The Problem with "Authenticity"
In the digital age, it's easy to craft an online persona that may or may not reflect reality. The term "authenticity" has become a cliché, often misunderstood despite its importance. Author and management psychologist Karissa Thacker notes that authenticity is key to well-being and is a "process of inventing yourself." However, a more direct and actionable term is "trustworthy." A trustworthy leader is someone you can consistently rely on to be honest and truthful.
While this path has challenges, such as speaking honestly in difficult situations, the benefits of trustworthy leadership far outweigh the difficulties.
10 Benefits of Trustworthy Leadership
Leading with integrity and truthfulness yields significant advantages for the leader, their team, and the organization.
1. Improves Your Well-Being
It takes a significant amount of energy to maintain a facade. The stress of connecting make-believe dots drains one's well-being. By contrast, when you stand strong in who you are, you can build more meaningful relationships and do work that is aligned with your skills, which are positive contributors to your sense of well-being.
2. Strengthens Your Relationships
Success is rarely achieved alone. We need the emotional support of others to pursue goals that stretch us, and that support is easier to come by with strong relationships built on respect and belief. Trustworthiness is essential for strengthening both of these components.
3. Strengthens Your Leadership
Competent leaders use influence to motivate people and affect change. Researcher Amy Cuddy explains that “the best way to gain influence is to combine warmth and strength.” Trustworthiness directly increases these two critical factors.
4. Sharpens Your Self-Awareness
Modern leaders must recognize their limits, strengths, and weaknesses. Thacker explains that balanced processing helps a leader become more self-aware through “cognitive, emotional, and behavioral skill.” This allows you to view yourself, others, and situations with less personal bias and greater clarity.
5. Strengthens Your Resolve
A sharpened sense of self-awareness helps trustworthy leaders navigate situations that cause doubt. While doubt is unavoidable, authentic leaders can rely on their consistent character to boost their resolve during difficult times.
6. Broadens Your Mind
According to Thacker, trustworthy and authentic leaders are truth-seekers. The pursuit of truth broadens one's understanding of people and the contexts that influence them, deepening your understanding of reality.
7. Increases Your “Appropriateness Transparency”
Being yourself is not a license to be destructive with the truth. Both personally and professionally, transparency must be used to help someone and the business, not to diminish a person’s confidence or potential.
8. Aligns Your Behaviors with Your Values
Trustworthy leaders constantly seek insights into their own self-awareness, which includes knowing their personal values. This knowledge helps you act more consistently, and consistency breeds trust.
9. Increases Comfort in Recognizing Weaknesses
Psychologist Todd Kashdan notes that seeking only comfort narrows our experiences. A truth-seeking leader must embrace the discomfort of recognizing their weaknesses. It is the only way to address them and minimize their negative influence on performance.
10. Keeps Your Ego in Check
Success can lead to misdirected ambition, pride, or believing your own hype, which can alienate others and undermine relationships. A trustworthy leader uses self-awareness to keep their ego in check and maintain perspective.
It takes constant, conscious choice to be trustworthy, but these benefits illustrate its value. Workplaces need more leaders willing to act in ways that produce mutually beneficial outcomes for the organization and its people.