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The Profile of Authentic Leadership

The phrase, Authentic Leadership, has joined the ranks of expressions such as “World Class,” “Radical Honesty” and “Fierce Communication,” as a power word for our time. It has found its way into Boardrooms, Leadership Training venues, Organizational Development and Professional Coaching engagements. And characteristic of other power phrases offered as labels for excellence, when uttered, many nod in approval as though the meaning were clear to all.

And it sounds good, doesn't it?

Powerful, sagely, even original, without ever needing to land on a clear sense of what it is. And that's fine for those who are comfortable brandishing a term that may not connect with experience. But for others, the phrase, stirs deep meaning arrived at through reflection of personal experience coupled with common sense.

So, what is Authentic Leadership?

One way to answer this is to understand what it is not. First and foremost, it is not a label that comes to the mind of the Authentic Leader. Rather it is a term another uses to describe him. For he does not consider himself in a light that asks others to follow him or that he should lead. He is simply immersed in a sense of appropriate action derived from self-leadership: his free state of enquiry, exploration and his path to appropriate action.

He does not derive his authority from his station or the circumstances that surround him. Instead he is “self-empowered,” not “other empowered,” through a sense of enquiry and curiosity. Upon close inspection, it is clear that his ability to discover appropriate action for himself actually evokes the same from others; which is key to their sense of his leadership. This has the effect of empowering others to discover their own leadership and their own free state of enquiry and exploration. And it is precisely this event that moves others to follow. They want what he has, the effect he generates and the safety he engenders. But most are unclear how he got it. So others follow, observe and some even dare to ask. How?

As they look to discover how he got it or merely choose to bask in and benefit from it, they take up the role of followers: a label that comes to their mind. For the Authentic Leader, aside from an unrelenting commitment to enquiry and exploration, does not believe he is more important or powerful than others. He will not permit himself to buy into the accolades and adulation of others. He is not confused regarding what he is about and remains clear-headed about others' tendency to regard him grandly. He understands that their behavior towards him is borne of a mixture of their curiosity, appreciation, and fear.

He knows that most are motivated out of their sense of survival, which they believe he can provide and thus miss the point of authentic leadership. For the Authentic Leader knows that he has no real power beyond his ability to employ enquiry and exploration as his path to appropriate action. Moreover, he knows the power invested in him by others does not belong to him. Neither is it theirs to give nor is it his to claim. It is only on loan to him without which he would be ineffective in his role. As such, the Authentic Leader acts with conscious responsibility to wisely use and care for the power bestowed upon him and increases its potency through the empowerment of others. They loan to him, he enhances it and hands it back. It's just a spiraling form exchange.