Authentic leadership has been developed with insufficient empirical challenge to its definitional components, and alternative conceptualizations have largely been ignored. The theory remains heavily criticized and its distinctiveness from other higher-purpose leadership theories remains in doubt, leading to a circular debate as to its usefulness in practice. In response to the call to return to the definitional drawing table, this article presents the findings of an interpretative phenomenological study that reimagines authentic leadership as a two-component moral and relational model that is closer to Heidegger’s notions of ‘being true’ and ‘care’. The study inductively explores how leaders themselves make sense of authenticity in practice, when it is enacted by their own leaders within the social exchange relationship. It richly describes how managers perceive and attribute authenticity to their leaders within the lived experience of contemporary work. The study also identifies that working for a leader who is perceived as authentic feels like a friendship and is beneficial to followers’ own psychological experience of work, facilitates their own authentic expression and is worthy of retention as a distinct leadership theory that explains how performance is enabled within proximal leader relationships.

真正的领导者已经发展起来，对其定义要素的经验挑战不足，而替代性的概念化在很大程度上被忽略了。该理论仍然受到严厉批评，其与其他更高目的的领导理论的区别仍然令人怀疑，从而引发了关于其实用性的循环辩论。为回应返回到定义图表的呼吁，本文介绍了一种解释性现象学研究的结果，该研究将真实的领导力重新想象成一种由两部分组成的道德和关系模型，更接近于海德格尔的“真实”和“关爱”概念。 '。这项研究归纳性地探索了当领导者在社会交往关系中制定规则时，领导者自己如何在实践中理解真实性。它丰富地描述了管理者如何在当代工作的真实经验中感知并赋予领导者真实性。该研究还发现，为一个被认为是真诚的领导者工作感觉就像一种友谊，并且有利于追随者自己的工作心理体验，有助于他们自己的真诚表达，并且值得保留作为一种独特的领导力理论，该理论解释了绩效是如何实现的。在近端领导者关系中启用。