Most of us don’t have a billion dollars and a teched-out flying suit to lead a team of superheroes like Iron Man. But we do have ourselves, and that’s really all you need to be an authentic leader.
Authentic leadership is a “management style where leaders practice transparent behavior to build relationships, accomplish company goals, and inspire their teams,” according to Indeed. While employees want to work with leaders who are trustworthy, transparent, and authentic, it’s still rare to find ones with all of these qualities, Forbes reported.
Sy Islam, VP of consulting at management consulting firm Talent Metrics, told HR Brew that people leaders should strive to be authentic leaders for their employees, and can even look at Iron Man as an example in becoming one.
Iron Man’s example. Iron Man was the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and throughout the franchise, the character embodies an outspokenness that other superheroes count on for leadership. Iron Man is an authentic leader because he’s not perfect, Islam told HR Brew. He’s true to himself.
This is where HR leaders can take note—his leadership style remains unabashed and genuine, which you can see in his mentorship of Peter Parker in the Spider-Man movies, and that inspires other Avengers to follow him.
“As much as we like Iron Man, he is a little bit abrasive. He can be a lot or as the kids say today, ‘extra,’” Islam said. “He’s always making jokes…he knows he’s the smartest person in the room, so a lot of times, he can be hard to handle or he can even be a difficult person to deal with.”
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Islam said Iron Man’s leadership evolves from being centered on entitlement and vanity to being more caring and understanding over the course of the movies. For HR pros, the “goal is to stay who you are, but highlight the things that work best for you in a leadership role,” he said. While Iron Man learns how to be a better leader, he still remains himself: the know-it-all scientist with money.
HR, it’s your turn. HR leaders can be authentic by committing to self-improvement and becoming self-aware, Islam said, while making it “explicit and clear” to your employees how you handle problems and how you strive to better yourself over time.
“Commitment to bettering yourself, being self aware, showing that you’ve got some discipline, and that you actually care about the mission of the organization, all of those are things that [employees] lean into,” Islam said.
When HR pros talk with employees, they represent their organization. So, if employees view you as authentic and trustworthy, they’re going to view the company in a similar light, he said, and employees will think, “I understand where this person is coming from. They have integrity. They’re being the most honest version of themselves.”
Companies usually have standards for how employees should act, and those expectations apply to HR pros, too, Islam said. “You, as a HR professional, are going to live up to that commitment. That’s a great way of thinking about how to be authentic, because you made a promise to those employees that they will be protected in case something happens.”