Human Assets

Authenticity comes from congruence between how a person behaves externally (including expressed emotion) and their emotions and cognitions. Inauthentic behaviour might come from what is seen as conscious deceit (being considered to be pretending to cry when telling people they are to be made redundant) but it might also not be deliberate and due to a lack of awareness of one's emotions. The leader appears to lack authenticity because there is a disconnect between what they say and the non-verbal signals of their true (unconscious) emotions.

Following this line of thought suggests that achieving authenticity might be a particularly important outcome of coaching. The objective would be to ensure that the person being coached gains a clear awareness of what they really feel and come to trust themselves so that others will also put trust in them. Of course this is a very psychological branch of coaching and one that verges on the territory of counselling.

Using authenticity as a measure of the outcome of coaching is discussed in this Summer's (2011) issue of The Coaching Psychologist. The authors suggest that people being coached should be rated by their peers for authenticity and this be used to measure the success or otherwise of coaching.

Of course, many factors other than authenticity have an effect upon leadership. Indeed a recent comprehensive review by Brian Hoffman from the University of Georgia looks at the impact of 16 traits and nine more developable individual differences on leadership. Honesty and integrity is one of the most important individual differences alongside the, perhaps related, concept of charisma.

How can Human Assets Help?

Leadership development, particularly through individual coaching has been one of Human Assets' central skills for many years. We help individuals gain an awareness of how others see them and help them make the changes that they wish to make to increase their effectiveness. Central to this is relating easily and authentically.