Authentic Leadership:
who you are and what you do determines how successfully you lead.

Leadership shapes the performance of any organisation.

These few words, chosen with purpose, are used by us here at Acorn perhaps more frequently than you’d imagine, and for good reason: because they are true.

Leaders have it within their gift to influence others, to provide direction and inform processes and as a result the performance of their people – and thereby the organisation – is resolutely bound to the leader’s personal style.

In our Team Coaching offering, Acorn support building upon the team leader’s style as this will directly assist them and their teams to achieve an organisation’s strategic goals.

The primary leadership styles are well documented and, whether you agree with them or not, it’s a fact that the majority of leaders typically fall into one of these categories.

Indeed, the internet abounds with articles that list the different leadership styles accompanied by the methods, characteristics and behaviours required of each. At times it reads as if a new manager should consider these lists as a choice they have to make and one that will inform their management style throughout their career.

But only a few caveat this by stating that any leader’s style (and the success thereof) is shaped by a number of factors including their personality, personal values, skills and experiences (both professional and personal), all of which can and will have a significant impact on the effectiveness of their leadership.

Regardless of leadership ‘style’, leading with authenticity is an attribute that we believe any manager should adopt to help realise the best performance from themselves and their people.

What is authentic leadership?

The theory of authentic leadership is credited to Bill George, the Harvard Business School professor and former CEO of global medical-device company Medtronic, who created and introduced the concept in his 2003 book, Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value.

In the book, Bill set out to demonstrate that authentic leaders of purpose-driven companies will deliver greater performance for the organisation and presented the five key attributes of authentic leadership as:

1. Purpose tied to passion
2. Behaviour based on values
3. Connectedness in relationships
4. Consistency built on self-discipline
5. Compassion from the heart

The Harvard Business School definition of authentic leadership considers it to be a leadership style in itself which is “exhibited by individuals who have high standards of integrity, take responsibility for their actions, and make decisions based on principle rather than short-term success”.

“They use their inner compass to guide their daily actions, which enables them to earn the trust of their employees, peers, and shareholders – creating approachable work environments and boosting team performance.”

At this point it is understandable to draw comparisons with Emotional Intelligence (EI) and its four tenets of self-management, social awareness, relationship management and, specifically, self-awareness.

The ability to understand and recognise your own emotions, thoughts and feelings and how they affect your performance – for better and for worse – is a key component of emotional intelligence.

Knowing yourself and how your behaviour impacts others will help establish and maintain strong and trusted relationships; it will also improve communication, both in the way you communicate, and the way others listen rather than just hear.

This may all sit squarely in the realms of soft skills and, equally, we appreciate that there are many successful executives who would rather leave this to their HR department but, for the effective authentic leader, the value of these skills far outweighs those of the autocratic compatriots.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins delivers the concept of ‘Level 5 Leadership’ which we consider, like EI, to share many commonalities with Bill George’s theory of authentic leadership:

“Level 5 leaders display a powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will.

They’re incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organisation and its purpose, not themselves. While Level 5 leaders can come in many personality packages, they are often self-effacing, quiet, reserved, and even shy.

Every good-to-great transition in our research began with a Level 5 leader who motivated the enterprise more with inspired standards than inspiring personality.”

How do I become an authentic leader?

It may have been inscribed upon the Temple of Apollo in ancient Greece, but Socrates’ philosophical maxim of ‘know thyself’ is perhaps more pertinent today than ever before and a good starting place for the aspiring authentic leader.

Knowing yourself is a vital attribute and one which takes focus and considered application over time – this isn’t a one-off exercise to tick a box, rather it is an ongoing commitment to self-reflection and personal improvement.

Some people (Bill George included) practise meditation as part of their daily routine, dedicating time each day to look back, review and recall specific situations: what did I do well and what could I have done better?

But the approach doesn’t need to be an entirely solo exercise and there are certainly benefits to be found in sharing thoughts out loud with a coach or mentor. Indeed, much of Acorn’s ‘walk and talk’ activities with individual clients is focused on self-awareness.

In developing and applying Acorn’s Five Dimensions of Teams coaching model, we support individuals in senior management teams to become inspirational, authentic leaders who can create the conditions for team success. This also emphasises positive exchanges and active listening, with an open mind approach to learning and personal development and an appreciation and respect for others.

Another step to becoming an authentic leader is to be approachable, an attribute which demonstrates openness, warmth and empathy which can help forge deep connections through personal interactions.

A credible leader imparts both authority and knowledge whilst demonstrating humility, resolve and competence. A team will trust a credible and effective leader who can make strong decisions even when faced with difficult challenges, with the team’s resilience also emboldened as a consequence.

An authentic leader will also be an aspirational leader, one who motivates others to achieve what might be considered as lofty (even unattainable) expectations. This motivation carries with it the belief that the goal is achievable and brings out the best in team members; another attribute that, when momentum is gathered, it can drive the pace of organisational or project goals.

Perfection is not a priority

Being infallible is most definitely not a prerequisite for the authentic leader and, quite the opposite: research from the Kellogg School of Management finds that leaders who confess faults are seen as more authentic but no less competent than those who don’t, and that employees prefer to work with leaders who admit their foibles.

If your own leadership style leans towards the more autocratic ‘command and control’ model then this may prove a challenge, but even here there is scope for leaders to display humility and endear themselves to their team.

Inevitably there may be individuals who will seek out the failure of others and consider this display of honesty to be a vulnerability or weakness to be sized upon and leveraged for whatever reason.

On the whole, however, this humility and self-acceptance, self-declaration of error is an approach which will garner more positive responses than not.

Mind, body and spirit

In a recent McKinsey ‘In the Strategy Room’ interview and podcast, Bill George was keen to stress the importance of health and personal wellbeing for the authentic leader; after all, how can one lead and set an example if their own wellbeing is below par and therefore impacting negatively on their own performance?

“Leaders are like Olympic athletes.” he says, “You have to be healthy in mind, body, and spirit. You want to keep expanding your mind and be engaged outside of your work environment. You also have to be in good physical shape.”

For one’s spirit, this comes down to building lasting relationships with your team and further afield. This means having a network of others around you who can support you when you’re down.

Wanted: more authentic leaders

For anyone who is on-board with the concept of authentic leadership and those who already practise it (perhaps without even knowing it has a name), the benefits of this approach are plain to see.

Teams look to their leaders for guidance and direction, for support and structure, and also for reassurance that they are all on the same team and striving for the same goals (Primary Purpose).

When a group of individuals unite under their leader(s) then they are already on the road to becoming a high performing team. If their leader is humble and honest; if they are respectful, compassionate and approachable; if they are purposeful, values-led and consistent in their actions, then the authenticity is hard to challenge.