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Thereflection of week 12

12 Jan.2021

Week12：Authentic Leadership

When I first read the word “authentic”, I think I cannotclearly understand the meaning of authentic. Maybe I confuse this word with “real”.Authenticmean includes some key words: real, genuine and not a copy. I try to think about who can be called authentic leaders in the world. The slides from my teacher told me Howard Schultz, Oprah Winfrey, Nelson Mandela are authentic leader.Although I know that Starbucks coffee isalso very popular in China, I am not interested in coffee, so I don't knowHoward Schultz. Thank you for  this lesson. I know there are such outstanding people in the history of Starbucks coffee.

  Among thesefamous characters, I am relatively familiar with Nelson Mandela, because I methim for the first time in a middle school history textbook, and I also read hisbiography as an adult. But when Nelson Mandela was placed in the field of leadership,I started to be confused again. I explore more materials from internet, it alwaysshow me that Nelson Mandela is a transformational leader. There are manysimilarities or overlaps between authentic leadership and transformational leadership.For some leaders, we may not simply put him in a single leadership theory. 

What qualities identify them as authentic in my eyes?The authentic leader implies that  the authentic action theory is consistent with the claimed theory. They make decisions based on their personal values and

beliefsin order to build credibility and gain the respect and trust of their followers. 

However, their values and beliefs are characterized by high integrity. So, Although Adolf Hitler had many followers in his time and he  alsohad his own political ideas, he was not an authentic leader. Hitler’s  policies precipitated World War II and led to the genocide known as the Holocaust, which resulted in the deaths of some six million Jews andanother five million noncombatants.