An Evidence-based Approach to Authentic Leadership Development

This book introduces a scientific theory of authentic leadership development, based on research conducted with senior leader coaching groups and subjected to rigorous quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis.

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This book presents the first evidence-based approach to Authentic Leadership Development. It is based on a group-coaching format that brings together small groups of leaders to discuss personally significant leadership issues generally not explored in usual leadership development, such as the influence of their personal histories, the impact of their psychological make-up, and the ambitions for their future leadership.

The book starts with an overview of the idea of authenticity and its philosophical roots, and explains how this informs the past/present/future group-coaching approach to Authentic Leadership Development. It presents statistical and conceptual evidence of the program’s efficacy and explores how the social processes at work within the group positively impact and develop the leader’s self-concept and the benefits this brings. Importantly, it also details exactly how the leader changes and grows as a result of the group-coaching, and the positive ways in which this benefits their leadership role and the organisations they work in. Finally, it questions the notion of ethics and morals in Authentic Leadership and critically re-appraises the idea of leadership development evaluation. Authentic Leadership Development group-coaching has been shown to develop leaders that are conscious, competent, confident and congruent and as the qualitative analysis presented in the book illustrates, these 4 over-arching categories are made up of 7 further key leadership attributes that are developed, which include an enhanced Strategic Orientation, increased Confidence and Clarity and greater Management Mindfulness, among others. The book also features personal vignettes throughout, which illustrate how individual leaders have effectively applied these newly developed attributes in their leadership roles.

An Evidence-based Approach to Authentic Leadership Development represents essential reading for leaders who want to engage in a ‘proven’ form of ALD. It will be of great interest to professionals across a variety of industries who have responsibility to provide robust leadership development programs for their organisations, as well as coaches specialising in executive, business and leadership coaching and those interested in new applications for group coaching.