Why the Compulsion to Define

Authentic Leadership?

Dr. Trent Keough

President & CEO

Portage College

Alberta, Canada

Thesis

Authentic Leadership has not been rarified by authenticity’s

traditional home in academic discourse.

The discourse on authentic leadership (AL) grows without

answering a critical question: Why does AL need to be defined?

This session will use attributes of consumer capitalism,

postmodernism and worldview theory to explain the

transformation of authenticity and AL.

Because belief in authenticity and leadership was eroded,

there’s now a need to reconstitute the legitimacy of their social

presences.

This thesis explains why leadership theorists manifest a

compulsion to redefine AL in the contemporary.

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Hope to Accomplish

• Be able to identify key attributes of Authentic Leadership

discourse.

• Recognize that authenticity relies on social cohesion and single

mindedness.

• Identify at least two theories answering why does AL need to

be defined.

• Acquire an understanding of the complexity of Worldview

theory in consumer capitalism, postmodernism, and social

atrophy.

• Identify social indicator of worldview atrophy for a replete

explanation of the loss of authenticity.

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Making the words have meaning, flesh.

Please define Authentic and Authenticity . . .

Rapid fire, instinct driven …

Either as you prefer. Let’s jot a few definitions, words, and ideas down if we can,

please.

And to get you started . . . Here’s a prompt. Next slide, please, Vana!

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Authentic

1. of undisputed origin; genuine.

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Synonyms for Authentic

Genuine

Real

Bona fide

True

Veritable

Legitimate

Lawful

Legal

Valid

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Synonyms for Authenticity

Accuracy, Correctness, Credibility

Legitimacy, Purity, Reliability

Trustworthiness, Truthfulness, Validity

Dependability, Factualness, Realness

Veritableness, Authorized, Valid

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Anonyms for Authenticity

Fake, Corrupt, Doubtful

False, Implausible, Impossible

Incredible, Invalid, Unlikely

Unreliable, Untrustworthy, Counterfeit

Falsified, Unauthorized, Unreal

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Pop Quiz: Who’s Paying Attention here?

4 Words Foundational to any

Discourse on Authenticity and

Authentic Leadership, are:

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Truth Trust

Reality Authority

Authenticity

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What do we know of authenticity’s proponents?

Authenticity theorists are/were historically theologians or theological philosophers, social critics and/or social, moral, economic and political philosophers.

Authenticity discourse has/had uniformly been affiliated with ‘learned/academic’ critique of both individuals’ and societies’ implied and expressed assumptions about their purposefulnesses and functions.

Authenticity is the measure of the individual against codified norms defining meaningful existence.

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Can we see authenticity from afar?

A nomadic outlook on authenticity must clearly have measured itself against idealized hunter/gatherer prowess.

Faith driven agrarian cultures would have nominally set authenticity’s scope in measuring how profane corporeal living sought to emulate a sacred spiritual ideal: the righteous life!

With the advent of industrialization, the authentic corporeal life defined in the Protestant Reformation was subsumed by laissez-faire capitalism’s focus on achievement of middle class ease.

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Humanist

Hobbes: free except by law

Locke: tabula rasa

Rousseau: unnatural man

PoliticalMarx

Lenin

Mao

Castro

Bentham

Mill

Smith

Plato

Ontological

Existentialists

Kierkegaard

Sartre

Theologians

Luther

Aquinas

Consumer Capitalism

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Can we see authenticity from afar?

A nomadic outlook on authenticity must clearly have measured itself against idealized hunter/gatherer prowess.

Faith driven agrarian cultures would have nominally set authenticity’s scope in measuring how profane corporeal living sought to emulate a sacred spiritual ideal.

With the advent of industrialization, the authentic corporeal life defined in the Protestant Reformation was subsumed by laissez-faire capitalism’s focus on achievement of middle class ease.

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Where are we now?

What defines authenticity in the contemporary?

What ‘cultural’ movement appears to have influenced our current perceptions of authenticity more than any of the political, humanist or ontological discourses preceding us?

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Authenticity

Humanist: our reality as species

Consumer Capitalism:

our faux realities

Ontological our reality

as individuals

Political: reality of

our governance

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What was the impact of Postmodernism

on Authenticity Discourse? Postmodernism, at least initially, appeared only to destroy; but

it used paradox to underscore the need for that which it reveled in deconstructing. The PM Paradox was born.

Postmodernism attacked ism, belief, treatise, historical convention, God, organized religion, elementary schooling principles, etc., anything which bolstered communal ownership of singular truth, respected authority, unifying reality, and unwavering trust.

The postmodern era (PME) brought to ascendancy an expectation for the absolute unpredictability of tomorrow and wholesale doubt of truth’s veracity, authority’s legitimacy and the certain uncertainty of moral certainty.

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The Postmodern Tipping Point:There can be

no authenticity here.

1. PME’s culture celebrated the fracturing of all unifying

principles once based in expectations for entitlement and

moral surety reinforced by rhythm and social conformity.

2. PME revelled in the insurgency/revolution undermining

authority . . . Whether it be of states, religions, gender

roles, normalized social behaviours and standard codifiers

of individuals’ identities.

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The Postmodern Tipping Point:There can

be no authenticity here.

3. PME produced a legacy culture that is/was change

fatigued and in desperate need of civil repose from lack

of confidence in what might be accepted as the REAL us or

the perception of a REAL me.

4. The lasting effect of change fatigue is a widespread

cynicism of any reported truth, and suspicion of stability

itself.

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The Politics of Authenticity: Radical

Individualism and the Emergence of Modern

Society (1970)

Marshall Berman’s second edition preface

lament (2009):

“I have to confess I have felt dejected over

the [past, nearly 40] years to see the word

‘authenticity’ fade out of our cultural

vocabulary” (xv).27

When did the authenticity discourse

exhaust itself? (think PME)

But why hadn’t the individually valuable and socially uplifting concern for authenticity carried-on through time?

Did it really disappear?

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What are we now, in terms of authenticity?

Can we define the epochal,

period-defining, authenticity

ideal to which we aspire?

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What are we now, in terms of authenticity?

What is authenticity in our the

post-knowledge, experiential

economy?

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Authenticity Discourse abandoned the ivory tower

for love of $!

“Authentic — People love authenticity. We all crave something that is real.”

Jeremy Smith

“Business today, therefore, is all about being real. Original. Genuine. Sincere.

Authentic” (Gilmore and Pine 1; Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want

2007)

“When consumers want what’s real, the management of the consumer

perception of authenticity becomes the new primary source of competitive

advantage—the new business imperative” (Gilmore and Pine 3).

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What did Customizable Consumer

Capitalism do to Authenticity?

Consumer capitalism is itself a marked departure, perhaps a wholesale

inversion, from the assembly-line capitalism epitomized by Henry Ford.

Consumer capitalism marks the ascendency of customization defining both

brand, demand and the individual consumer.

What happens to the principle of universality, sameness, when individual

customization, difference from others, is the de facto (faux) sales pivot-point

and aspirational cultural ideal?

Traditional understanding of authenticity gets turned on its proverbial head.

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Authenticity: What defines its rudiments

in the contemporary?

What are the humanist and ontological principles

defining idealized purpose and idealized function

of persons underling present Customized

Consumer Capitalism?

Where do they originate?

Are they changing in any way?

How do you know these things?

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Do the impossible, now, please tell me

what authentic leaders do.

Define authentic leadership in simple, non-compound sentences.

Write a sentence that describes your appreciation for/of authentic

leadership.

Let’s see if we can conjure 8 shared, commonly held attributes or qualities of

authentic leaders

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Trent Keough R. Anderson Ronald Riggio Kevin Kruse Michael Hyatt Bill George Wikipedia

Embraces

personal

responsibility

Embrace

Leadership

Know Thyself Self-aware and

genuine

Have Insight Built on your

character

Self-awareness

Lives/acts by

stated guiding

principles

Be a servant to

vision

Be Genuine Mission driven

and focused on

results

Demonstrate

Initiative

Real and

Genuine

Relational

Transparency

Knows fear as

a root cause of

conflict

Be vulnerable Be Fair-Minded

Lead with the

heart

Exert Influence Constantly

Growing

Balanced

Processing

Names fear to

eliminate it for

future

betterness

Neutral

Honesty

Do the Right

Thing

Focus on the

long-term

Have Impact Match their

behavior to

their context

Internalized

Moral

Perspective

Being is hope

driven

becoming

Complete

Ownership

Exercise

Integrity

Not perfect,

nor do they try

to be

Encyclopedic

in vision of

now

Give yourself a

break

Sensitive to

the needs of

others

Defining Authenticity

Validation of authenticity is found only

in a collective’s affirmation of

conformity. Conformity allows for

predetermined social valorizations

which establish power relationships

within distinct social groups or cultures.

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Defining Authenticity

In any group, it is worldview that

defines the overall dimensions of

perceived reality. The definition of

reality itself prescribes the

attributes of what is considered

authentic or the characteristics of

authenticity.58

Worldview defines reality.

“Worldview can be expressed as the

fundamental cognitive, affective,

and evaluative presuppositions a

group of people make about the

nature of things, and which they use

to order their lives.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldview59

Defining Authenticity

Authenticity presumes the subjugation

of the individual physiological existence

to the collective worldview shared by a

dominate culture. And, in certain

instances it can also reflect a counter-

culture disassociation with a worldview

experiencing political atrophy.

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Worldview in Atrophy

Contemporary definitions of authentic leadership are a reflection of worldview atrophy. Its core values highlight the antithesis of negative leadership practices documented in the contemporary era but not communion of thought or covenant of belief.

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What is the unstated and underlining challenge with my very

own, and all other definitions of authentic leadership?

Why do we express the need to

define authentic leadership at

all?

Remember my earlier thesis?

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Why do we express the need to define authentic leadership at all?

Are we railing against a preponderance of

inauthentic leadership, then?

Meaning we simply need to present a

coherent antithesis to what might be

ordinarily found?

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Andrew Potter

“Living inauthentically is always

something other people do. In

which case, what is surprising is

just how much apparent

inauthenticity there is out

there.” The Identity Hoax (2011; page 112)73

Why do we express the need to define authentic leadership

at all?

When we share in defining the proof

or presence of authentic leadership

we are expressing a shared

‘cultural’ desire to eliminate the

fear that authenticity is forever lost

to us.

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Loss of Authenticity, Desire for Real

If the desire to define authentic leadership

is indeed part of a larger social unease,

that is one manifested as the perceived and

actual loss of authenticity itself, where

then does this causal relationship originate,

and how can we articulate it in plain

language?

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Why do we express the need to define authentic leadership

at all?

The need to define authentic leadership

originates with the weariness caused by the

effects of normalized insincerity, wholesale

cultural mistrust of authority and leadership, and

the ascendency of the faux in our current

worldview’s definition reality.

Our current worldview is in a state of atrophy and

disintegration, and the perceived loss of

authenticity is an attribute of this time.76

Weltanschauung

“Worldview can be expressed as the

fundamental cognitive, affective, and

evaluative presuppositions a group of

people make about the nature of

things, and which they use to order

their lives.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldview

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• Semiotics

• Acculturation

• Perspective

Now/Past

• Historicity

• Allegiance

• Futurology

Worldview• Social

Contract

•Expectation

•Entitlement

Hope/Fear

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Worldview

An explanation

of the world

Fixed Futurology

Values are Defined

Dictum for Action

Known Truth &

Falsehood

Theory for Causality

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Affirmation in a Social Contract for Negotiating Change & Calls-to-Action

Explains Causation &

Protects

Entitlement

When in Atrophy: normalized alienation, suspicion, threat anxieties, fear culture

Authorizes Inquiry & Sanctions Perception;

Defines what is Ordinary, Sacred, Taboo

Informs Knowledge Discovery

Nominates & Legitimizes User Classes

Prescribes an Ethical Imperative & Code of Conduct drawn from Absolute/Immutable

Certainty

Worldview Provides Us With

Creation Myth/Story: for the world (physical and figured) and the birth of knowledge

Frame narrative offering means to self-discovery and spiritual fulfillment

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