Authentic Leadership Theory Paper

Servant leaders puts their followers first versus the goals and objectives of the organization, which limits organizational strategy and processes and lacks continuous improvement of core competencies; therefore, there is no research to date that proves this leadership style increases organizational performance (de Waal & Sivro, 2012). In contrast, as a positive, communication strategies of servant leaders are rewarded with employee loyalty and decreased staff turnover which increase patient outcomes and satisfaction due to staff feelings of appreciation and compassion from the servant leader (Marquis & Huston,

Over the course of my career, I have tried to model various leadership behaviors based upon successful leaders that I have worked with or for. This has led me to incorporate different styles into my own. Considering my current leadership strengths and how I view successful leaders I will use a servant leadership theory to analyze my own competencies. Servant leaders have 9 different aspects comprised of: emotional healing, creating value for the community, conceptual skills, empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first, behaving ethically, relationships, and servanthood (Boone & Makhani, 2005, pg. 86). The aspects of a servant leader are those that I personally value and identify with. In addition to this, it is my belief that servant leaders, because they are people oriented, are more effective in a variety of environments and situations.

The two theories that I chose to do my self-assessment by are the authentic leadership theory and the servant leadership theory. The authentic leadership theory was chosen due to my desire to stay true to who I am and what I stand for. However, the servant leadership theory was chosen because of my desire to meet the needs of others while doing what I can to help others succeed as well as meet their set goals. Being a servant while being authentic are the traits I want in my style of leadership and are assessed throughout this paper along with my strengths and weaknesses in the area of leadership.

Servant Leadership is “an approach to leadership with strong altruistic and ethical overtones that asks and requires leader to be attentive to the needs of their followers and empathize with them; they should take care of them by making sure they become healthier, wiser, freer and more autonomous, so that they too can become servant leaders” (Valeri, 2007). Although there is not many servant leaders in this world but the concept of servant is one of the most leadership approach leaders today struggles with. Servant leadership is mainly about the leader helping to grow their followers or members personally and professionally through empathy, listening skills and compassion. The concept of servant leadership which was proposed by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 writing indicated that servant leadership is a theoretical framework that advocated a leader’s primary motivation and role as service to others.

At its core, servant leadership is about service to others and originates from within. Servant leaders possess individual qualities within themselves that facilitate their leading through acts of service. Ten traits characterize servant leadership: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of others, and building communities. Servant leaders, according to Parolini (2004), are characterized by their ability to “bring integrity, humility, and servant hood into caring for, empowering and developing others in carrying out tasks and processes of visioning, goal setting, leading, modeling, team building, and shared-decision making” (Parolini, 2004, p. 9). A historic

Servant leadership is a theory based on Robert K Greenleaf’s belief that all men have a primary motivation to serve others and through this service they aspire to lead (Parris & Peachey, 2012). Although this leadership model has very little in common with charismatic and situational does however compare to transformational leadership in several areas. The main area of commonality between the two can be found as transformational leaders serve as stewards to change enable the followers to accept the change and move forward with the organization (Tichy & Devanna, 1990, p. 75). In essence, servant leadership becomes the long-term transformational approach to life and work.

Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow developed the authentic leadership theory in 1971 (McEwen & Willis, 2014). This theory holds that an authentic leader is someone who is self-actualized, understands his or her capabilities, obtains noteworthy ethical standards, and is not easily persuaded (McEwen & Willis, 2014). Authentic leadership was designed to complement the basic roots and core values of leadership (Wong & Cummings, 2009). An authentic leader is unbiased and acts upon what needs to be done rather than to please people (Wong & Cummings, 2009). Due to the rising demands of the health care system, there is an increased need for DNP prepared NPs (Poghosyan & Liu, 2016).

How people interact with others leans toward three styles of attachment: secure, insecure-ambivalent and insecure-avoidant. The researchers argue that people who are securely attached are most likely to exhibit authentic leadership. Their research reviews how secure attachment is positively related to each of the four components of authentic leadership; self-awareness, relationship transparency, balanced processing and internalized moral perspective (Hinojosa, Davis McCauley, Randolph-Seng, & Gardner, 2014).

Servant leadership is my credo. Robert K. Greenleaf defines a servant leader as a “servant first”-to focus first on the needs of others, especially the team before one considers one’s own needs. I acknowledge others perspectives; give support they need to meet their work and their personal goals by involving them in the decision-making, and building a sense of community. I believe my leadership philosophy leads to higher engagement, and stronger relationships with team members and other people. As a leader, my first duty is to serve those under my command. My task is to make their jobs easier. To support my people, I have to understand their problems and challenges in order to address them.

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,

Authentic leadership is a strong influence on the caring leadership model. Authentic leadership is one of the most recent leadership approaches (Northouse, 2013), nevertheless, leadership scholars do not have a single accepted definition of this leadership approach. The first leadership summit with a focus on authentic leadership development was held at the University of Nebraska (Northouse, 2013). However, the first article regarding authentic leadership development was written by Bruce Avolio and Fred Luthans in 2003 (Northouse, 2013), who are credited with inspiring interest in this leadership approach. Avolio, Gardner, Walumbwa, Luthans, and May (2004a) state that authentic leadership stresses integrity, honesty, and high moral values

The theory of authentic leadership has continued to develop since 1966 (Gardner, Cogliser, Davis, & Dickens, 2011). This is a relative new leadership theory and there is no single accepted definition of authentic leadership (Northouse, 2010). Authentic leadership can be defined using three different perspectives to include intrapersonal, interpersonal, and developmental (Chan, 2005). These perspectives include looking at the authenticity of the leader, the relationship between the leader and the follower, as well as the impact of the leader on the follower. For purposes of this study “Authentic leadership” is defined as

In the book The Servant, the author James C. Hunter discusses Servant Leadership, and the impact it has on every aspect of life. The book begins with a middle-aged man, John, who has it all, a supportive wife and kids and an authoritative job as a manager at a glass factory. John however, feels his life is falling apart, his employees aren’t respecting him and his relationships with his wife and kids are becoming distant and negative. In an attempt to make a change, John attended a week long religious retreat that’s main focus is Servant Leadership. The attendees at this retreat were all very different, their careers varied greatly, and their views on how to be a leader were not alike either. In the end though, they all agreed on one thing, making a change to become a Servant Leader was going to reshape their lives, through both their careers and relationships.

The article is about authentic leadership and about being an authentic person so that authentic leadership can come about. The authors also refer to authentic living as behavioral integrity. Behavioral integrity by the authors' definition means to be true to oneself to be honest with oneself internally as well as for one's thoughts, actions, and words to be united in intent and content. Behavioral integrity additionally refers to behaving with integrity, that is to practice integrity through the demonstration and playing out of one's behavior. These traits and practices, the authors argue, make for the foundation of authentic leadership. The authors write about authentic leadership as a way to say that there is a great need in the workplace across all fields and industries for a great deal more authentic leadership.

Several reviews have been conducted to provide insight into servant leadership as a theory. Parris and Peachey (2013) state that Russell and Stone reviewed the theoretical framework of servant leadership and listed nine distinct character traits of servant leaders, namely; integrity, honesty, vision, service, trust, modeling, pioneering, appreciation of others and empowerment. Parris and Peachey (2013) appreciate the conceptual framework in the work of Russell and Stone yet they note that it lacks a methodology.