The path of authentic leadership calls for honor, truth, trustworthiness, and politic astuteness. Leaders respect those that they lead; they lead with truth as truth is best understood; they remain trustworthy in the face of difficulties, and they remain politically astute to the organizational issues that they encounter.
These traits are not easy to attain, much less to continue to live up to. We all know of leaders who have promised to lead us with authenticity and yet seem to relinquish their capability to see the truth in services of maintaining their positions. We become disappointed and subsequently disillusioned with these leaders. In fact, we feel betrayed.
Leaders who want to support their authenticity would do well to remain consistent in their actions, to communicate as openly and often as possible, to demonstrate clarity in words and actions, and to maintain containing characteristics throughout any organizational chaos. When we encounter such leaders, we feel safer as we do our work, and we tend to remember these leaders as the “good ones” that we have had.
