Authentic Leadership Starts With Knowing Who You Are

Authentic leadership has become a buzzword and with good reason. Employees want to be managed and led by authentic leaders who create trust, inspire them, and create an environment where they feel safe and valued.

But, as a leader, you cannot be authentic if you don’t know who you are. Being authentic does not mean that you should ‘just do what you feel’ or ‘follow your gut’, nor is the advice ‘just be yourself’ particularly helpful. Being an authentic leader requires self-discovery and a clear understanding of your values, emotions, strengths, and weaknesses.

But why is knowing yourself critical to being an authentic leader, and can you develop authenticity? Well, let’s look more into that.

Why should you be an authentic leader?

Authentic leadership is a leadership style where the leader acts by her or his values, beliefs, and principles. You could say that the leader acts according to how they are what they believe is true. This means the leader comes across as honest and consistent and doesn’t put on a fa?ade or try to copy someone else. In our terminology – based on the 19 competencies we use to measure leadership effectiveness - the leader has High Integrity and Honesty. Your words and actions are aligned with your core beliefs. You are authentic.

But you may ask, why should I try to be an authentic leader? What are the benefits for me, my team or the organisation? Fortunately, we have extensive research and evidence to help you answer this question.

The data speaks loud and clear: Authentic leadership drives results

It is easy to find good research that shows that authentic leaders deliver better results. For example:

• A 2021 study by Leadership Quarterly showed that authentic leadership positively impacts employee engagement, organisational citizenship behaviours, and team performance.
• Research conducted by Gallup shows that 71% of employees identify trust in leadership as a critical driver of engagement and that authenticity is a key mechanism for building and maintaining that trust.
• A study published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2021 found that authentic leadership positively influences employees' job performance by enhancing their affective commitment to the company.
• Research in the International Journal of Human Resource Studies from 2022 showed that authentic leadership impacts employees’ performance, with trust in leadership playing a mediating role.

Most importantly, however, is it that meta-analyses - the most authoritative of all types of studies - are also clear. A meta-analysis from 2021 based on 214 studies on authentic leadership with a total of more than 196,000 people showed a significant connection to employee-related performance. It revealed that the organisational ethical climate was significantly related to authentic leadership.

The cost of inauthentic leadership

On the other hand, leaders who lack authenticity often struggle to connect with their teams, which can create distrust and disengagement. According to Zenger Folkman’s research, employees are 4.5 times more likely to leave their jobs if they lack trust in their leaders. Inauthentic leadership doesn’t just hurt relationships—it directly impacts retention and productivity.

But retention and productivity are not the only issues. It will often also impact the ability to inspire genuine motivation and dedication within their teams, which can lead to missed deadlines, lower-quality outputs, and, finally, an impact on customers.

Ultimately, a lack of authenticity undermines the leader’s credibility and makes it more difficult to be an effective leader.

The first step; being self-aware

Authenticity isn’t about telling everyone about every thought or feeling you have. It’s about leading with clarity, consistency, and alignment with who you are. Self-awareness is the first step and, therefore, the foundation of authentic leadership.

What does it mean to know yourself?

You can look at many facets of yourself to truly discover who you are. Philosophers and psychologists have been intrigued by this for many years. Is who you are a stable ‘self’ inside of you? Is it your behaviour (towards others)? Or maybe it is something else.

Knowing yourself as a leader involves understanding yourself in three ways:

1. Your values and principles which guide your decisions.
2. How others perceive you as their perceptions shape their behaviour toward you.
3. Your personality preferences because they heavily influence your conscious and unconscious behaviour, non-verbal communication and leadership preferences.

If you understand yourself through those three lenses, you can recognise your strengths and weaknesses and identify your triggers, i.e. what situations or behaviours cause you stress, etc. This, in turn, will allow you to act intentionally, align actions with your values and adapt to others.

Harvard Business Review identifies self-awareness as a cornerstone of emotional intelligence, authenticity, and critical leadership skills. Yet, a survey by Tasha Eurich, an organisational psychologist, found that only 10-15% of people are truly self-aware, despite 95% believing they are. This gap highlights the need for intentional effort to deepen self-awareness.

How to develop self-awareness

The three most relevant for leaders can be uncovered in the following way:

1. Identify your core values. Reflecting on the principles that guide your decisions and actions. Create a list of important values and rank them in order of significance, identifying your top five to seven core values. Identify the rules you have for when a value has been met. This clarity helps anchor your leadership approach to what truly matters to you.
2. Seek honest feedback from people around you. Feedback is a mirror that reveals how others perceive your leadership. Encourage your team, peers, and your manager to share their perspectives. We use 360-degree feedback surveys that can provide structured insights into your strengths and blind spots.
3. Use Personality Assessments. Assessments like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or the Big Five Personality Traits can provide valuable insights into your personality, preferences, and behaviours. These tools help you understand how you naturally lead and where you might need to adapt.

You may find it helpful to work with a coach or another trusted individual to uncover blind spots and develop strategies to align your leadership style with who you are.

So, what may be standing in your way?

It is not always easy being an authentic leader. It requires vulnerability, and this can be uncomfortable. You may fear that showing imperfections will undermine your authority. However, research shows the opposite: leaders who admit their mistakes and share their learning process build more trust and respect. So, you must find ways to overcome those obstacles. If you fear judgment, focus instead on transparency and consistency rather than perfection. Authenticity is about being real, not flawless. If you have difficulty balancing authenticity with professional boundaries, then share personal values and lessons without oversharing private details.

Leaders who invest in self-awareness and embrace authenticity create ripple effects around them. Zenger Folkman’s research reveals that authentic leaders inspire 25% higher engagement and performance than less self-aware peers. They also foster a sense of psychological safety, where team members feel empowered to share ideas and take risks.

As leadership expert Brené Brown says, “Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.” The journey towards authentic leadership begins with a commitment to self-awareness and a willingness to align your actions with your core values.