There’s a widespread belief that the best people and organizations are authentic. To succeed, you must present your true self to others.
But organizational psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, chief innovation officer at the ManpowerGroup staffing firm, argues that’s nonsense – dangerous, even.
“Contrary to what the authenticity cult predicates, success is rarely attained through radical honesty or by always showing every single side of ourselves. Instead, it’s a function of carefully managing your self-presentation – adapting to situations and showcasing the qualities that are best appreciated by others – while making an effort to conceal negative, undesirable and irrelevant aspects of your personality,” he writes in Don’t Be Yourself: Why Authenticity Is Overrated (and What to Do Instead).
He suggests the authenticity narrative may have started as a well-intended call for honesty but in a time of entitlement and narcissism became a justification for and celebration of egotism and entitlement. Authenticity can too easily be wielded as a shield against constructive feedback and a license to prioritize personal feelings over shared goals or communal interests.
He warns of four traps that accompany authenticity:
- The dictate that you always be honest with yourself and others: You will probably never truly find yourself or discover who you really are, anyway. As for dealing with others, impression management is vital, because people don’t generally seek honesty but have a self-serving tendency to hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see. Instead of always being authentically truthful, he advises making an effort to be kind to others and act like you genuinely mean it.
- It’s vital to follow your heart and be true to your values: This encourages us to act according to our instincts, spontaneous feelings or inner moral compass and to refrain from making compromises between what we feel is right and the pressures of external demands or societal rules. That may seem morally laudable but intuitions are feelings rather than facts, so that can land you in trouble, and your principles are not necessarily shared by everyone else you work with. He warns that we are increasingly polarized at work because of an inability “to make compromises allowing us to respect or tolerate, let alone love, people whose values are markedly different from ours.” Constantly following your heart and values can lead to a situation where you often stubbornly believe you are right and others are wrong – and the world revolves around you.
- You should stop worrying about what others think of you: It can be seductive – even romantic – to imagine yourself as impervious to others, without a need to listen to feedback as you operate with autonomy, authenticity and self-assurance. “But here’s the catch: Completely ignoring what others think isn’t just unrealistic, it’s counterproductive as well (or it would be, if we could ever achieve it). As social beings, our relationships, reputations and successes are deeply interconnected with the perceptions of others. Feedback from others is not a curse but the essential ingredient for self-awareness, not to mention critical for our growth and self-improvement,” he writes.
- You must bring your whole self to work: This implies your colleagues (and bosses) are not just interested in interacting with your professional self or work persona but are also eager to know the full breadth and depth of your character and identity. Indeed, it arguably suggests that there is no aspect of you that is not relevant or welcome at work and you are obligated to display the totality of yourself without disguising anything. But we are all a collection of complicated selves and complicated moods, while organizations prize cultural fit and collaboration. We must therefore each set aside some of our individual qualities to function as a cohesive team unit.
Always be yourself – embrace authenticity – may be trendy advice today. But he argues the evidence suggests that not being yourself is actually more likely to lead to success, allowing you to be sensitive to the collaborative needs of your organization and legitimate desires of others.
Quick hits
- Every minute saved on getting ready for work in the morning is a minute better spent in refreshing sleep, says productivity writer Laura Vanderkam, who now skips conditioning her hair, feeling it makes no difference, cuts back on unnecessary make-up and simplifies her clothing possibilities so she need not make any choices.
- Don’t send emails on Mondays and Fridays, unless absolutely necessary, advises Korn Ferry consultancy. If the message is essentially networking, it likely will get lost in a deluge of deadline-driven correspondence. For busy executives, send early or late in the day, also to avoid getting buried.
- To build resilience you must get better at feeling bad, argues author Mark Manson. You don’t build resilience by feeling good all the time.
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.