by Hannes Leroy
Republished from Forbes, May 11, 2017
There might still be some professionals and executives out there who long for the “good, old days” of workplace management. The days when you told your employees what to do and expected them to just get on with it. Assuming they didn’t want to suddenly find themselves unemployed.
But obviously that’s not you is it? You understand that leadership in the modern world is about engagement, about winning hearts and minds across your team. Above all, about being “authentic.”
Authenticity has become a favorite buzz-word in management circles and research suggests it is an important characteristic for leaders to have. In these days of galloping cynicism about leaders of all types in organizations big and small, in business or politics, being seen as someone who actually aligns the values they propound with their actions seems to be highly motivating. And this, in turn leads to better staff retention, closer team cohesion and improved performance.
As parents we often tell our children to just be themselves. But is this, in fact, good advice for the workplace too? After all, if authenticity is important, why not? What could be easier than just being you?
However, when you actually think about all the competing pressures you face as a manager, it’s not a simple as it may seem. In fact, in research conducted with my colleague, Kristen Cullen from the Center for Creative Leadership, we’ve found that the “just be yourself” approach to leadership could in fact be a recipe for disaster. So what can go wrong and how do you fix it?
Trap 1: The importance of context. Take the example of the leader who advocates the importance of work-life balance, but is observed staying late in the office all the time or firing off work emails in the middle of the night. The result? Credibility straight out of the window. It’s consequently very important that the leader explains the reason for their behaviour is a set of circumstances outside their control – such as a completely unexpected deadline or a different view of workplace balance by a superior – but that their commitment to the idea remains fundamentally intact. Where many leaders go wrong is in assuming that their team will understand what is going on and cut them some slack. The sad truth, however, is that people have a tendency to assume the worst about the people who exercise power over them. So always communicate, always explain – no matter what John Wayne said.
Trap 2: The saintly manager. Of course it’s important for a leader to have a strong set of positive values. But let’s not forget that we are all human and some of us have feet which are decidedly made of clay. The alignment of your stated values and your actions might be spot on, but if you are coming across to your people as a superhuman beyond reproach, a holier than thou figure, you may make them feel bad about themselves. Which could either demoralize them or set them looking for any tiny instance where you are failing to live up to your new-found status and blow it out of all proportion. So keep asking yourself if you are really setting a great example or actually being a bit of a pain.
Trap 3: The follower is always right. Don’t forget that authenticity, like beauty, tends to exist largely in the eye of the beholder. You may be sticking rigidly to your values, but if followers simply can’t buy-in to them then they may end up discounting them. And in authenticity terms you will be right back to square one. The key therefore seems to lie in grasping that it’s simply not enough to feel you are acting in an authentic way. You also need to understand how your audience thinks, what their values are and, above all, how you can communicate that you really are matching your actions to your words. Because only by doing this can you achieve a style of leadership that will deliver demonstrably positive results instead of downright damaging ones.