Welcome to the third and last pillar of The GuruBook : authentic leadership .
The term authenticity has been the subject of study and interpretation right back to the time of the Greek philosophers and the works of, for example, William Shakespeare (“ To thine own self be true.” — Polonius in Hamlet ) and other great artists and thinkers.
For Shakespeare, authenticity was the ability to be in control of one’ s own life and to be in a position to “ know yourself.”
Construction of the bridge from the “ forefathers of authenticity” to today’ s management philosophies began back in the 1960s, when authenticity was described as the way in which an organization could reflect itself (and its self-identity) through leadership. Back in the 1960s, some people believed that an entire organization— in line with an individual— could act authentically through responsibility, the response to uncertainty, and through creativity. Others believed that authentic leadership was more about the leader’ s ability to define his or her role in an organization.
Since then, several of the contributors to The GuruBook have tried to pin down what authentic leadership is and, not least, how it manifests itself in practice. It can still be difficult to agree on a single definition of authentic leadership, but there does seem to be a number of characteristics that are common to the gurus’ contributions and in other knowledge about it. These characteristics are made up of a clear awareness of one’ s own strengths, limitations, and feelings, to name a few factors. In addition, the authentic leader is driven by a purpose, but this purpose is just as much the organization’ s as it is the individual leader’ s.
However, I do not see my role as editor as one that should interpret and expound the gurus’ contributions as one or more definitive truths. I will therefore once more (and far preferably) let them have their say. Enjoy yourself with the book’ s final theme, authentic leadership .