TRANSFORMATIONAL AND AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 1

Authentic and Transformational Leadership Paper 2

Charles Porter

OGL.300

Arizona State University

TRANSFORMATIONAL AND AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP

When speaking about transformational and authentic leadership, few characteristics can

be said about both. Transformational leaders, they can be called a charismatic leader.

Charismatic leaders are those leaders who can have specific characteristics that can be

described as bold, a sincere desire to lead, a strong sense of moral value, and they can have a

lot of self-confidence. A transformational leader will set high goals, a rewards system, and

expectations for their followers. The transformational leader can spur positive change within

their followers. He or she can enhance the morals, and the overall performance for their

followers or a group they are currently working with. At times a transformational leader can

seem like an authentic leader when they speak to their follower bluntly. A transformational

leader will speak to their followers boldly and plainly when they are trying to motivate their

followers to get a job done, raise the production levels, or try and get the most out their

followers. Because of promises and rewards, the transformational leader seems not to have a

lasting effect as an authentic leader. They have been described as some as a “ phoenix that goes

up in flames.” (Lim, 2018) Followers will follow this leader out of faith that they are going to

get the rewards that were promised to them.

The Authentic leader like the transformational leader can also be charismatic. They can also

inspire their followers to work harder and gain better production values. However, unlike the

transformational like an authentic leader is more likely to be trying to live out their mission, and

values. However, they are straight forward, transparent, build relationships based on trust and

honesty, and develop trust with their followers without a rewards system. Furthermore,

Authentic leadership is much harder to define than transformational. When speaking on

authentic leadership, researchers are unclear where authentic leaders value actually land, when
TRANSFORMATIONAL AND AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP

speaking of authentic a lot of time followers are described as followers that do what they are

told and not to questions the methods of the leader who might be acting out of self-interest.

Many times an authentic leader will open and tell their story, and because of their self-drive

seem to have a long and lasting effect on their followers.

As a thirty-six-year-old man, I have run into many leaders who fit the description of both of

these type of leaders. First, I will speak on the authentic leader that I worked with a few years

ago at an electrical distribution warehouse in Kent, Washington. Up until that time, I never had

a boss who was as good as this guy.

At this particular job, Dan was the warehouse manager. Dan, every morning would have the

entire warehouse come together and give us what needed to be done for the day. He gave an

open forum, and let all of speak on the days work. He would grab intel from us and see who

would be the best fit for every job that needed to be done. He was always so polite and honest

with everyone. For the first time in my career, I saw a leader who cared for us; he was sincere

in his actions, and always spoke plainly to us. We respected him because he never promised

anything that he could not deliver. There were times that if we were short-handed, he would

leave his office and help. He inspired us because of his kind words, but because he believed in

the company we worked for. His followers meant more to him than the production numbers. I

never worked for some who was still a boss and asked for our respect, but cared about our

well-being than the bottom line.

Dan’s way of being a leader inspired me to change my outlook on being a leader. Up until I

had him every boss I had was brash, hard, and at times, overbearing. He led with compassion,

honesty, and everyone was not his equal, but we were all equals. He never held one person
TRANSFORMATIONAL AND AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP

above another and never spoke down upon us. I learned that a boss could lead by being

transparent and trustworthy for the first time. Since working with him, I have tried to change

my leadership characteristics to shadows his.

On the other hand, I have worked with a lot of transformational leaders as well. Even though

they could be brasher because they are trying to motivate people to their jobs, they were not

always the worsed bosses to have. However, the ones I worked forever came across as jerks.

At another warehouse, I worked for I had a boss where it was his way or the highway. He

inspired to work because we feared for our jobs. We worked hard because we had too, and if

we did not, we heard about it. He got incentives, and bonuses for our hard work, and if you did

not pull your weight, you were gone. The pay at the time was decent, and I think that is why

we put up with a lot of the antics he displayed. He was bold, clear-cut, and to the point, and

there was no transparency in what he expected. He did not care how the job got done, who

got it done; all he cared for was getting done. His attitude was your incentive was keeping a

job, so he led by fear and overbearing acts.

This manager (who I left nameless for a reason) was an awful person and had a real negative

effect on me. For the longest time, I thought all managers were like this. I only saw the worst

in bosses and never the positive. He never showed me any kindness, and I started to lead that

way myself. I figured that is how you lead people. If you have an iron fist, and you still inspire

people to work (even if it is negative), then you are still getting the job done. When I was given

an opportunity to be a leader myself, that is how I led my first team, and I lost my job over it.

After that job, I have not been in any formal leadership roles.
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One day I hope to regain an opportunity to lead people again. However, I am content

with learning from my past, taking classes, and earning the trust of my fellow works before I

become a leader again. I feel this time around it is essential to have some personal interaction

with my co-workers before I am a leader. I want to understand everyone for the next

leadership opportunities better.

References

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks:

SAGE Publications.

Lim, Liat. (2018, Dec 23). How do you describe similarities and differences between

transformational and authentic leadership. June 16th, 2019