In their book, Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?, Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones tell us that “Great Leadership Excites People to Exceptional Performance”
They are referring here to a particular style of leadership; a style that in my leadership teaching and facilitating, appeals almost universally to the vast majority of programme participants……Authentic Leadership.
When I ask participants, or students of leadership, what they as followers, want from their leaders, with (again) universal agreement they say things like “integrity, trust, honesty, competent, future-oriented, visionary, inspiring, etc.” All of these are components of Authentic Leadership.
It’s one thing giving followers what they want, but the big question for leaders is….will giving followers what they want, lead to high-performance?
Let’s see if I can convince you that it can; firstly by telling you a very personal story.
Authentic leadership
In my sport and business careers, I’ve experienced great and not so great leadership; I’m sure we all have. But the leaders that got more out of me than I believed I was capable of were Authentic Leaders; and one stands out above all the rest. His name was Jimmy Davidson and he was my rugby coach at Queen’s University, the Ulster Rugby Team and the Ireland Rugby Team and he was the embodiment of an Authentic Leader.
His purpose and the source of his fulfilment was helping young people grow and develop. After every game, he’d sit down with all fifteen players individually and tell them what he saw in the game, what you were doing well and where you can improve. I remember vividly sitting on the bench waiting my turn to hear what he thought; no apprehension, just the anticipation of waiting to hear the praise and the “work-ons”.
He gave me the confidence to dare to dream of playing for the British & Irish Lions (which I achieved) and he inspired me to be better. At times it was uncomfortable when he told me that I needed to change and adapt my game in order to get to the next level, but he didn’t shy away from this…he had integrity and honesty, he was inspiring and visionary, and he cared deeply and personally about seeing young people grow. I will always remember the smile on his face, that full-face smile when he saw us succeed. He took joy from seeing us succeed and that in itself was inspiring; because it wasn’t, and never was, all about him.
He didn’t push, berate or drive me to exceptional performance; he gave me confidence, made the path clear, and then he supported and challenged me on the journey. This meant I didn’t feel pushed and driven to do it for him. He gave me the confidence to dare to dream; that I wanted this for myself; and he was there to guide me.
Transactional leadership
This style (of leadership) sees leadership as a relationship with the leader’s personal values at the core. There is good research evidence for the impact on performance of these relational, values-based styles such as Authentic or Transformational Leadership; however, there is also good evidence of the effectiveness of less relational styles such as Transactional Leadership where the leader leads primarily through authority, reward and punishment.
I guess it’s up to the leaders to decide how they want to lead and the impact they want to have. Transactional leadership requires less time, less investment in the relational aspects of leadership; it can appear more efficient. However, it is limited in that the primary driver is often fear. To truly unlock someone’s potential, leader’s need to invest time in the leader/follower relationship and demonstrate that they genuinely care and are fulfilled by seeing people grow, develop and succeed.
So how do you become an Authentic Leader? Well a good first step would be to find a book or article that would provide some practical steps; so why not start by reading Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?, by Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones?
