I hate authenticity. I hate the way the pointless buzzword consistently creeps into discussions about leadership. I hate it because it’s an entirely irrelevant concept—yet everyone from politicians to your HR representative touts it as if authenticity matters.
In a recent interview with CNN, Joe Biden said that “no one questions Bernie [Sanders]’s authenticity” when it comes to battling inequality. Some observers interpreted his remark as a slight dig at Hillary Clinton. Of course, Clinton’s “authenticity problem” is hardly new. Critics argue that she doesn’t seem genuine. And when she does come off as genuine, people still assume she’s disingenuous. Her guard is up, then it’s down, except it’s not really down. Put more simply: She’s fake.
The fact that no matter how Clinton behaves, she still supposedly fails to reveal her true self proves how pointless it is to invoke authenticity. Imagine if Clinton came off as an authentic villain (I suppose for some people, she is). Would people still complain that she is inauthentic? Or would they instead grumble that she’s a horrible person? Clearly, you can’t have it both ways.
Let’s be for real. None of us wants authentic leaders. After all, does any of us want a genuine jerk guiding us? Sure, we like to say that we respect such people for keeping it real, but that’s a lie we tell ourselves. We don’t really respect jerks. We hate jerks.
When we say we value authentic leaders, what we really mean is that we want people who are approachable and competent. But if that’s what we really mean, why don’t we just say what we really mean? Why throw authenticity into the mix?
Not long ago, I gave a presentation on why “Nobody Cares If You’re Authentic,” in which I talked about the insidious way we carelessly sling the term around. I’d mentioned that my boss told me that to be a good leader, you have to genuinely care about your people. “No way,” I told her. “You have to make people feel as if you genuinely care about them.” My boss says she likes me. Maybe she’s lying, but I believe her. And that’s the point. (There are more points, some of which I made a while back right here. Check out “The Problem With Authenticity in the Workplace.”)
In the end, what we really want—because all that we could logically want—is the illusion of authenticity. The best leaders know how to fake not being fake. That’s because authenticity by itself is not really a personality trait; it’s merely the assumed expression of one.
It doesn’t matter if someone is genuinely nice or mean or caring or cold. We don’t need to know, since we can’t really know, what’s inside someone’s head. We need only concern ourselves with how one acts. That’s enough for me. It should be enough for you.
