Summary: Discovering Your Authentic Leadership

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In today’s business world , there are several approaches and theories of leadership. This includes leadership approaches based upon a wide range of topics including traits, behavioral, situational, transformational, and other perspectives. Each of these approaches have their own set of advantages and disadvantages, making them best suited for different situations. The leadership theory that has the greatest appeal to me is the transformational leadership theory as it focuses on the greater good of the organization and its followers. Kinicki and Williams describe transformational leadership as a process that changes “employees to pursue organizational goals over self-interests.” (2016). This type of leadership is built upon trust , …show more content…

An in the Harvard Business Review titled “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership” provides great insight on the completion of this task as it details the necessary components a person must possess in order to develop into an “authentic leader” (George, Sims, McLean, & Mayer, 2007). According to the article, there is not a specific set of traits that an ideal leader possesses (George, Sims, McLean, & Mayer, 2007). “Cookie – cutter leaders” , as the article describes, are a thing of the past as the last decade has shown these type of leaders were only personae and not successful for the long term (George, Sims, McLean, & Mayer, 2007). These authors describe an authentic leader as one who makes of commitment to developing themselves and using their life stories, whether good or bad, to drive the purpose of their leadership (George, Sims, McLean, & Mayer, 2007). Ensuring that I possess the components listed in the article would be priority. These items include establishing self – awareness, re-evaluating personal motivations, building a strong support team, defining core values, integrating life, and empowering others (George, Sims, McLean, & Mayer, 2007). The article goes on to say authentic, genuine leaders are needed for the 21st century as they get results done through the establishment of relationships, practice of values, and demonstration of passion (George, Sims, McLean, & Mayer,

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