Letting People Be Themselves Is The First Step To Building An Ethical Culture
The benefits of authentic leadership are well-documented: Trust, employee engagement, perceived leadership effectiveness, etc.
The real puzzle is this: What prevents leaders from being authentic?
One reason is the fear that telling the full truth may curtail their teams’ ability to perform. Thus, leaders focus just on “mobilizing” people and “arousing” them to action in a black-and-white manner, without acknowledging the gray areas: the trade-offs, the challenges and the potential risks of an aggressive growth strategy.
But it is this fear of authenticity that ends up triggering a dangerous slippery slope — a progressive slide from the truth that deprives leaders and their teams of the capacity to address the very challenges they face. When leaders pressure employees to deliver at all costs, without acknowledging predictable obstacles and risks, people may feel compelled to take compromising shortcuts. A blind rhetoric of achievement creates high ethical risk.
Authenticity helps leaders do the right thing.
