William Bishop's Authentic Leadership

The 21st century business environment has prompted a lot of debate with regards to how businesses are led. From the onset, graduate business schools have focused their attention on the development of leaders and people who are motivated by the desire to cause an impact to the world. There are indeed many problems that have plagued the 21st-century society. The lack of solutions to most of these problems is a concern. The silver bullet to solve these problems is elusive. However, there is indeed a measure of confidence being placed upon leadership. Leaders are naturally positioned to cause significant change by virtue of the resources available to them. The most important of these resources is human resource. Authentic leaders are the ones recognized …show more content…
Bishop is keen to appreciate that leadership operates in a context. A large part of the article seeks to define the true meaning of authentic leadership. And indeed, leadership stands out to be an issue of process rather than just a mere event. Although critical moments tend to expose a leader’s true values, Bishop realizes that the process is as much a process as it is a behavioral issue. It is on such a framework that Bishop bases his understanding of authentic leadership. Indeed, a look at the interest with regards to authentic leadership reveals that it is a concept that people are still struggling to grasp. While there are many who have tried to define the true meaning of the term “authentic leadership”, the lack of consensus means that the definitions are open to interpretation (Bishop, …show more content…
What stands out is that authenticity is associated with a belief system. Indeed, the author’s points are based on real world experiences that make a person decipher the code behind authentic leadership. Through a systematic approach, Bishop enables a reader to carefully understand the benchmarks of authentic leadership. Indeed, the issue of authenticity came out strongly when he delved into Adolf Hitler’s leadership style. Hitler is well known due to the atrocities he committed in his reign. For much of the time in his reign, Germany showed great industrial and military accomplishments. The German army was well armed and thrived on the scientific advances made at that time. As such, the Germans were the most powerful nation at their time. Their threat was indeed a formidable one that caused other nations to unite. However, more than the military accomplishments, it was the Hitler’s ability to influence people’s decision-making processes that makes one reconsider the basic definition of authentic leadership. It seems inconceivable that people would willingly commit to doing the heinous crimes that they did. However, the truth of the matter is that those within Hitler’s ranks believed in the