Authentic Leadership Development - Shamira and Eilamb

I am enjoying ploughing through a a great leadership article that Nick emailed me. He is currently in Malaysia on holidays... and catching up on his course reading!

The paper is Authentic Leadership Development by Shamira and Eilamb

Here is the abstract ...

Abstract
In this paper, we first develop the concepts of authentic leaders, authentic leadership, and authentic leader development. We suggest a definition of authentic leaders, which is based on the leader’s self-concept: his or her self-knowledge, self-concept clarity, self-concordance, and person-role merger, and on the extent to which the leader’s self-concept is expressed in his or her behavior.

Following, we offer a life-story approach to the development of authentic leaders. We argue that authentic leadership rests heavily on the self-relevant meanings the leader attaches to his or her life experiences, and these meanings are captured in the leader’s life-story. We suggest that self-knowledge, self-concept clarity, and person-role merger are derived from the life-story.

Therefore, the construction of a life-story is a major element in the development of authentic leaders. We further argue that the life-story provides followers with a major source of information on which to base their judgments about the leader’s authenticity.

We conclude by drawing some practical implications from this approach and presenting suggestions for further research.


Here are some more bits n pieces as I read on.

We suggest that the main defining characteristics of authentic leaders are:

1. Authentic leaders do not fake their leadership. They do not pretend to be leaders just because
they are in a leadership position, for instance as a result of an appointment to a management
position.

2. Relatedly, authentic leaders do not take on a leadership role or engage in leadership activities for status, honor or other personal rewards. Rather, they lead from a conviction.

3. Authentic leaders are originals, not copies.

4. Authentic leaders are leaders whose actions are based on their values and convictions.

Lead on!!