The “authentic leadership” fallacy

Whenever I hear talk of authentic leadership, it makes me shudder.

Leaders who want to be authentic usually come from a good place. They want to be leaders employees can relate to and trust.

Colleagues who call on leaders to be authentic also do so from a genuine desire to understand who their leaders are, what drives them and why they should follow them.

But is the pursuit of authenticity a distraction from what really matters in a leader?

“Authenticity” centres the leader not the led

The job of a leader is to create conditions for their teams and organisations to thrive. To do that, our focus needs to be on those we lead, not on ourselves.

An example I sometimes use is that for some of my Board career I chaired two organisations at the same time. The organisations were very different and each needed a different kind of Chair. If I had started from a position of trying to be authentic, I would have served those organisations poorly.

Instead I identified what each organisation needed from a chair and worked out how to deliver. That meant I was a very different chair for each organisation, even though I was doing both roles contemporaneously.

Good leaders centre their teams, not themselves.

“Authenticity” is not a substitute for skill

If authenticity is not backed with competence, while people may like you, they will not trust or respect you as a leader. Trust and respect comes from being able to deliver, leaning into gritty challenges, being transparent about why and how you make decisions and so much more.

If you do not deliver as a leader, it doesn’t matter how authentic you are, people will not believe in you. If they don’t believe in you, they will not give of their best. If they don’t give of their best your organisation will underperform, or worse, it will fail.

A leader’s job is first and foremost to lead well, continue to learn so they can steer their organisations through the increasingly choppy waters we sail in and ensure their organisation serves their customers, clients, beneficiaries etc in the best ways possible.

A leader’s “authenticity” can disempower others

Humble leaders sometimes forget that while they may see themselves as equal with their employees, their employees rarely do.? Colleagues are consciously and sometimes unconsciously aware of power differentials between themselves and their leaders and adapt their behaviours accordingly.

If your authentic self is tetchy under pressure (we’ve all known leaders like this), people will be far less likely to speak up or give you challenge when you need it most. If your authentic self is always frenetically busy, colleagues will hesitate before asking for help as they don’t want to bother you. If your authentic self is to jump into problem solving mode every time there is an issue, you will impede the development of those around you and disempower them from finding their own solutions.

“Authenticity” is more possible with privilege

Any leader with a minoritized characteristic or two will tell you they consistently experience being held to different standards compared with their majoritised colleagues.

This is not just a feeling, it is borne out by evidence. For example, I’ve read at least two studies showing men are more likely to receive constructive suggestions on areas for improvement during appraisals, whereas women are more likely to have their character criticised or harsh language used about them for exactly the same issues.

The biases that pervade society mean people with majority characteristics have more freedom to be authentic.

E.g. if a male leader demonstrates emotion they can be applauded for their willingness to be vulnerable. If a woman demonstrates the same emotion, they can be dismissed as weak or irrational.

When “authenticity” veers into self-indulgence

• I once worked with a leader who was squirm-inducingly open about his wealth, while working in a charity for disadvantaged children.
• One of my first bosses in the social housing sector was astonished to discover during union negotiations that not everyone had a second income – yes, really.
• Another leader I worked with had a riotous personal life and had a practice of everyone – including him - sharing what they had done at the weekend in Monday morning catch ups. People who didn’t have such a wild lifestyle felt judged or left out if they couldn’t come up with a suitably juicy anecdote.
• Then there was the leader who thought it would be fun for everyone to bring in their gongs to a board meeting so that they could all look at each other’s OBEs and CBEs.

I have lot more examples like this, and I am sure you can think of several too.

The point is that all these leaders were being their authentic selves, but their authenticity was excluding and making uncomfortable those who were not like them.

In conclusion...

I am not suggesting leaders are fake around others. What I am saying is recognise the power you have and regularly ask yourself whether being “authentic” will really serve those you lead. If not, save your authenticity for friends and family.

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