Short personal monologue by Donald Burns on leadership authenticity: he describes dropping the "mask" of pretense, advocating for being real, honest and candid with team members. He emphasizes Gen Z’s sensitivity to inauthenticity and notes he leads about 450 employees; he reports that being authentic has been working so far.
There's a heaviness to holding up wearing a mask. And I talk about wearing a mask a lot. And when you take the mask down and just authentic and just being real, you know. And you and I both know you can be, you can be very respectful, but you also be very, very open with people, too. Yeah. And people want to follow somebody who's real and who's honest and, you know, knows where they're going and communicates that. And especially Gen Z, they can just see through stuff. You know, it's. And so I've just learned that we have about 450 total employees, team members, working with us now. So, you know, I just try to be real and be me and be honest and canduous. And so far, that's working.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
