Developing Authentic Leadership Within a Training Context

Abstract

Based on semistructured interviews with 24 mid-level managers, this study examines the process of developing authentic leadership in a training context. The results revealed a process beginning with an exploration phase, in which participants increased their self-awareness and identified their leadership issues, identified new behaviors likely to address those issues, and tested those behaviors to confirm their effect. This was followed by an integration phase in which the participants reflected on the beneficial effects of those new behaviors and were able to adopt them in their organizational setting. The results also indicate that three phenomena activated by the training practices enable the participants to develop their authentic leadership, namely, a clamp effect, a safety-net effect, and an organizational simulation effect.