2.4 Being real rather than authentic
We should all have values and try to follow them – and we should adapt these the more we experience and learn. However, we all work within environments that are political and shaped by power, meaning that we cannot simply ‘be ourselves’ at all times. We all need to play a role at times. As Ladkin (2021) states, being a leader necessarily means stepping into a role with organisational and social expectations about what you can and cannot do. Of course, you need to test the limits in order to innovate and offer meaningful change – but these innovations always occur within some field of constraint. So, where does this leave authenticity in leadership?
In Ladkin’s view, a more relevant authentic leadership concerns an ongoing project of ‘aligning one’s actions with who one “wants to be”, rather than “who one is”’ (2021, p. 398). Such aligning recognises that a) none of us are finished products but are always in a state of development, and b) we all need to adapt the identity we show the world to achieve more of the goals we value the most. It is important that we try to be more ethical, open, accountable and honest people, but we also need to think about how our acts can help generate more ethicality, openness and honesty in others. From this perspective, Ladkin urges us to consider what we can do and who we need to be to generate dialogue that will make a difference in ways that align with our values.
We need to find ways of living with unresolved tensions in leadership. We need to look at what we would like to achieve, and what this means about who we can be in the present. The point here is not whether the leaders were correct, but that leadership requires these continuous judgments about how far you can push your values and views, and how much you need to adapt to circumstances. By making improvements over time, the hope is that you won’t need to push the boundaries as much in the future, because the world around you will have moved closer to your values.