HR directors always stress the need of letting people be themselves at work to maximize performance. Furthermore, leaders must lead authentically to achieve this. Our recent interviews with Nina Hospitality’s Managing Director Simon Manning, Toys”R”Us Asia’s Chief People Officer Angel Kwok, and J.P. Morgan’s Head of HR for APAC Stephanie Keay all stressed the importance of being a role model and an open and transparent leader.
What is true leadership? City Mental Health Alliance Hong Kong (CMHA HK) defines authentic leadership as aligning ideas, words, and actions and leading with integrity and honesty. In addition, this leadership style fosters trust, commitment, and coherence through meaningful workplace relationships. Other than that, authentic leadership improves employee morale, productivity, and business culture over time.
CMHA HK presented its top authenticity leadership tips.
1. Self-aware
Genuine leaders are emotionally intelligent, reflective, and conscious of their strengths and flaws. Self-control and emotion management are included. Self-awareness can be shown by asking the team for feedback on their working style and making any necessary changes to improve teamwork.
2. Strong morals
Authentic leaders lead by their core principles. This requires campaigning for causes they care about and convincing other leaders to change.
3. Relationship openness
Authentic leaders give fair and constructive feedback to team members and have the emotional maturity to take responsibility for their actions.
4. Process balance
Authentic leaders accept multiple perspectives and seek team feedback when making decisions. Consequently, fair processing allows all employees to present their ideas collaboratively and feel appreciated and valued. Psychological safety allows team members to communicate their opinions, suggestions, and concerns without fear of repercussions.
5. Avoid sugar coating
Authentic communication with employees at difficult times or deadlines is crucial. Meanwhile, this reduces employee uncertainty, which contributes to poor mental health at work. Make sure these intense times of effort are recognized and compensated later.
6. Practise authenticity at company level
Company rules can assist drive cultural change, but real change comes from successful implementation and uptake. This is company-level authenticity—aligning communication with action.
7. Find allies
Other senior leaders must join and commit to change for authentic leadership to spread. In addition, a few leaders can normalize mental health conversations, promote honest leadership, and set an example.
8. Self-care
Empathetic leaders prioritize others’ needs over their own. Make self-care a daily priority. Leaders inspire team members to set boundaries and take care of themselves. Role-modeling also promotes teamwork by supporting the team rather than individual responsibilities.
