Jane Turner suggests that traditional leadership development programmes do not spend enough time focussing upon the inner person and that the modern leader needs to develop additional skills to flourish

Turner, Jane

English

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Citation: Turner, Jane (2009) Developing 'authentic leaders' - the leaders' coaching journey. OCM 
Coach and Mentor Journal, 9. pp. 8-10. 
Published by: The OCM Group Ltd.
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The ocm coach and mentor Journal 2009 1
Figure 1
Developing ‘authentic leaders’–
The leaders’ coaching journey Jane Turner
i have been involved in the development
of leaders for the past 10 years, initially
employed internally within organisations
and currently in a Business School
environment. Whilst working at orange
as leadership development specialist i
was intent on assembling the ingredients
necessary to enable powerful, perspective
changing leader experiences that made
a difference to the leader and those they
were responsible for leading. i was very
aware that many leadership development
programmes did not spend sufficient
time focusing upon the inner person of
the leader.
contributions to the requisite recipe
were sought from selected Business
Schools, however it was apparent that
they sometimes struggled to contribute to
the required practitioner perspective as
their trajectory was primarily theoretical.
This experience made me determined
to become involved in powerful and
impacting leader development
approaches and led to the cohesion
of coaching and authentic leader
development processes.
moving to current times, leaders are now
faced with an organisational landscape
of increasing pressure, uncertainty, tension
and stress that requires the ability to
demonstrate unprecedented agility and
a strong sense of self. There are so many
leaders wearing masks and feeling
vulnerable and exposed in their roles.
There is ever increasing concern in relation to
leadership programmes that are pervaded
by regurgitated theories and models that
do not develop the leaders concerned.
many leaders are familiar with traits,
charismatic, behavioural, situational and
transformational leadership etc, yet these
theories and models wash over them in
a meaningless way. The overwhelming
theoretical leadership context leads
to many leadership development
programmes that are repetitive, superficial
and the equivalent of dipping ones toe
in shallow water – quick, relatively painless,
and not particularly memorable. lord and
hall (2005) suggest that leader development
needs to go beyond the acquisition of
surface skills and present concern at the
lack of research regarding the deeper
and slower development of leaders.
recently there have been calls to explore
the inner person of the leader. Brown and
Starkey (2000) and avolio and Gardner
(2005) argue that the existing frameworks
are not sufficient for developing leaders
of the future. We need only to look to the
current global crisis to see the monumental
impact of leaders. indeed, Gardner et
al (2005), suggest that the challenges of
knowing, showing and remaining true to
oneself have never been greater and
present the ‘authentic leader’ concept
as an alternative which focuses upon
making sense of
i ) l i fe story,
i i ) t r igger events,
i i i ) v a l u e s ,
iv) m ot i ves and em ot i on .
The ‘authentic leadership’ literature
presents a more coherent framework
for the leader development journey and
scaffolds the process by which leaders
may achieve greater authenticity,
focusing on the ‘what’ and the ‘how’.
as i am now working in a Business School
environment and having carried out
research into the developmental processes
that leaders experience in establishing
and sustaining self in the leader role i am
confident that i am closer to the requisite
ingredients. i am working exclusively with
senior leaders and using the elements of
the ‘authentic leader’ framework to
scaffold the coaching process. (See figure 1)
Life History/Trigger Events
for example life history and values play
the following role in the authentic leader
coaching process.
The leader’s personal history and key
trigger events are deemed to be
antecedents for authentic leadership
development. The events themselves are
deemed to trigger personal growth and
development and serve as catalysts for
heightened levels of leader self awareness.
2 The ocM coach and Mentor Journal 2009
At the start of the coaching process,
leaders are asked to construct a lifeline
focusing latterly within the context of their
leader role. The lifelines are talked through
leading to powerful and emotional
conversations. leaders quickly synthesise
meaning through the construction and
articulation of their personal histories.
coaching around the narrative enables
leaders to turn the mirror inward and
engage in deep reflection characterised
by the questioning and challenging of
assumptions, values and motives.
Values
Values naturally emerge from the life story
and are explored in depth during coaching
sessions. leaders are exposed to other
leaders’ stories, e.g. Jackie Stewart, formula
one world champion; Steve Jobs, cEo
Apple – which enables the leaders to
explore their own values in the context of
others and experience what (Erikson, 1995a,
1995b) refers to as the internalisation of
values, recognising the integration with self.
coaching ensures that significant time
is spent with the leader developing a
deeper sense of self and their personal
self concept, prior to exploring their
leadership. This enables leaders to
approach their development from their
trajectory and the results are proving
powerful in many ways.
for example, a senior leader i will refer
to as Adam, was participating in a
customised Executive leadership
programme underpinned by 1:1
Executive coaching. it was during his
first coaching session that we explored
his defensive behaviour during the initial
taught module. he informed me that
he was dyslexic and did not want to
partake in the programme but felt he
would be left behind if he did not
participate. This tension played out for
Adam over the coming months and
during his second coaching session, using
the model presented above, i asked him
to tell me his life story.
during his account i experienced a
powerful sense of him holding back and
used the analogy of a swimmer working
very hard to keep up with other swimmers
to explain my feelings. At this point Adam
became rather emotional and presented
a trigger event, explaining that he had
passed his o-level English exam by learning
essay questions by rote prior to the exam,
in an attempt to hide his dyslexia. This had
left him with the thought that he was a
fraud and a resulting pattern of a leader
who constantly tried to avoid situations
which presented the possibility of pushing
him out of his comfort zone.
This proved a very emotional session as
Adam explained that he had never
discussed the impact of this with anyone
but felt huge relief having shared what he
referred to as an immense ‘burden’.
The ocm coach and mentor Journal 2009 3
developing ‘Authentic leaders’–
The leaders’ coaching journey (cont.) Jane Turner
12 months on and Adam is a very
different leader, having identified and
worked to make sense of his values
through the coaching process, he is
engaging in activities that he would
have once avoided at all costs, such
as a team away day in which he shared
his life story with his team and has
worked hard to understand the values
of each of his direct reports and
what is important to them.
To quote Adam “i had never contemplated
how my personal history might have
shaped the real me. creating the lifeline
was challenging and highly revealing
– forcing me to “hold up the mirror”and
gain an understanding of why i am
the way i am, which is invaluable to
understand as a leader”. “i have become
very comfortable in my own skin, resulting
in an ability to feel more comfortable
with others”.
Another example is John, who failing to
get the required A level grades for
university went back to college to study
for re-sits. Six weeks into the term he
received a call from the dean of a school
at the university to say a student had
dropped out of the course and they
were now in a position to offer him a
place. We explored the thoughts and
feelings he experienced during the first
morning at university, a trigger event,
which 23 years on had left him with the
view that he was still undeserving of the
place he had been offered and was not
‘clever enough’.
Working with John to make sense of his
values and identity over the last year has
enabled him to move to a place where
he feels deserving of his leader role. New
opportunities have emerged as a result of
him being in a very different place.
This depth of understanding demonstrated
by the above examples emerges as a
result of deeper slower leader development
intervention, namely coaching. my
confidence in the efficacy of this coaching
approach stems from the following:
a) core personal values relating to being
courageous and making a difference,
b) research findings in which leaders
reveal the ‘masks’ they feel required
to wear and the internal angst, in
other words the in-authenticity,
c) being in the privileged position to
support leaders in their sense making
processes and experiencing firsthand
the impact of these conversations.
coaching enables ‘deep dive’ learning
experiences, enabling the leader to make
sense of self using elements of the
‘Authent ic leader ’ development
framework, supporting gardner’s view
(2005) that the primary emphasis is to build
the intrapersonal competence needed
to form an accurate model of oneself.
The coaching process enables leaders
to approach development from their
trajectory, laying a new foundation stone.
Starting with the development of the inner
person of the leader requires courage,
pat ience and commitment from both
parties: those providing leader development
experiences and those purchasing them.
References
Avolio, B.J., Gardner, W.L. (2005) Authentic
leadership development: getting to the
root of positive forms of leadership. The
Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 16, pp3 15 - 338
Brown, A.D., & Starkey, K. (2000)
Organizational identity and learning: A
psychodynamic perspective. Academy
Of Management Review, 25, 102 - 200.
Lord, R, G., & Hal, R. J. (2005) Identity,
deep structure and the development of
leadership skil. The Leadership Quarterly.
Vol 19, pp591 - 615.
Erikson, R.J. (1995a) The importance of
authenticity for self and society, Symbolic
Interaction, 18(2), 121 - 144.
Erikson, R.J. (1 995b) Our society, our selves:
Becoming authentic in an unauthentic
world, Advanced Development, 6, 27 - 39.
About the author
Jane Turner is Associate dean for the
execut ive development centre at
Newcastle Business School at Northumbria
university. She is an academically
qualified executive coach working with
senior leaders in the public, private and
third sectors. She advises organisations
on the creation of coaching cultures
and helps to build internal coaching
capability. Jane is responsible for the
Business School’s masters in coaching.
her research interests are in authentic
leader development experiences.
She was previously leadership
development Specialist for orange uK
and head of hr for Benfield motor group.
Contact:
Jane.Turner@northumbria.ac.uk



Developing 'authentic leaders' - the leaders' coaching journey

The ocm coach and mentor Journal 2009 1Figure 1Developing ‘authentic leaders’–The leaders’ coaching journey Jane Turneri have been involved in the developmentof leaders for the past 10 years, initiallyemployed internally within organisationsand currently in a Business Schoolenvironment. Whilst working at orangeas leadership development specialist iwas intent on assembling the ingredientsnecessary to enable powerful, perspectivechanging leader experiences that madea difference to the leader and those theywere responsible for leading. i was veryaware that many leadership developmentprogrammes did not spend sufficienttime focusing upon the inner person ofthe leader.contributions to the requisite recipewere sought from selected BusinessSchools, however it was apparent thatthey sometimes struggled to contribute tothe required practitioner perspective astheir trajectory was primarily theoretical.This experience made me determinedto become involved in powerful andimpacting leader developmentapproaches and led to the cohesionof coaching and authentic leaderdevelopment processes.moving to current times, leaders are nowfaced with an organisational landscapeof increasing pressure, uncertainty, tensionand stress that requires the ability todemonstrate unprecedented agility anda strong sense of self. There are so manyleaders wearing masks and feelingvulnerable and exposed in their roles.There is ever increasing concern in relation toleadership programmes that are pervadedby regurgitated theories and models thatdo not develop the leaders concerned.many leaders are familiar with traits,charismatic, behavioural, situational andtransformational leadership etc, yet thesetheories and models wash over them ina meaningless way. The overwhelmingtheoretical leadership context leadsto many leadership developmentprogrammes that are repetitive, superficialand the equivalent of dipping ones toein shallow water – quick, relatively painless,and not particularly memorable. lord andhall (2005) suggest that leader developmentneeds to go beyond the acquisition ofsurface skills and present concern at thelack of research regarding the deeperand slower development of leaders.recently there have been calls to explorethe inner person of the leader. Brown andStarkey (2000) and avolio and Gardner(2005) argue that the existing frameworksare not sufficient for developing leadersof the future. We need only to look to thecurrent global crisis to see the monumentalimpact of leaders. indeed, Gardner etal (2005), suggest that the challenges ofknowing, showing and remaining true tooneself have never been greater andpresent the ‘authentic leader’ conceptas an alternative which focuses uponmaking sense ofi ) l i fe story,i i ) t r igger events,i i i ) v a l u e s ,iv) m ot i ves and em ot i on .The ‘authentic leadership’ literaturepresents a more coherent frameworkfor the leader development journey andscaffolds the process by which leadersmay achieve greater authenticity,focusing on the ‘what’ and the ‘how’.as i am now working in a Business Schoolenvironment and having carried outresearch into the developmental processesthat leaders experience in establishingand sustaining self in the leader role i amconfident that i am closer to the requisiteingredients. i am working exclusively withsenior leaders and using the elements ofthe ‘authentic leader’ framework toscaffold the coaching process. (See figure 1)Life History/Trigger Eventsfor example life history and values playthe following role in the authentic leadercoaching process.The leader’s personal history and keytrigger events are deemed to beantecedents for authentic leadershipdevelopment. The events themselves aredeemed to trigger personal growth anddevelopment and serve as catalysts forheightened levels of leader self awareness.2 The ocM coach and Mentor Journal 2009At the start of the coaching process,leaders are asked to construct a lifelinefocusing latterly within the context of theirleader role. The lifelines are talked throughleading to powerful and emotionalconversations. leaders quickly synthesisemeaning through the construction andarticulation of their personal histories.coaching around the narrative enablesleaders to turn the mirror inward andengage in deep reflection characterisedby the questioning and challenging ofassumptions, values and motives.ValuesValues naturally emerge from the life storyand are explored in depth during coachingsessions. leaders are exposed to otherleaders’ stories, e.g. Jackie Stewart, formulaone world champion; Steve Jobs, cEoApple – which enables the leaders toexplore their own values in the context ofothers and experience what (Erikson, 1995a,1995b) refers to as the internalisation ofvalues, recognising the integration with self.coaching ensures that significant timeis spent with the leader developing adeeper sense of self and their personalself concept, prior to exploring theirleadership. This enables leaders toapproach their development from theirtrajectory and the results are provingpowerful in many ways.for example, a senior leader i will referto as Adam, was participating in acustomised Executive leadershipprogramme underpinned by 1:1Executive coaching. it was during hisfirst coaching session that we exploredhis defensive behaviour during the initialtaught module. he informed me thathe was dyslexic and did not want topartake in the programme but felt hewould be left behind if he did notparticipate. This tension played out forAdam over the coming months andduring his second coaching session, usingthe model presented above, i asked himto tell me his life story.during his account i experienced apowerful sense of him holding back andused the analogy of a swimmer workingvery hard to keep up with other swimmersto explain my feelings. At this point Adambecame rather emotional and presenteda trigger event, explaining that he hadpassed his o-level English exam by learningessay questions by rote prior to the exam,in an attempt to hide his dyslexia. This hadleft him with the thought that he was afraud and a resulting pattern of a leaderwho constantly tried to avoid situationswhich presented the possibility of pushinghim out of his comfort zone.This proved a very emotional session asAdam explained that he had neverdiscussed the impact of this with anyonebut felt huge relief having shared what hereferred to as an immense ‘burden’.The ocm coach and mentor Journal 2009 3developing ‘Authentic leaders’–The leaders’ coaching journey (cont.) Jane Turner12 months on and Adam is a verydifferent leader, having identified andworked to make sense of his valuesthrough the coaching process, he isengaging in activities that he wouldhave once avoided at all costs, suchas a team away day in which he sharedhis life story with his team and hasworked hard to understand the valuesof each of his direct reports andwhat is important to them.To quote Adam “i had never contemplatedhow my personal history might haveshaped the real me. creating the lifelinewas challenging and highly revealing– forcing me to “hold up the mirror”andgain an understanding of why i amthe way i am, which is invaluable tounderstand as a leader”. “i have becomevery comfortable in my own skin, resultingin an ability to feel more comfortablewith others”.Another example is John, who failing toget the required A level grades foruniversity went back to college to studyfor re-sits. Six weeks into the term hereceived a call from the dean of a schoolat the university to say a student haddropped out of the course and theywere now in a position to offer him aplace. We explored the thoughts andfeelings he experienced during the firstmorning at university, a trigger event,which 23 years on had left him with theview that he was still undeserving of theplace he had been offered and was not‘clever enough’.Working with John to make sense of hisvalues and identity over the last year hasenabled him to move to a place wherehe feels deserving of his leader role. Newopportunities have emerged as a result ofhim being in a very different place.This depth of understanding demonstratedby the above examples emerges as aresult of deeper slower leader developmentintervention, namely coaching. myconfidence in the efficacy of this coachingapproach stems from the following:a) core personal values relating to beingcourageous and making a difference,b) research findings in which leadersreveal the ‘masks’ they feel requiredto wear and the internal angst, inother words the in-authenticity,c) being in the privileged position tosupport leaders in their sense makingprocesses and experiencing firsthandthe impact of these conversations.coaching enables ‘deep dive’ learningexperiences, enabling the leader to makesense of self using elements of the‘Authent ic leader ’ developmentframework, supporting gardner’s view(2005) that the primary emphasis is to buildthe intrapersonal competence neededto form an accurate model of oneself.The coaching process enables leadersto approach development from theirtrajectory, laying a new foundation stone.Starting with the development of the innerperson of the leader requires courage,pat ience and commitment from bothparties: those providing leader developmentexperiences and those purchasing them.ReferencesAvolio, B.J., Gardner, W.L. (2005) Authenticleadership development: getting to theroot of positive forms of leadership. TheLeadership Quarterly, Vol. 16, pp3 15 - 338Brown, A.D., & Starkey, K. (2000)Organizational identity and learning: Apsychodynamic perspective. AcademyOf Management Review, 25, 102 - 200.Lord, R, G., & Hal, R. J. (2005) Identity,deep structure and the development ofleadership skil. The Leadership Quarterly.Vol 19, pp591 - 615.Erikson, R.J. (1995a) The importance ofauthenticity for self and society, SymbolicInteraction, 18(2), 121 - 144.Erikson, R.J. (1 995b) Our society, our selves:Becoming authentic in an unauthenticworld, Advanced Development, 6, 27 - 39.About the authorJane Turner is Associate dean for theexecut ive development centre atNewcastle Business School at Northumbriauniversity. She is an academicallyqualified executive coach working withsenior leaders in the public, private andthird sectors. She advises organisationson the creation of coaching culturesand helps to build internal coachingcapability. Jane is responsible for theBusiness School’s masters in coaching.her research interests are in authenticleader development experiences.She was previously leadershipdevelopment Specialist for orange uKand head of hr for Benfield motor group.Contact:Jane.Turner@northumbria.ac.uk

Authentic leadership development: getting to the root of positive forms of leadership.

Identity, deep structure and the development of leadership skil.

The importance of authenticity for self and society,

http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/880/1/Turner%2C%20Jane%20-%20Developing%20%27Authentic%20Leaders%27%20-%20the%20leaders%27%20coaching%20journey%20Article.pdf

Developing 'authentic leaders' - the leaders' coaching journey

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