Authentic leadership might be an overworked phrase. A Google search returns 110 million matches; Amazon tells me they can deliver over 1,000 different titles covering this subject to my home in the UAE. Yet when we look at what works for leaders, it seems to be the human touch – the ‘authenticity’ – that resonates with those they lead. And – dare I say it – women are often the most authentic leaders of all.
What do we mean when we describe authenticity? Herminia Ibarra, a professor at the London Business School and author of Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, says that being an authentic leader is often thought to mean one of three things: being true to yourself, being sincere and being true to your values. Being true to yourself is tough, she points out, unless you first define ‘self’ – the self that you are or the one you aspire to be?
Being sincere seems a bit more straightforward – saying what you mean and meaning what you say. But that, too, is tough since different leaders presenting the same set of facts do so in a myriad of different ways. Finally, being true to your values may not work as a leader if your long-held values include, for instance, resisting the limelight. So, leaders may have to act like a leader, in Ibarra’s view, before they actually become one.
Am I an authentic leader? It is a question I ask myself from time to time, and especially right now. Why now? My own leader – Dr Raja Easa Al Gurg, the Pro-Chancellor of my university in Dubai – has published a new book on her leadership style. Entitled The Power of Authenticity, it details her personal philosophy on leadership honed through years of leading her family business. Chairperson and Managing Director of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group, Dr. Al Gurg sets the pace for those like me who look up to her achievements. Reading it and reviewing the three dimensions of leadership detailed in her book, I naturally compared them to my own.
Dr. Al Gurg’s three leadership themes are mind, heart and soul. The mind provides intellectual capital, i.e. knowledge, which creates trust. If there is “a foundation of solid knowledge across all decisions you make, fast or slow, the outcome will always be better,” she says. I can relate to this; after years of having to make decisions based on financial modelling, and writing regular commentary on financial accounts, I finally used the downtime of the pandemic to study for and qualify, as a chartered management accountant. I was no financial slouch – I have an MBA, and PhD in finance – but I knew that a formal qualification would cement my knowledge and make it easier for people to trust my financial leadership.
The heart provides emotional capital. Being human, according to Dr. Al Gurg, is central to being a leader. You will make mistakes – own them, deal with them. I have made many mistakes as a leader, including, at times, hiring totally the wrong person. I have learned that when you do that, and it clearly isn’t going to work, it is better for everyone – the company, you, and especially that person – to cut the experiment short, however uncomfortable. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, I have learned to be tough but fair, generous on the exit but without soft soaping it or prolonging the agony for ages while trying to make things work.
The soul, in Dr Al Gurg’s book, is the dimension of leadership that considers legacy. The Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group is a 60-year-old family business created by the legendary businessman Easa Saleh Al Gurg, who passed away in March 2022. Dr. Al Gurg acknowledges her responsibilities to the next generation, not leading as the owner so much as the custodian for the next generation. Before I was an academic, I was first a banker and then an entrepreneur, buying a 22-year-old company from its founders and expanding it all over the world. So what did I do with the company when I left it to become a professor? I transferred it to the next generation of employees.
I am fascinated by the journey that women go on to positions of leadership, and I don’t just mean the role of Chairperson of a company the size of the Al Gurg Group. My current fixation – and area of academic research – is women who have arrived on the audit committee of a public company in a GCC country.
Rather obscure leadership, you might think, but as a co-founder of the 30 percent Club in the UK in 2010 I am a veteran of campaigning for women on boards, and very aware of the role that board members on the audit committee play. The audit committee – sometimes combined with the risk committee – is where the financial reports are subject to scrutiny, where the dividend is discussed and recommended to the board, and where that unloved – but vital – function of internal audit reports to. It is the most senior committee of any board.
There are legions of women well qualified for audit committees, and yet precious few of the women serving on the boards of companies quoted on GCC stock exchanges sit on those committees. I am puzzled by this, given that we live in a region where women’s advancement is well supported, and women are leading more and more companies and organisations.
I am so puzzled that I have persuaded my university to create a Ph.D. scholarship for someone to investigate this and get their doctorate in the process. I will be the lead supervisor for the successful student, and hopefully, together one day, we will publish the results of our research. Will publishing research on women’s financial leadership in the GCC make me a more authentic leader? I hope so. It might be an overworked phrase, but it is one that I aspire to.