Authenticity

Abstract

The field of authenticity in project management is in its very beginning at this point (ref), with only a few empirical studies specific to project management. The field, however, builds on Authentic Leadership Theory which, although also a new field, has a solid empirical foundation. We will therefore, begin by understanding the basic principles of Authentic Leadership Theory and then relate it to Project Management.

What is authenticity?

Many philosophers and sociologists have attempted to define authenticity since it was first brought up in ancient Greece. The Greeks wrote: “to thine own self be true” (ref xx), which is a quite precise definition of authenticity - to be true to your own self. We will not go into all the facets and philosophical views of authenticity - which wouldn’t bring us closer to our authentic self - and go with the two main aspects which defines authenticity that the literature generally agrees on:

Knowing one’s true self; owning one’s personal experiences, be they thoughts, emotions, needs, wants, preferences, or beliefs. Acting in accord with one’s true self; expressing oneself in ways that are consistent with one’s understanding of self.

Authenticity is very much linked to self-esteem, and Kernis sees authenticity and what he calls "optimal self-esteem" as the same. it has been proposed that an authentic person will have "optimal self-esteem" (Kernis). I believe that optimal self-esteem involves favorable feelings of self-worth that arise naturally from successfully dealing with life challenges; the operation of one’s core, true, authentic self as a source of input to behavioral choices; and relationships in which one is valued for who one is and not for what one achieves. As Eriksson points out, people are neither completely authentic nor completely inauthentic, it should be seen more as a spectrum of more or less authenticity.

As it was proposed by Kernis authenticity can be divided into four components. Each component can be seen as stages towards self-realisation with some stages being more difficult for some people as we will describe below.

Four components of authenticity

Awareness

The awareness of self refers to possessing, and being motivated to increase, one’s knowledge and trust in one’s motives, feelings, desires. It includes, for example, understanding one’s likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, goals and aspirations, dispositional characteristics, and emotional states.

Balanced Processing

This component refers to being objective about all what is observed; one’s positive and negative aspects, emotions, experiences and information. Balanced processing involves not denying, distorting or exaggerating information to fit your personal needs. It can be understood by looking at how people with low or fragile high self-esteem select and interpret information. Such persons find it hard to acknowledge personal shortcomings, such as certain skills or personality traits that they don’t like. They will typically develop strong ego defense mechanisms to distort information about their shortcomings. Individuals with balanced processing will not have strong self-serving biases to gain personal success, and will not have strong defense mechanisms.

Behaviour

Authentic behaviour means “acting in accord with one’s values, preferences, and needs as opposed to acting merely to please others or to attain rewards or avoid punishments through acting falsely... Authenticity is not reflected in a compulsion to be one’s true self, but rather in the free and natural expression of core feelings, motives and inclinations.”(Kernis). This can be seen as the behavioural output of Awareness and Balanced Processing.

Of course, there will be instances where it will not be appropriate to act on behalf of your core needs and values, because it may not fit the immediate environment. Therefore one must act against the true self, which will lead to a temporally internal conflict. However, unbiased processing and awareness can still be present in such an instance, which would allow one to reflect and learn from the situation. In contrast, if awareness and unbiased processing was not present at that instance, then may not be recognized as an act against one’s values and that would lead to blind obedience.

Relational transparency

A person with high relation orientation will strive for truthfulness and openness in his/her close relationships. It’s about self-disclosure, wanting others to see the “real” you, and the development of mutual intimacy and trust. At the core, it’s about being genuine rather than fake in one’s relationships.

Authenticity over achievements

An important point here is that one should not be valued for one's achievements but rather for one's core values. This doesn't

Authenticity in Project Management

Authentic Leadership Theory

Authentic Leadership Theory is a new area of research firmly established in 2003 (Avolio, Gardner) that draws insights from positive psychology and full-range leadership (FRL)/transformational leadership theory. It is based on empirical evidence and seems to be the most complete leadership theory, because authenticity is the root of it.

Characteristics of authentic leaders

First of all, an authentic leader must achieve authenticity (as defined above) through self-awareness, self-acceptance, and authentic actions and relationships (Gardner). Authentic leaders has been defined as “those who are deeply aware of how they think and behave and are perceived by others as being aware of their own and others’ values/moral perspectives, knowledge, and strengths; aware of the context in which they operate; and who are confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient, and of high moral character” (Avolio, Luthans, and Walumbwa 2004, p. 4).

Authentic leaders posit the following four distinct characteristics, proposed by Shamir and Eilam (2005):

- Rather than faking their leadership, authentic leaders are true to themselves (rather than conforming to the expectations of others). - Authentic leaders are motivated by personal convictions, rather than to attain status, honors, or other personal benefits. - Authentic leaders are originals, not copies; that is, they lead from their own personal point of view. - The actions of authentic leaders are based on their personal values and convictions.

Authentic followers/team members

Authentic leadership goes beyond the authenticity of the leader as a person to the relationship and development of the team he/she is leading. The relationships are called “authentic followership” and are characterized by: - Transparency, openness, trust - Guidance towards worthy objectives - Emphasis on follower development

Authentic vs Charismatic

Relation to Transformative leadership Theory

To understand where it comes from we will look at how it relates and differentiates to another leadership theory, Transformational leadership. A transformational leadership is also considered as charismatic leadership as it has considerable emotional appeal and possesses the ability to inspire (Ergeneli et al., 2007). Transformational leadership behaviors are associated with four categories: Idealized influence: when a leader performs as a role model and shares common visions, encourages and provides a strong sense of purpose. Inspirational motivation: a leader expresses the importance of desired objectives of the organization and motivates. Intellectual stimulation: when a leader challenges the normal ideas of followers. Individualized consideration: when a leader spends more time teaching and coaching for better performance.

A transformational leader may have a vision they communicate influentially, but that vision may not be always true, or the leaders may be imposing their own needs or pleasures (Ilies et al., 2005). This is where authenticity becomes relevant because an authentic leader will not be ego-driven, and has high morality. Another distinction is that authentic leaders may or may not be charismatic but they will always foster positive development of those around them.

The inauthenticity of Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence has been shown in research to be an important ability in leadership. (Prati, Douglas, Ferris, Ammeter, & Buckley, 2003; Walter & Bruch, 2007; Wolff, Pescosolido, & Druskat, 2002). Walter & Bruch (2007), showed that emotional intelligence was a significant predictor of leadership abilities. Interestingly emotional intelligent leaders were seen as charismatic leaders by their followers, regardless of their actual emotional state. Apparently, emotionally intelligent leaders are especially skilled at regulating their emotions to generate perceptions of charisma. In that regard the question of authenticity becomes relevant in the case of emotional intelligence, because it questions whether the charisma of an emotional intelligent leader is genuine or if it is acting. If a leader engages in surface acting that is, manipulating others by deliberately changing the emotions displayed, then followers will see it as fake. Deep acting, however, is the effort to change inner feelings to deceive themselves. This type of acting will be perceived as authentic by others, but interestingly the deep acting individual will have a higher felt authenticity than surface acting individuals. Nonetheless, deep acting still violates inner feelings and therefore compromises authenticity, despite that the leader may not recognize this to be the case. It was shown in empirical studies that surface and deep acting were more emotionally exhausting than being genuine (Glomb & Tews, 2004; Grandey, 2003; Grandey et al., 2007; Johnson & Spector, 2007).

Now, it is easy to blame charismatic leaders for being inauthentic, but for the project or organizational success it might be beneficial to display emotions that are not heartfelt. Gardner comes with an example that if a leader announces employee layoffs it would be expected to express empathy and concern for the affected employees, and would most likely be met with anger and resentment from employees if the leader failed to display such emotions. If such emotions are not heartfelt, however, expressing them would be inauthentic. If the audience detects a lack of sincerity on the part of the leader, he or she may be viewed as hypocritical and disingenuous, thereby undermining his or her credibility with followers. This is the sort of challenge that authentic leaders face in a leadership role, where one might violate one’s true feelings. As we discussed in authentic behavior one might violate authenticity in the behavioral component of authenticity but still has balanced processing and self-awareness present.

How to increase authenticity

Traditional leadership training focusing merely on a specific set of skills (e.g., goal setting or intellectual stimulation; Barling, Weber, & Kelloway, 1996; Dvir, Eden, Avolio, & Shamir, 2002) will fall short in this case. However, authentic leadership training cannot be taught with methods or ways to behave because imitating those would be inauthentic. Authentic leadership training requires a holistic approach that accounts for the whole person: one's individual character, values, and preferences (rewrite).

Increasing authenticity is an introspective process which cannot would be misused if cannot be taught be We have covered what authenticity means and how it affects project management leadership. The question is now, how does one become authentic? The research

Trigger events

An experience of either positive or negative quality can lead to the development of one’s authentic being. These are called trigger events and can take the form of sudden experiences such as a person close to you passing away, a promotion, reading a book that challenges your core beliefs, forming a relationship, or having an anxiety attack. Such events will “cut through” the perception of self and force one to look critically upon certain aspects of one’s core beliefs and values. This mechanism will naturally allow for personal growth and will increase authenticity.

This approach of developing authenticity through trigger events has been conceptualized as a potential training “program” for leaders and managers to push them out of their comfort zone to change their behaviors. Proposed by xx, it consists of two phases, an exploration phase where participants recognize their ways of acting inauthentically and trying out new ways of behaving. The second phase is an integration phase where participants recognize the benefit of change through the successful behaviors in their life. This approach is still on a conceptual basis and it would require many resources to actually make such a program.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness seems to be the best way of increasing one’s authenticity. Mindfulness is simply the practise of being self-aware and present without interpretation. Self-awareness is the first component of authenticity, also referred to as the “first stage”, which is the baseline of authenticity, without self-awareness one cannot be authentic in the other stages. Enhancing self-awareness with mindfulness one can more easily discover what is true and false within themselves. Mindfulness training has shown to increase authenticity and well-being. The study found that mindfulness leads to value-based authentic actions, and that the authentic actions themselves leads to well-being. Mindfulness practices were also shown to enhance authentic leadership in a very comprehensive study of over 1000 leaders. This study showed that leaders with high levels of trait mindfulness were more likely to show authentic leadership behaviors, as perceived by both themselves and their followers. They also found that low-dose mindfulness interventions enhanced leaders authentic behaviors (perceived by themselves and followers). In the study they had leaders do 30 days of app-based meditation, which directly impacted their behavior.

Limitations

It's a new field of study so it is not clear how the impact of authenticity effects projects. If project success is the only parameter you are interested in, then improving one's authenticity may be a lot of work for a small change. However, the change towards authentic behaviour will impact every aspect of one's life to the better.