Getting Authenticity Wrong

Authenticity has become one of the most overused words in leadership. It's been stretched to cover oversharing on LinkedIn, performative vulnerability in all-hands meetings, and the idea that a leader should always say exactly what they're feeling, the second they feel it.

That's not authenticity. That's narrative.

Authentic leadership is quieter. It's the consistency between what a leader says in private and what they say in public. It's the willingness to acknowledge when a previous decision was wrong without spinning it. It's the ability to disagree with a respected colleague without softening the disagreement into nothing.

Leaders who are genuinely authentic are often less expressive than performatively authentic ones. They don't need to convince the room they're being real. The work shows.

If you want to test your own authenticity, ask: would the version of me my closest peer sees recognize the version of me I show in the boardroom? Where they diverge is where the work is.