Regardless of who ended up winning the White House, the next four years will be a political rollercoaster. Expensive gas and groceries, and complex international affairs, led a majority of voters to back Trump, a man they felt was authentically committed to them. To Harris voters, fearful about the future, authenticity means something else. What is authenticity, why does it matter, and what can we expect without it?
Leadership in a prolonged period of change calls for courage, for example courage in your convictions. Rather than talk about leaders with convictions, let’s focus on values like authenticity.
What is authenticity in the workplace?
In business, authentic leaders are typically self-aware individuals who understand their strengths, limitations, emotions, and personal beliefs. Self-belief inspires decisions that are open to judgement by other people.
Authenticity can be interpreted in different ways. For some people, it involves assessing whether a leader’s decisions are consistent with what they openly say. For them, authenticity is compromised by private agendas and hidden truths.
However, another version of authenticity is less worried about other people and consistency, and focuses more on ‘being true to yourself’. In this interpretation, leaders are authentic if their private agenda reigns supreme and they do what’s right for them.
Elements of both versions are useful in business. Leaders are assessed by investors, employees, and clients, and so they need to transform self-belief into actions that are consistent, collaborative and trusted.
Authenticity through personal brand
Authenticity shapes a leader’s personal brand. Unlike reputation, which is largely determined by other people, personal brand is within a leader’s control. Leaders can develop their brand by tailoring their words and actions towards the image they aspire to.
In the case of the 2024 US election, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump relied on carefully selected choices, portraying the version of authenticity that each wanted other people to see.
Harris projected a personal brand that suggested she was:
- inclusive
- open-minded
- accessible to all
- forward-thinking
Trump on the other hand liked to portray himself as:
- strong
- protective
- someone who understands ‘us’ (his base)
- ready to take on ‘them’ (migrants, liberal media outlets etc)
Through their speeches and media appearances both curated an identity, a caricature of who they really are. A basic message makes brand easier to communicate, grasp, and remember. Both pushed a simple brand through selective phrases, body language, and hand gestures, culminating in a battle of presentation styles in their live TV debate in September.
The Trump ‘authenticity gap’
For Harris, a key part of her personal brand is inclusivity. She comes across as a person who – though only one seat away from the nuclear codes – is someone you could imagine chatting with. For Harris, authenticity is associated with openness and honesty, as if she’s ready to listen to your innermost secrets.
Not everyone would be willing to share a secret with Trump. For those who wouldn’t want to share a taxi with him, there seems to be a gap between Trump’s public words about protecting America and his apparent self-serving, private agenda. For some voters, this gap indicates an absence of authenticity, which is a bad thing. However, for more than 75 million people – three million votes more than Harris got – this gap is a good thing.
Trump’s voters don’t care that his true priority may be himself. They believe he cares about them, therefore his self-interest includes them. They’re in his heart, which makes them go wobbly at the knees. It’s not rational politics. It’s a love affair, between one man and one group of 75 million people.
In the years to come, Trump may make decisions about political rivals, press freedoms, and the president’s term of office. If so, voters must decide whether these genuinely, authentically, make America great again. Some will feel that such decisions are part of a strong, personal agenda – and that makes them authentic.
Trump’s deal with voters
For millions of Americans, no other politician ‘understands them’. Trump’s the one. As far as they’re concerned, he can say and do what he likes.
Trump sees himself as a master deal-maker. He will selflessly protect his supporters and look after all that’s important to them. All they have to do in return is accept his self-interest. This might include many things, but that’s OK because it includes them too. And once they accept this, and they’re OK with his personal agenda, he can do no wrong. Which makes him appear authentic.
People opposed to Trump might say there’s a sleight of hand here, requiring individuals to accept that selflessness and self-interest are the same thing.
The benefits of authentic leadership
In politics then, there are differing interpretations of authenticity. One includes a connection between personal beliefs and public accountability. The other calls for blind faith in a private agenda.
Business however relies on a brand of authenticity that is ‘true to yourself’ while remaining inclusive of other people. Instead of private agendas, there’s a need for honesty, integrity, sincerity and trust. The only show in town, it’s the brand of authenticity that we at Working Voices advocate in our leadership and management skills courses.
This approach is important to people across the workforce, especially to Generation Z. The Gen Z Insights Reportfrom consultants EY found that authenticity ranks as Gen Z’s most important value, with 92% saying that being true to oneself was very or extremely important. This ranked ahead of being independent, changing the world, and being rich or famous.
EY found that Gen Z feel “it is difficult to accomplish anything else if not first true to themselves.” They can smell inauthenticity a mile away, for example fast fashion brands that claim to champion women’s rights – while relying on female exploitation in manufacturing.
The risky practice of ‘woke-washing’ becomes counter-productive the moment it’s picked up on social media – which for Gen Z is their area of expertise.
The impact of authenticity on employee retention
In 2022, a panel of six senior marketing executives were asked to name their biggest challenge. Each said the same thing: Gen Z. Employers are struggling to connect with a generation that by 2030 will make up about 30% of the US workforce.
One way to achieve connection is by developing an authentic commitment to social issues. In a survey of 22,800 people in 44 countries, Deloitte found that 75% of Gen Zs say that “an organisation’s community engagement and societal impact is an important factor when considering a potential employer.”
Among people of all generations, one workforce survey found that the greater the sense of authenticity among employees, the greater their job satisfaction, engagement, and self-reported performance. A later study concluded that authentic employees enjoyed greater happiness at work, stronger sense of community, more inspiration, and lower job stress.
Common challenges when promoting authenticity
As we’ve seen, self-beliefs inspire decisions. For a leader, self-belief may include the freedom to choose solutions or strategies. In fact, for one expert in authenticity, the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, it would be ‘bad faith’ (inauthentic) to deny yourself and dismiss your freedom to choose.
For example, mistakenly thinking that you’re under-qualified for your job (ie, imposter syndrome) would be inaccurate and inauthentic. Better instead to develop self-confidence and be true to who you are – which is the kind of thing that’s important to Gen Z.
Does being true to yourself necessarily mean being free to do as you want? Where is the boundary between authenticity and narcissism? Things aren’t as bad as they might seem. For many people, authenticity means being true to all their personal values, including teamwork, relationship-building, career progression, and not upsetting others.
If freedom is part of authenticity, what does this mean for a person who commits to someone else’s personal agenda? This question brings us back to Trump’s supporters. A person who places their faith in someone else’s personal interests has less time for their own, which opens them up to flawed thinking and conspiracy theories.
Best practices for fostering authenticity
Authenticity in the workplace inspires sincerity, trust and integrity. It encourages people to think for themselves and reject group-think. It supports critical thinking and self-confidence, and by nurturing awareness of how you might be seen by other people it promotes collaboration, emotional intelligence, and accurate communication.
These values are learnable through future skills courses, such as the package of leadership modules available in our Team Engagement programme. We place special emphasis on encouraging participants to find their authentic voice, helping them trust their beliefs, decisions, and actions. This approach, coupled with training in personal brand, enables individuals to project the sincerity and trust that encourage healthier workplace relationships.
Leaders with a reputation for authentic credibility have the authority to bring people together, even in times of change. And over the next four years, in business and in politics, bringing people together might be a good objective to aim for.
