Authentic Leadership

Authentic leadership is the practice of building trust through honesty, transparency, and self-awareness. Authentic leaders have strong values and always consider the ethical and moral consequences of their actions. Furthermore, they carefully weigh options and others’ viewpoints before making decisions (Regan, Laschinger, & Wong, 2016; Fusco, O’Riordan, & Palmer, 2016). Based on the results of the Seven Habits Profile (2017), I believe many of my traits align with authentic leadership.
The cumulative score of Category 9 of the Seven Habits Profile (2017) suggests I have an outstanding ability to attempt to understand others’ points of view. Yasinski (2014) described, “[a]uthentic leaders develop heart and compassion in those around them by
Those three categories focus on intrinsic characteristics as well as interactions with others to synergize and create winning solutions for everyone (Seven Habits Profile, 2017). I attempt to be kind to everyone, even strangers, for I usually assume my words and actions can change a person’s day, or even life. As such, I genuinely care about others’ success and use a combination of honesty, compassion, and creativity to identify strengths, weaknesses, and solutions. Years ago, I was a manager-in-training at a retail store. My immediate manager vented to me one day about the assistant manager: She was “lazy,” looked sloppy, and was not responsive to criticism. My reaction was to talk honestly with the assistant manager—I could not just passively watch her fail. I explained her position with the company was in jeopardy. I questioned what was going on in her life to negatively affect her work performance and encouraged her to share how we did not meet her needs at work. Finally, I asked her to work with me and our boss to establish goals for all of us. I believe my authenticity inspired her, as she quickly improved and was promoted within a few