Analysis Of Herminia Ibarra 's Article ' The Authenticity Paradox '

Authentic” in its original sense means “genuine, original, not a fake” (Shamir & Eilam). Authenticity is also understood as the alignment of one’s behavior with one’s inner values, beliefs, convictions whether they good or bad. Authenticity does not imply that it is concerned with positive, ethical, or moral behavior, it is more concerned that you are passionate and are true to yourself and knowing who you are (Cooper, Scandrua, & Schriesheim, 2005). This is a pretty accurate description of the leadership style of Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky. Brian has proven to be a leader in today’s world and this paper will give some insight as to he got to where he is now.

Leadership can be defined as the process of identifying a goal, motivating others, and make them to achieve the mutually goals (Giltinane, 2013). According to Humphreys (2002), successful leaders do this by applying their leadership knowledge and skills. A good leadership is not only good at management, but also use different leadership styles in different situations. A successful corporation must has a good leader who have the flexible ability which can provide a suitable leadership to make the company successful. Furthermore, there have no perfect leadership styles in the world. Different leader have different leadership styles which also have the different strengths and weaknesses (Ali & Waqar, 2013). Leaders need to consider

Authentic leadership is a real and genuine leadership. (Yoder-Wise, 2015, p. 195) According to the Journal of Nursing Management, (2015) an authentic leader gathers others viewpoints, as well as opinions, before making decisions that are important while having a balanced process. (Regan, Laschinger, & Wong, 2015)(p. 2) In the Volume 18 of that same journal Wong, Laschinger, and Cummings (2010) described authentic leadership as a leadership that built trust making the work environment healthier, retained staff, as well as promoted patient safety and satisfaction. (p. 890) Servant leadership is one that puts others first. (Yoder-Wise, 2015, p. 225) Servant leadership is described as putting the desires to serve others before personal gain. (Reed, 2015, p. 73)

Leadership has come a long way with earlier studies of trait and behavioral approaches. Since these were highly directive and non-supportive types of leaders, their main objective was to get the job done within the nine to five work day and go home. Although, this was an effective style back in the early 1900s, a lot has changed in terms of the business setting and functionality that many employees were operating back in the early 1900s. Many of the businesses back in the early 1900s consisted of factories, locally run family businesses that leaned towards a bureaucratic organizational system that suited that kind of leadership style. One of the major outcomes from this era was a lack of relationships and high standards of the work environment towards their employees. Overtime, businesses with help of extensive research till this day realized that in order to have better performance from their employees which could lead to increased profits, they must change how they operate within the organization and deal with their employees. Employees started to strive for more interpersonal style leadership behaviors and improved work settings to thrive and develop as an employee within the organization. Theories such as: LMX, Path-Goal, Transformational, Charismatic, and Servant Leadership were created to help understand and develop leaders for the benefit of their subordinates. These leadership styles are all good in their own way, yet I believe authentic leadership is ultimately

My personal experiences of leadership started when I was younger, roughly 7 years old, I was elected the captain of my travel soccer team. At the time I didn’t think much of it, nor did I have any extra duties that I was explicitly told that I needed to perform. Later throughout the season, I started to notice my teammates mimicking my styles and techniques and I highly enjoyed this feeling of being looked up to. I didn 't realize until years after that the recognition and pride I felt was leadership. This privilege of being captain was the first time I had realized that people weren 't necessarily following my actions because I was extraordinarily skilled, but because I provided this role model status with my confidence and encouragement. Some of the most valuable leaderships traits that I acquired and fortified are:

Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.

Three weaknesses of authentic leadership are: lack of trust demonstrated from top to bottom and vice versa, a lack of development due to the infancy of this theory and the pursuit with passion can lead to a blind pursuit. Trust must be given in order to receive it, if managers are not being fully authentic with their employees, the trust and level of commitment expected will never be reciprocated. Although John usually displays this trust to his team, he is only human and at times, as with any other manager or person, people are not trustworthy. For example for years, Big Hospital has preached that everyone is a family, yet, due to certain circumstances, there had to be a lot of layoffs, and whether granted or not, this is looked as being deceitful or not being honest with your employees. The second weakness of authentic leadership can be related to its infancy and its lack of leadership development. Fusco, T. (2016, p.119) argues that the next challenging frontier is to establish genuine leadership development. Often times, leadership seems to simply fit someone’s personality, however, leaders must continue to read and develop oneself to become a better leader, either through experiences or personal training. Big Hospital provides continued training for all its employees, and although some may take it more than others, employees are often encouraged to take training classes. Lastly, the third weakness of this theory is that of a “blind pursuit” or following an idea with

Authentic leadership emphasizes that leaders must practice self-awareness, optimism, resiliency, balanced processing (valuing others’ input and all relevant information prior to making decisions), and relational transparency (being one’s self in all interactions). The authentic leader values bringing out the best in others and continually ensures that his/her behavior is both ethical and moral at all times (Laschinger, Borgogni, Consiglio, & Read, 2015). In order to be an authentic leader, a person must request and receive feedback with an open mind and take advantage of opportunities to explore one’s self, which often results in the individual feeling vulnerable (Kerfoot, 2006). Vulnerability is uncomfortable for many due to our society’s emphasis on being autonomous

According to organisational behaviour by McShane, leadership is defined as influencing, motivating and enabling others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the organisation of which they are members (page 382, McShane).Becoming an effective leader depends on the leader’s leadership style. Successful leaders have vision and charisma, also the leader should have an ongoing personality, talkative, careful and self-disciplined. The leader must also have self-concept

Inscribed on the entry-wall at the ancient Greek Temple of Apollo at Delphi are the words “know thyself”. Can a leader be truly effective without knowing one’s self? Although it has roots in previous times Authentic Leadership is a concept that began to emerge in its modern form in the 1960s. It wasn’t until 2003 when Bill George wrote about authentic leadership and its connection to ancient Greece that it became a popular leadership concept (Clark, 2014). Bill George is senior fellow at Harvard Business School, where he has taught leadership since 2004. He is the author of four best-selling books: 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis, True North, Finding Your True North, and Authentic Leadership, as well True North Groups. His newest book, Discover Your True North, was published in August of 2015 along with its companion workbook, The Discover Your True North Fieldbook. He describes authentic leadership as a style of leading that is consistent with the core values and personality of the leader and one who leads from an honest, ethical and practical perspective. It is through the leaders authentic self, and not just the concept of self but more importantly the actions of the leader and how that is perceived by others that determines whether they believe the leader is authentic. It is through honest relationships and ethical actions that help to maximize the efforts of others in achieving the goal (George, 2016).

In brief, authentic leadership is defined as a “leadership that emphasizes building the leader 's legitimacy through honest relationships with followers which value their input and are built on an ethical foundation” (Authentic Leadership, n.d.). As leaders, they create close, trusting bonds with their followers through their transparency and their drive to serve their followers (Northouse, 2016). Practical approaches to authentic leadership are linked to a set of five initial characteristics that individuals need to possess. These include motivation, well developed values, strong relational connections, self-control and passion (Northouse,

A surge of research began after Luthans and Avolio in 2003 conceptualized a new model that included positive organizational behavior, transformational/full-range leadership, and ethical perspective-taking (Gardner, et al., 2011). Luthans and Avolio (2003) utilized a pragmatic approach to identify two key elements that should be included when discussing the concept of an authentic leader, to include the authenticity of a leader and the

Prior to reading Ibarra, though I have ample management experience, I never thought of leadership in this specific way. As the author demonstrated, being authentic was me being my rigid self, irrespective of the situation. In situations requiring me to change my behavior, my style or to play “politics”, I felt that I was taking on a role that was not my own, I was being fake. I

Authentic leaders create healthy enterprises for the long term and almost without exception, emerging leaders have solid values and a sense of purpose. We are looking to make a difference, to contribute to a worthwhile cause through our work and to find a reasonable balance between our work and home lives. In addition, to work where we trust the leaders and share a common set of values is essential to the chemistry involved in organizational leadership. “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully” (Romans 12:6-8, 1984, NIV).

In the past, the term “authentic leadership” is used to define ethical leadership. Researches examine authentic leadership as an attempt to discover more about ethical leadership. Researchers argue that authentic leadership is concerned with self-awareness, relational transparency, internalized moral perspective, and balanced processing (Gardner et al., 2005; Walumbwa et al., 2008). Although Authenticity is an important aspect of ethical leadership and the above definition creates a good list of behaviors, it doesn’t solely define all aspects of ethical leadership. It has also been argued that Influence processes used by leaders are driven by the underlying ethical values (Groves et al., 2011). Therefore, another approach to inspect ethical intent would be to examine the influence process used by leaders. Since leader’s influence processes are very much linked to her leadership styles, it’s appropriate to look at some leadership styles and the compatible influence processes.