The Authenticity Problem

Within organizations, authenticity is today’s cultural panacea, promoted like an old-timey elixir peddled from a horse-drawn storefront. 

“Team not performing? Morale problems? Lack of alignment to strategic vision? Resistance to change? Well step right up, step right up and feast your eyes upon the most magical, most persuasive, most transformative principle to come through these parts in many a year! Authenticity! That’s right, be yourself and all these pesky ailments just fade away!”

Authenticity. The darling of organizational pundits and mavens of modern leadership. The one behavioral principle to rule them all. 

And without a doubt, genuinely authentic people are captivating. We admire those whose principles or tastes or idiosyncracies traverse the differing terrains of their lives. 

But while authenticity is having its cultural moment, actually being authentic is not as simple as it sounds. That’s especially true for those at the top of the org chart. The problem arguably starts with how we’ve chosen to define the word and the connotations we’ve draped onto it.

Leadership expectations change

We all know that culture, corporate and otherwise, has changed. The take-no-prisoners, brook-no-dissent and betray-no-weakness CEO is an anachronism.  A new archetype stands in its place. 

Today’s leaders are expected to round off their corners. To know that your kid plays the French horn and openly acknowledge the existence of imposter syndrome. 

They’re expected to wear their power lightly. And by being transparent and honest and open and vulnerable and trustworthy, they are said to be authentic. 

Here’s the problem: Bad behavior can be authentic behavior. Unscrupulous jerks who behave like unscrupulous jerks are being true to who they are. 

Authenticity ain’t what it used to be

But at some point, authenticity went from describing a form of self-expression to serving as a marker of virtue. 

Put another way, it’s no longer the consistent practice and expression of the unique combination of behaviors and values that are actually true to a person, but the expression of the specific behaviors and values organizations currently value.

And because authenticity has become conflated with those virtues and those virtues are thought to confer power, people seeking power attempt to project the values associated with supposed authenticity.

Authenticity: Today’s cool

The problem is that not everyone has cultivated those values. And you can’t just work them into your routine; lifehack your way into it. 

Those who attempt to can wind up with an unseemly mix of transparently false modesty, half-hearted stabs at vulnerability and me-thinks-thou-dost-protest-too-much attempts to brand themselves as everymen/women. 

Becoming authentic is not like improving your short game or learning to make coq au vin. 

Trying to be authentic is a little like trying to be cool. Pursue coolness by cloaking yourself in its trappings and striking its poses and you become the antithesis of cool.  

Genuine coolness is a kind of meta-state achieved by consistently practicing behaviors and applying beliefs that others believe are core to who you are. It’s about being true to your tastes and rules and values.  And perhaps as importantly, being largely indifferent to others’ opinions of those things.  

So it goes with authenticity.

There are no shortcuts

Pantomiming traits we haven’t cultivated within our own character rings hollow. But it gets worse. Because invariably, going all in on the so-called authentic virtues leaves leaders underplaying aspects of their character that actually are authentic to them. Including the harder edged ones we’ve stopped talking about. Things like ambition, a drive for results, and a willingness to have uncomfortable conversations and hold people accountable

And let’s face it, people know those traits are there, lurking not-so-far-below the surface. Invariably, the dictates of business will call forth those qualities. And if one has downplayed them in favor of vulnerability or empathy, now who looks inauthentic?

The paradox of great leadership

Look, we’re all adults here. We instinctively understand that an empathetic leader who can’t get things done is a just a good listener who’ll soon be spending workdays doddering around her beach house. 

People understand that leadership requires a broad spectrum of capabilities. But they likewise understand that seemingly opposing traits and instincts can coexist within the same leader. You can be empathetic and results oriented, vulnerable and decisive, reflective and action oriented. 

What you can be is a pretender.