Managing Authenticity: The Paradox of Great Leadership

How can you reconcile authenticity and the management of your professional image? Aren’t they two contradictory imperatives? This is in any event the feeling that leaders sometimes have. Yet, the authors of this article underline, authenticity is not a quality that we fully control. It is a quality that others grant us, according to what they perceive from us. Hence, it is not sufficient to stick to our values to be authentic. We must actively direct the perception of our counterparts, for them to see what makes us an authentic leader. On this basis, the authors thus redefine the challenge: how can we signal the coherence of our actions and behaviors to others? In other words, how can we “give to see” that we are both credible and authentic leaders? Foremost a communication challenge, for which the article proposes numerous concrete pieces of advice.