The Making of the Authentic Leadership Model
Welcome to this week’s VBlog!!! Over the last three week’s I distilled lessons learned from the several academic articles that focus on Authentic Leadership. I am sure many of you find the results of the studies nail-biting and almost tantalizing. You did, great!
This week, I shift gears and share with you the Authentic Leadership Model (ALM) (& formula) from the book, The Crucible’s Gift: 5 Lesson’s From Authentic Leaders Who Thrive in Adversity. The model (& formula) is at the heart of the book.
The ALM model is simple, easily digestible, and backed by research. The proposed ALM formula is written to appeal to those who are more mathematical in nature. Let’s dive in!
THE CRUCIBLE MOMENT: HOW DO YOU FEEL?
The late Dr. Warren Bennis was one of the first academics who believed that an adversity moment is what powers the best leaders. Crucibles are moments in life that give you pause and if you chose, fundamentally impact your identity. The key word is, ‘chose’. These crucibles can smack you in the face, knock out your teeth, or make you cry. The moment the crucible hits, your ego, self-worth or psychological safety takes a big hit. However, if you are willing, and allow time to pass, the adversity, is what impacts how and why you lead. This lesson is what I learned when I interviewed 140 executives from around the world.
SELF-AWARENESS: ONLY IF YOU ARE WILLING TO EMBRACE
Self-awareness is defined as knowing who you are, what you excel at, and where you fall short. And more importantly, the wisdom to know the difference. If you asked 1000 executive coaches, one of the most glaring deficiencies leaders have is a void in self-awareness. As I examed the transcripts from the interviews, a pattern began to emerge. When a leader embraced their crucible, their self-awareness deepens. This is great and is only the starting point for what happens when a leader takes hold of their crucible and begins their authenticity journey. This results in the starting point of the equation.
Crucible = self-awareness = Authentic Leader
COMPASSION: A PRACTICE THAT PAYS BACK 10-FOLD
There was a recent commencement speech by Jeff Weiner (CEO of LinkedIn) that he gave at the University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton Business School (click here to watch). To boil it down to a single nugget, Jeff states that that biggest bit of advice that he would give his 22 year-old-self is the perspective of compassion. He acknowledges that once he realized the power of compassion in the workplace, it transformed his perspective and the culture of LinkedIn on the whole. Please watch the speech; it is the singular most impactful bit of evidence that supports my belief that once a leader embraces their crucible, it deepens their self-awareness and in turn, makes them more compassionate to those around them. Resulting in the following addition to the equation.
Crucible = self-awareness + (compassion) = Authentic Leader.
INTEGRITY: DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WANT TO BE DONE TO YOU
Dr. Fred Kiel is the author of Return on Character: The Real Reason Leaders and their Companies Win. Dr. Kiel is curious about what the impact is on the return on assets for an organization when employees perceive leadership that expresses the values of integrity, responsibility, compassion, and forgiveness. He investigated eighty-four companies and found that on average employees that perceive leaders with values of integrity, responsibility, compassion, and forgiveness, ROA resulted in a 9.3 percent increase. Contrary, employees that did not perceive leadership as acting positively across the four outcomes only resulted in paltry 1.93 return on ROA.
I feel that integrity is something we all can agree on. It is nice when a leader has it. It motivating and it breeds a deeper sense of respect for the leader. And, this is where a leader can also fall flat. Specifically, when it comes to having the hard conversation. However, it is precisely in the moment of the hard conversation that honesty and compassion play a significant role. Resulting in the following addition to the equation.
Crucible = self-awareness + (compassion + integrity) = Authentic Leader.
RELATABLENESS: THE MAJIC OF MICRO-MOMENTS
In Daniel Pink’s groundbreaking book, Drive, one of the central arguments put forward in the book is the notion that humans have a deep-seated need to connect with others. To explain the rationale behind his argument, Daniel uses a significant academic theory called Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Its creators are Dr. Ed Deci and Richard Ryan.
I have written about this in a previous blog, but to quickly recap, SDT suggests that individuals are intrinsically motivated to behave when autonomy, competency, and relatedness are present. Over that last 30 years, the work by Deci and Ryan (click here to see a history SDT) has been supported time and again, leading to what I found occurred after a leader embraced their crucible moment.
When the crucible is embraced leaders, self-awareness deepens, compassion strengthens, integrity grows, and a desire to create a culture of relationship prevails. The results in the following addition to the equation.
Crucible = self-awareness + (compassion + integrity + relatableness) = authentic leadership.
LEARNING MINDSET: THE POWER OF LEARNING
Finally, I lean on Dr. Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset to explain the final aspect of the Authentic Leadership Model. Dweck’s central premise and I am severely oversimplifying it, is that some individuals are driven to improve, explore, be open to feedback and in general, are always moving forward in their growth. And some, not so much.
Learning mindset is the final addition to the model, and the piece that adds the most value because without a leader’s drive to discover, develop, and embrace failure, they struggle to evolve their leadership style. Often mistaking success with leadership. Additionally, the evidence surrounding a learning mindset is pretty clear, that when a leader lives in a growth mindset, magic happens. Using the context of the proposed model, a learning mindset is what gives a leader the desire to become a better version of themselves. This results in the final piece of the Authentic Leadership equation.
Learning (Crucible) = self-awareness + (compassion + integrity + relatableness) = Authentic Leader.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As you can see from the diagram, the Authentic Leadership Model is straightforward and digestible. However, it is not easy. It takes effort and openness to embrace the process, but most importantly, the process never stops! Authentic Leaders understand this and welcome the challenge to be a better version of themselves on a daily basis.
So, until next week, ask yourself, are you becoming a better version of yourself today compared to yesterday.
Dr. James Kelley
james@drjameskelley.com
Check out the summer book tour and book me for a talk or reading.
