# Authentic Leadership
Hold high ethical standards for their own behaviour.
Emerging method of leadership responding to societal demands for genuine, trustworthy leadership.
Lead according to values and understanding of ethics
Their values may not be valued by their constituents
## Characteristics
- Self-aware
- Personal moral perspectives
- Transparent
- Positive in relationships
- High 
- Open to input from followers
- Trustworthy
- Balanced processing
- Consider things as objectively as possible
- unbiased interest in new ideas
- seeks alternative views and opinions before decisions
- Relational transparency
- Accountable
- Transparent
- 'Own' mistakes and successes
## Most important aspects of [Components of Leadership](Components%20of%20Leadership.md) model
Focus is on the leader
genuine desire to be better leaders
Help craft meaningful goals that support an aspirational culture.
## Positive features
1. Provides an answer for sound leadership
2. Prescriptive - how to learn to be authentic
3. Has an explicit moral dimension built in
4. Framed as a process developed over time rather than a fixed trait
## Drawbacks
Lack of evidence of whether it is effective
## Examples
- Martin Luther King
- Nelson Mandela
- Mahatma Gandhi
[^1]
# References
[^1]: [Week 7 ELEC4122 - Leadership Theories and Styles](../../../Spaces/University/ELEC4122/lecture%20slides/blank/Week%207%20ELEC4122%20-%20Leadership%20Theories%20and%20Styles.pdf)