Authentic Leadership

Authentic leadership is comprised of four key components: balanced processing, internalized moral perspective, rational transparency, and self-awareness (Peus, Wesche, Streicher, Braun, & Frey, 2012). Balanced processing refers to when a leader objectively analyzes all relevant data before making decisions (Peus, Wesche, Streicher, Braun, & Frey, 2012). Internalized moral perspective is when a leader is guided by internal moral standards, values, and acts according to these, even against group, organizational, or societal pressures (Peus, Wesche, Streicher, Braun, & Frey, 2012). Relational transparency refers to presenting a leaders own authentic self to others (Peus, Wesche, Streicher, Braun, & Frey, 2012). Self-awareness is the leader's ability to reach a deeper understanding of one's strengths and weaknesses (Peus, Wesche, Streicher, Braun, & Frey, 2012).

Authentic trust is a core component of self-awareness in the authentic leadership style. Authentic trust trusts one's feelings after the process of developing insight into one's own strengths and weaknesses (Peus, Wesche, Streicher, Braun, & Frey, 2012). A leader must be confident in their own self in order to convey strength and direction to followers. Modern day leaders need to be very self-aware and have authentic trust in who they are. There are so many ways a leader can be exposed in today's society, and potentially in the future, that they need to have authentic trust in who they are as a person and a leader. They must continuously display authentic trust and back it up with their words and actions in order to maintain their following.

Servant leadership is the leadership concept where a leader is a servant first and intends to help followers grow, healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely to become servants themselves (Boone, Makhani, 2012). Servant leaders are more likely to recognize the empowerment of their people as an important goal (Boone, Makhani, 2012). The leader-follower concept is found within the servant leadership style. The leader-follower concept is essentially, where leaders assume the followers role and the followers assume leadership roles (Boone, Makhani, 2012). This concept goes against the traditional concept of subordinates being obedient to superiors and allows for growth between the leader and follower as a unit (Boone, Makhani, 2012). This is essential in today's age as many people in the modern world expect to have input in decisions or at least have a leader that understands where they are coming from. Followers will desert a leader quickly in many modern western businesses or follower situations if a leader becomes more autocratic. It is important for a leader to be adaptive in the leader-servant relationship as it helps followers feel connected to the leader and that the leader understands them.