complex Authenticity

Successful leadership today requires the leader to be both authentic and agile at the same time; a paradox that many leaders struggle to resolve.

In his book 'Authentic Leadership' (2003) Bill George (former Chairman and Ceo of Medtronic) has defined authentic leadership as "being yourself; being the man you were created to be" rather than "developing the image or persona of a leader". But what is the 'self'? This is a inquire that philosophers, and now psychologists, have debated for centuries. There is still slight consensus.

Turquoise

In helping leaders gain awareness of the nature of 'self' the Hr profession is able to use a range of psychometrics that cut personality into a number of traits. This type of self awareness is a beneficial step in a journey of development; it helps a leader to become aware of their habitual ways of thinking, feeling and acting. However, all too frequently leaders overly recognize with their profile of traits which increases rigidity in their behaviour and their development grinds to a halt. This often occurs at Level 4 in the Leadership Capacity Framework.

For leaders who are additional along in their journey of development (Levels 5 & 6), the measurement of their personality in terms of traits feels irrelevant as they are able to demonstrate a range of behaviours according to the environment they are operating in. These leaders often recite their trait profile as a reflection of their core workplace image or persona, and talk about having a number of personalities which they use according to dissimilar situations in all aspects of their life. In her book "Developmental Coaching, Working with the Self" Tatiana Bachkirova describes these personalities as mini-selves. The deployment of a range mini-selves in the workplace gives the leader the agility significant to deal with the expansive number of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity organisations are having to face today. The issue here, however, is that often the leader feels they are being inauthentic at work. Which one of these mini-selves is their true self, the one they were created to be? In this situation primary trait based psychometrics struggle to find an answer.

A inherent sass to this inquire draws from the new science of complexity and chaos which would recite the 'self' as a 'Complex Adaptive System'. This means that the self, as it interacts with the environment, constantly adapts its behaviour through using multiple mini-selves to ensure it provides the most approved response it has ready to a given situation. Complex Adaptive Systems can go through periods of relative order and then periods of chaotic growth as the ideas aligns to a new environment.

In chaos ideas the relative order of a Complex ideas is produced by a phenomenon called 'Strange Attractors'. Whilst the behaviour of the ideas is still unpredictable and could be perceived as chaotic, over time it can be seen to form a bounded pattern. The 'Strange Attractor' in the leader's 'self system' that keeps the mini-selves in bounded pattern could be described as their Value Orientation. This is essentially a person's 'centre of gravity' or 'power centre' in terms of their psychological integration within a singular environmental context. The Value Orientation of the leader enables the mini-selves to interact with their cognitive approach, sense of personal purpose, definite set of interests and skills, values, motivational drivers, etc. To originate a unified predisposition.

The understanding basal Value Orientations has been colse to for centuries. Many spiritual traditions have categorised this concept. Examples include spiritual models such as the ten Sefirot levels of creation in the Jewish Kabbalah teachings, the seven levels from the false Self to the significant Self in classical Sufi teaching, and the seven Hindu Chakras. A more up-to-date example, from collective Psychology, is the collective Value Orientations ideas industrialized by David Messick and Charles McClintock which contains a model of five levels of motivation. Although, all these dissimilar perspectives use dissimilar terminology they all intuitively appear to draw on the same basal basal concept.

We recommend that it is the leader's 'value orientation' that gives them their sense of authenticity as they demonstrate the agility of behaviour required to be successful in today uncertain and Complex world. To recognize and profile a leader's value orientation we use a psychometric based primarily on the Spiral Dynamics model industrialized by Graves, Beck and Cowan that comprises seven levels.

Values Orientation ---------- Prime Motivation

Turquoise - Holistic - "We Experience" - Communities share responsibility to care for the earth due to the interconnectedness of systems. Respect for all life with a spiritual philosophy.

Yellow - Systemic - " I Learn" - Independence, self-knowledge and self-worth can be achieved through constant convert learning and development. A big picture systems view of life.

Green - Communitarian - "We Relate" - Humanity can find purpose through connecting with each other and construction community. Promotes affiliation, consensus and compromise.

Orange - Prosperity - "I Achieve" - Success through using the abundant resources and production things better.Ambitious, entrepreneurial, with a strong desire to improve.

Blue - Truth - "We Conform" - Obedience to authority and conformity to rules. Disciplined, principled and honourable.

Red - Power - "I Control" - Survival of the fittest. Enforcing operate through dominance and power.Demonstrating passion and energy.

Purple - security - "We Protect" - The maintenance of 'in-group' relationships that contribute certainty, warmth, protection, support and guidance.

The leader's value orientation does not remain static. As the leader progresses along their journey of development, and faces new unfamiliar challenges, their centre of gravity shifts. This occurs when their existing way of viewing the world no longer provides a clarification and a new 'worldview' needs to emerge. At that point the 'Complex Adaptive System' of the self moves to the edge of chaos and goes into 'Bifurcation' as two paths become available: -

Become rigid so as to safe key elements of the self identity Let go of the current value orientation, move into chaos and lose the sense of authenticity

This is a tough decision and one that is often made on unconscious instinct depending on how fearful or determined the leader is. Many leaders decide to take the first path and their development becomes temporarily stalled. However, for the leaders who take the second path a new more Complex self ideas emerges which integrates more mini-selves and is anchored colse to a new centre of gravity or value orientation. When this happens the leader progresses additional along their journey of development with an increased capacity to lead in an uncertain and Complex world. Each successive value orientation incorporates and transcends all old ones in terms of the degree and focus of consciousness involved. However, that does not imply that some value orientations are good than others as this is dependent on the situation.

A leader's development can be accelerated to consolidate more Complex value orientations. However, the leader must be provided with the right challenge and support at the right stage in their journey of development. Our Leadership Capacity Framework provides a map of the terrain for the leader's journey which can be used to accelerate development ensuring that organisations have leaders who can lead in a complex, ambiguous, uncertain world.

complex Authenticity

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