Citation:
Donna Ladkin and Steven Taylor, Enacting the ‘true self’: Towards a theory of
embodied authentic leadership, The Leadership Quarterly, Volume 21, Issue 1,
February 2010, Pages 6
Abstract:
This paper argues that although authentic leadership may be rooted in the notion
of a ‘true self’, it is through the embodiment of that ‘true self’ that leaders
are perceived as authentic or not. In making this claim, we consider ways in
which a somatic sense of self contributes to the felt sense of authenticity, and
how through engaging with somatic cues, leadership can be performed in a way
which is experienced as authentic, both to the leader and to those he or she
seeks to lead. In developing our ideas further, we draw from the acting theory
of Stanislavski (1936a, 1936b, 1961) to explore how authentic dramatic
performances are created, focusing on the role of emotional memory, the magic
‘if’ and physical aspects of performances. We propose three key components of a
resulting theory of how embodied authentic leadership is created: self exposure,
relating, and making leade
