In May 2010 I conducted 10 face-to-face interviews with employees of a non-profit organization in Ann Arbor to find out what authentic and inauthentic leadership means to them. Instead of asking an abstract question about an ambiguous term, I asked them for examples for both of these categories. What emerged from the interviews were fascinating descriptions of real-life leaders of either kind, combined with narratives and explanations of why the participants would describe authentic and inauthentic qualities the way they did.
Authentic Leaders larger than life? – Not at all.
One of my personal goals was to bring the academic concept of authentic leadership to life, because in my perception it was too artificial, too God-like, too perfect. But listening to the participants’ descriptions brought it home to me that we were not talking about ideal leader- images at all, but real-life managers with authentic qualities. This only shows that it is perfectly possible to live the life of an authentic leader – more or less!
Because: What counts is not what leaders think they are, it’s what their followers perceive, remember?
So, topping the list of qualities perceived by employees as authentic are activities related to enabling professional development in others and transparent behaviors:
“he stood up and told everybody: ‘The only person that could tell you No is me. It’s everybody else’s job in the organization to figure out how to make things happen.”
“I would describe them as authentic because I feel like under that type […] I’m able to professionally develop”
“when we were asked for our input, when we were provided freedom and discretion, that that was all genuine […] that there were no traps set out for us.”
“it’s nice to have somebody who thinks, you know: “let’s invest in you, let’s invest in your capacity”
“you just never thought that, what he wasn’t saying was what he felt and how he wanted things to be done”
“I can honestly say, I can’t ever remember doubting or thinking, he’s not being authentic with me.”
“in a sense, he wasn’t dishonest about his dishonesty. I think that’s authentic.”
“He doesn’t sugar coat. He tells it like it is. He lets you know when you are going, when you are walking into […] a hail storm”
Inauthentic leaders: beware!
The participants had equally comprehensive descriptions of the leaders whom they described as inauthentic. Mainly, these managers are perceived to pursue personal goals more than organizational or team goals, and to lack a sense of truthfulness and transparency.
Ironically, whilst inauthentic leaders might hope that their employees won’t notice, I found that they do:
“I was really more a mechanism to them to gain their own success”
“this was a leader who was trying to create a situation for his or her own personal advance”
“he didn’t really want a team of people, he just sort of wanted to move people around the board”
“he also did a certain amount of manipulating, pitting people against each other by little asides”
“you couldn’t have a conversation with her and expect open and honest discussion”
“to me I was like a warm body to him, and that he was working through me”
“it always seemed like there was something, something else driving her behavior, other than the good of the […] company”
“I really wondered if what he was telling me was what he really wanted, or whether it was in some sense a manipulation, versus you say what you mean, you mean what you say and we don’t have to second-guess whether we are in something for real or not”
And much, much more…
Whilst this is obviously only a tiny fraction of the data that I gathered (328 items overall), it allows a glance at the way real-life people perceive their managers to be (more or less) authentic/inauthentic. The subsequent goal of this study was the investigation of temporal patterns in the perception of authentic or inauthentic leadership. Hopefully I’ll find the time in the near future to share some of that information with you.
Meanwhile I’d like to encourage You to send me Your interpretation, perceptions and examples of authentic and inauthentic leadership. You can also email me at andrea.derler@gmail.com.
Thanks!
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