Rethinking Authenticity in Leadership

That authenticity is not singular, it's plural. So we often people will say, well, you're gonna coach me, but you know, I gotta be me. I've got a. Or an executive who blows up and then says, well, but that's me. Don't you don't want me to be authentic? Authenticity, when people use it for those reasons, is often an excuse for not wanting to grow or change. Because if you think about it as Herminia Ibarra says, that if we were truly authentic to ourselves, we would still be our authentic five year old selves getting down on the floor and having a knockdown drag out hissy fit every time we didn't get the candy. So we have changed a lot. What is authenticity?