Authenticity Is a Leadership Superpower

I started a company when I. Like, I had literally managed nobody before. Like, I had. You know, I worked hourly jobs. Like, I had two, like, junior jobs after, you know, after college. But, like, I had managed one intern. And that was the only person who I'm still in touch with. Dan. He's wonderful. But, like, I'd managed exactly one person before I started Stitch fix. And now we have, like, 9,000 employees, right? And so a lot of, you know, what I've learned, I've learned on the job. And so, you know, I think one of the good things about, like, knowing that, you know, nothing is that, like, you know, the only thing that I had. And, like, I didn't have some amazing resume. I didn't have, you know, I wasn't the best coder in the room or whatever. Like, I didn't have some accolade that, like, that was like, you should be the CEO. All I had really was, like, an ability to bring people along and, like, you know, being authentic with people about what's happening, about how I'm feeling, about, you know, being vulnerable, about, like, what I feel like I'm good at, what I'm not, like, what are my areas of development. You know, all of these things are ways that I can build trust. And, like, the ultimate goal is, like, you know, you might trust somebody because you think they're the world's best coder, or you trust somebody because you know who they are and you know their values, and you feel like you connect with them as a human, and that's an even deeper level of trust. And so, you know, I think that, like, in retrospect, I'm so glad that that's where I always invested my time, because I think, ultimately, trust that you're building through. Through the humanness of connection and, you know, and being able to share some of yourself and understand that in others. Like, that's a much more powerful foundation of trust, I think, than a lot of these other ones. But. But it really. I think it's. You know, I think it was just organically the way that I figured out that I could lead. That I think now is, you know, one of the. I don't know. I think it's now a superpower in leaders, honestly, is, like, being able to be authentic and being able to be vulnerable and being able for people, you know, at all levels of the organization to feel connected to, you know, Sam.