you will have lived life through authentic action-the full measure of humanness. There is no competition against your authenticity; even in the face of competing interest. Authentic leadership has no completion because it is or it is not. Leadership based upon self awareness is fearless, and does not insist on an Other for authorization. Authentic leadership does not isolate the leader from his fellow man but realizes our authentic self is interdependent, as Sartre says, that, I cannot obtain any truth whatsoever about myself, except through the mediation of another. The other is indispensable to my existence, and equally so to any knowledge I can have of myself Popkin, Richard H. (Flynn, Thomas R.) Existentialism and Beyond in The Columbia History of Western Philosophy (Columbia University Press: New York, 1999), An excerpt from Chapter 6 of Bob Terry s book Authentic Leadership: Courage in Action. Online at< 3 Northouse, Peter G. Leadership: Theory and Practice, 5 th Ed., (Sage: Los Angeles, 2010.), Winston J. Brill and Associates Website. #305 from Innovative Leader Volume 6, Number 11 November 1997 Authentic Leadership by Kevin Cashman. Online at< 5 Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Ibid Qtd in. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, 207, Table Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Ibid Winston J. Brill and Associates Website. #305 from Innovative Leader Volume 6, Number 11 November 1997 Authentic Leadership by Kevin Cashman. Online at< 11 Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism and Humanism. Trans:Mairet, Philip. (Haskell House: NY, 1948), Ibid

8 13 Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Winston J. Brill and Associates Website. #305 from Innovative Leader Volume 6, Number 11 November 1997 Authentic Leadership by Kevin Cashman. Online at< 21 Winston J. Brill and Associates Website. #305 from Innovative Leader Volume 6, Number 11 November 1997 Authentic Leadership by Kevin Cashman. Online at< 22 George, Bill. Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value.(Joey-Bass: San Francisco, 2003.), Ibid Ibid Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism, 45. 7