Authentic Leadership

Question: Describe about the Authentic Leadership? Answer: A good leadership is critical to the success of any organization, including the health care organization. It involves the leaders who are able to instil the feelings of trust and honesty in their followers and thus, follow an approach of authentic leadership. This approach to leadership emphasizes on the building of honest relationships with their followers and is based on the foundation of ethics. These leaders are positive people who promote openness and generate support and trust in order to improve the performance of their team and that of an individual. These leaders evolve and learn from their experiences and self-exploration and aim for long-term results rather than on short-term outcomes (Gardner, Cogliser, Davis Dickens, 2011). However, this is not an idealistic case and it is wrong to make any kind of assumptions that all of the leaders strive to follow authentic leadership. This is because there are times when many are flawed, deceitful, and greedy and behave cowardly. There are leaders who just espouse one message in front of their followers and then all of a sudden behave in an entirely different manner. Like for instance, a leader who is nationally and internationally recognized but has lost his follower because of certain personally stated convictions that do not match or are inconsistent with their actions. Other examples could be of a political figure or a religious leader who on one side preaches morality but on the other side is involved in a scandal or has an extramarital affair. This affects a leaders ability to be an effective leader and changes the way and perception of several followers who personally felt about that authentic leader. Such leaders who lost their authenticity find it difficult to regain the trust of their followers again (Day, 2000). This is because the development of authentic or congruent leadership is a complex process which involves establishing open, transparent, genuine and trusting relationships with the followers and building trust again is not easy and takes time. References Day, D. (2000). Leadership development: A review in context. The Leadership Quarterly, 11, 581613. Gardner, W.L., Cogliser, C.C., Davis, K.M., Dickens, M.P. (2011). Authentic leadership: A review of the literature and research agenda.Leadership Quarterly, 22, 1120-1145.