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Authentic Leaders:
transparency | trust | truth

The Programme

Authentic leaders: transparency | truth | trust is developed from leading edge futurist thinking and delivers a powerful even profound experience through a reflective, experiential and longer-term development model. It's not the 'latest fad' but combines all we know and has been proven as working in leadership theory, psychology and practice with what's needed for organisations and business to achieve in the future world.  Self-reflecting tools are used depending upon the level of leadership and business requirements.

'Authentic leadership' incorporates the theories of positive leadership, transformational leadership and moral/ethical leadership. And it works because of the impact on all those around them. Authentic leaders create trust, ownership and flexible collaboration that delivers innovative solutions and productivity to meet the complex challenges facing organisations.

Core principles are explored and experienced in the programme.

1. Real-self (leader: authentic, confident, positive, motivated)
2. Respect (advocator: growing greatness, compassionate, clear, creating collaboration)
3. Responsibility (author: commitment, choices, ownership, growing responsibility)
4. Resilience (builder: focus, strength, vulnerability, driven)
5. Reshaping (creator: creativity, innovation, flexibility, adaptability, transition)

In particular we make use of the much celebrated appreciative inquiry technique, art of hosting conversations, '4-D cycle' (discovery, dream, design, and destiny) and World Café conversation principles.

For further reading, check out my article about the NZ Authentic Leadership Survey 2007.

Time invested

The programme has a time investment equivalent to 4 full days plus 2 action-orientated one-on-one sessions per person run over a 4 month period.

Ideally it is run as a 2 day intensive workshop, followed by 2 half day workshops and then 1 day after a period of several months transformation.

Recommendation

It is always recommended that leaders undertake the authentic self programme as this is the core catalyst for personal transformation. If both programmes are undertaken the time period will be shorter as some core content/ principles are covered in both.

Who for

Leaders at all levels of the organisational chain.

Within organisations: If run as a standalone programme for an organisation's leaders (this is most effective, as customised to the group and aligned to organisations' values/ strategic framework)

"Whilst the 'training model' is perfectly aligned to learning management, it has limited relevance to leadership development where the reflective, experiential and longer-term learning model, framed in a real context is required. Generally speaking people have highly unrealistic expectations around timeframe for the learning of leadership - they should throw away the clock and put up the calendar, as the longer the development process is, the more enduring and sustained the impact will be."

Dr Lester Levy/Mark Bentley
the shape of Authentic Leadership in NZ survey 2007

• Authentic Self
• Authentic Leaders
• Authentic Culture
• Authentic Engagement

• Recent research in NZ by Dr Lester Levy and Mark Bentley states:

  "…we feel that a figure suggesting that more than 60% of our leadership is not yet at acceptable levels of authenticity is disappointing… our results suggest a dogmatic disposition in the typical New Zealand leader, an inner need to be 'right' that overwhelms their ability to be 'real'. Whilst New Zealand leaders appeared to have a relatively strong moral and ethical perspective, this appeared to manifest as a determination to be frank and direct rather than a willingness to admit their mistakes or consider other perspectives that might challenge their own paradigms."

• A Center for Creative Leadership white paper found that:

  "…only 50 percent of respondents (worldwide survey) believed senior leaders are currently able to be authentic in their role. Because trust and respect are vital in the workplace, developing these skills for the future will be essential to keeping the workforce engaged and committed over the long term."