Transformational Leadership

IAre transformational leaders authentic, or are authentic leaders transformational? How important is authenticity for effective leadership? Discuss based on the Nancy Barry case, and from your own personal and professional experiences.

Authentic leadership is the key to an effective and transformational leader. When a leader is authentic, he creates an environment of trust that has a direct effect in an organization. Nancy Barry’s Authenticity to follow her heart and not the money trail was what transform the finance world to offer microloans to women of poor economic resources.

In my own experience, I had followed my heart and now I’m seeing the rewards for being true to myself. I was the payroll manager for about 16 years at my current job. I was very happy and comfortable directing the payroll department. However, I did not feel challenged enough, and I also felt that I could be making a bigger impact to contribute to the growth of this company. On one of my performance reviews, about 6 years ago, I told my manager that I felt that I could make a bigger impact with the IS/IT group because I felt we were not keeping up with new technologies and our power users were always scrambling to meet deadlines with poor IS/IT tools. We went from 1 person IS/IT person that handled 4 locations, at the time about we were 100 employees. We are now 250 employees in the East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast with 6 IS/IT specialists. I am now the Director of IS/IT, looking to move on from IS/IT to direct Customer Service Department and Sales Force.