The Truth About Authentic Leadership: What You Need to Know

Have you ever been told to “just be yourself” or “be authentic” as a leader? Or maybe you’ve read articles encouraging you to “discover your authentic leadership style”?

The idea of “being authentic” as a leader (and person) is everywhere– books, articles, social media –that the secret to great leadership (and life) is authenticity.

And it sounds great. It feels good.

But here’s the thing: while it sounds attractive, much of what passes for “authentic leadership” advice today (and authenticity in general) can actually be limiting your effectiveness as a leader and holding you back.

In this article, we’ll explore where the popular understanding of authenticity and authentic leadership falls short, why it can lead you astray, and how you should think about leadership instead.

Let’s get to it.

(I should note that there are different versions of authentic leadership – the popular interpretation often presented I’ll address mostly, and later we’ll briefly talk about some of the more “nuanced” versions. )

The Problem with “Just Be Authentic”

Before we get into leadership specifically, let’s review a few key issues with the general “be authentic” mentality that I covered in a previous article.

Authenticity can limit your growth

We’re complex human beings who naturally adapt and change. We’re meant to learn, evolve, and develop new skills.

When you say, “that’s just who I am,” you set a limit on yourself and what you can be. Often, “who we are” is just what we are comfortable with (we’ll dive deeper into that in the piano analogy below). We have a wide range of growth of who we can be as a person, which we limit by sticking with what we are comfortable with right now.

Not everything “authentic” is good

Another issue is the assumption that everything “authentic” to us is automatically positive. But what if some of your authentic tendencies are harmful or are holding you back?

Maybe you’re “naturally” disorganized, conflict-avoidant, or quick to judge. Should you embrace these traits simply because they feel “authentic”? Probably not.

We confuse comfort with authenticity

We tend to gravitate toward what feels familiar and comfortable, then label that as our “authentic self.” But comfortable doesn’t always mean authentic – it just means familiar.

The label trap

One limiting aspect of the authenticity mindset is how we create labels for ourselves – “I’m a neat freak,” “I’m not a details person,” “I’m just not good with public speaking” – and then let those labels dictate what we can and can’t do.

We create these labels based on certain behaviors, then let the labels define us rather than us defining the labels.

The piano analogy

Communication coach Vinh Giang gives a beautiful example with his piano analogy. He says your voice is like a piano with 88 keys, but most people only use, say, 8-10 keys regularly.

When someone claims that speaking in a different pitch isn’t “authentic” for them, Giang pushes back: it’s not inauthentic, it’s just unfamiliar. The entire range is authentically yours – you just haven’t practiced using all of it.

What you call your “natural voice” is actually just your habitual voice. And the most inauthentic thing you can do is to limit yourself to only a small portion of your full range.

Why this matters for leadership

These wrong ideas about authenticity cause real problems for leaders. Many leaders stick to what feels comfortable, calling it “authentic,” when they’re really just limiting how effective they can be.

Great leadership often requires you to stretch beyond your comfort zone, develop new skills, and adapt to different situations. If you’re hiding behind “authenticity” to avoid doing the hard work of growth, you’re not serving your team or your mission effectively.

(For a deeper dive into these topics—I know we just hit them briefly—you can read the full article here: The Authenticity Trap: How “Just Be Yourself” Might Be Holding You Back.)

The Problems with “Authentic Leadership” Advice

With this foundation in mind, let’s dive deeper into some of the pitfalls of what is commonly presented as “authentic leadership.”

“Know and live your values” – But what if those values aren’t great?

One of the common pieces of advice in authentic leadership is to “discover, know, and live your values.” The idea is that by living according to your values, your team will trust you more, which makes you a more effective leader.

Sounds good in theory.

But this advice ignores two major problems:

First, what if your values aren’t particularly good?

We tend to assume everyone has good values deep down, but reality tells us otherwise. We’ve all seen leaders who value personal gain over team wellbeing, or who prioritize short-term profits over long-term sustainability.

If a leader values self-promotion over team development, should they “authentically” live that value? If they value avoiding difficult conversations over addressing problems, should they embrace that?

Think about it: Would you trust a leader more if they were consistently self-serving, just because they were “being true to their values”?

“Oh, he only cares about himself, not us, but he’s being authentic about it, so I trust him.”

Yeah, not likely.

Leadership effectiveness requires specific behaviors, not whatever feels right

The second problem is that leadership isn’t whatever you want it to be. You can technically call anything “leadership,” but that doesn’t make it effective.

There are specific behaviors and principles that effective leaders practice. It’s not ambiguous or mysterious. If you look at leadership books from authors like Jim Collins, John Maxwell, Patrick Lencioni, or Jocko Willink, they don’t talk about “discovering your authentic leadership style” or “staying true to your values” – they focus on specific leadership principles and behaviors that make leaders effective.

If your natural tendencies don’t align with these principles of effective leadership, then “being authentic” by sticking to those tendencies will make you a less effective leader.

For example, if you “authentically” hate giving feedback, but your team needs guidance to improve, then your authenticity is getting in the way of your leadership.

Values aren’t fixed – they can and should evolve

And here’s another thing: our values aren’t set in stone. While there may be some core values that remain constant throughout our lives – like honesty, integrity, and treating others with respect – many of our other values can and should evolve as we learn and grow.

Great leaders don’t just “stay true” to their existing values – they continually examine and refine those values based on their growth and what they learn about effective leadership.

The circular reasoning problem: “Be authentic, but only if…”

Here’s where things get contradictory. Many proponents of authentic leadership seem to recognize these issues but solve them with circular reasoning.

They’ll say things like:

• “Be authentic and live your values… but make sure those values include honesty, integrity, and service.”
• “Lead from your true self… which should naturally include empathy, transparency, and fairness.”

This creates a bizarre contradiction: “Be yourself, but make sure yourself includes these specific qualities.”

It’s like telling someone to “act naturally” during a photoshoot while constantly adjusting their posture and expression. Either you want people to be themselves, whatever that means, or you want them to embody specific leadership qualities – you can’t have both.

I once read an article from a more well-known site that perfectly illustrated this problem. It stated: “Authentic leadership is the healthy alignment between a leader’s internal values and beliefs and their external behavior.” But then later, the same article listed “The 4 defining characteristics of an authentic leader” as: “Self-awareness, Genuineness/modesty/humility, Empathy and ethics, Results focus.”

That’s essentially saying, “Be authentic by conforming to these predefined characteristics of authenticity.”

But what if your authentic self doesn’t naturally possess these traits?

Being “Authentic” Doesn’t Automatically Make You a Better Leader

One of the biggest misconceptions about authentic leadership is the assumption that simply being “authentic” will automatically make you a better leader.

But this assumption gets leadership completely backward.

Leadership is a skill, not an identity

Leadership is a skill, just like playing an instrument, performing surgery, or designing a building. And like any skill, it requires specific behaviors, principles, and practices.

Think about what would happen if we applied the “just be authentic” advice to other skills. Would you tell a new piano player, “Don’t worry about learning chord progressions or how to read music—just be authentically yourself at the keyboard”? That wouldn’t help them play Beethoven. They need techniques and deliberate practice.

Or imagine a surgeon who never learned proper procedures because they were told to “just be authentic” in the operating room. Would you want them operating on you? Of course not. Their training in proven surgical principles matters much more than their self-expression.

Leadership works the same way. There are specific behaviors that make leaders effective, regardless of whether those behaviors initially feel “authentic” to you.

Leadership is about adaptation

Another aspect of leadership is that what your team needs from you will change based on the situation.

• A crisis might require quick, decisive action, even if your “authentic style” is collaborative and deliberative.
• A team conflict might require you to be firm and direct, even if you’re naturally conflict-avoidant.
• A struggling team member might need detailed guidance, even if you prefer to be more “hands off.”

Great leaders adapt to what the situation requires, not what feels most comfortable or natural to them at the moment.

Addressing the Trust-Building Argument

One common defense of authentic leadership is that it builds trust through consistency between values and actions. The argument goes: when leaders consistently model their stated values, they create psychological safety and build trust.

This argument contains a kernel of truth but misses the bigger picture:

Integrity vs. Authenticity

What builds trust isn’t “authenticity” (in the sense of just being yourself) but integrity – doing what you say you’ll do, speaking the truth, doing the right thing even when no one is looking. It’s not that you are being “inauthentic” when you say one thing and do another – you are breaking trust because you aren’t acting out of integrity.

If your “authentic” self is to avoid giving feedback, that’s going to hurt you more living that than growing to be someone who does. They won’t say, “Oh, this leader is being so inauthentic because they are giving feedback. I’m not going to trust them now.”

And like the example we gave earlier, if your “authentic self” has negative behaviors, those negative behaviors don’t build trust just because it’s “authentic.”

What about “faking it?”

It’s true that people can tell when you’re just “going through the motions,” but that’s different than intentional growth. It may feel awkward at first, but that’s normal.

Think about it like learning a different skill:

1. Conscious incompetence: You try it and it feels awkward.
2. Conscious competence: You can do it effectively but it require focus.
3. Unconscious competence: It becomes second nature and you do it without conscious effort.

This isn’t about “faking it” – it’s about growing. Just as the pianist expands from 8 keys to all 88 through practice, you can expand your leadership range through deliberate development.

And if you fear appearing “fake,” you can share with your team that you’re working on developing certain leadership skills and invite them to support you in that growth. Most team members appreciate a leader who’s honest about their development journey and will respect your efforts to improve.

What Actually Builds Trust

Trust isn’t built just by consistency with your preferences; it’s built by:

• Living with integrity
• Demonstrating competence
• Doing what you say you will do
• Matching your actions with your words
• Showing genuine care for your team and mission
• Having the right priorities (mission over self)
• Being truthful
• Showing trust to your team
• Communicating transparently
• Following through on commitments

How You Should View Leadership Instead

If “being authentic” isn’t the route to great leadership, how should we look at leadership instead?

Leadership isn’t about you

One of the biggest misconceptions about leadership in general (not just authentic leadership) is the idea that leadership is about you, the leader.

This shows up in two key ways.

First, as Patrick Lencioni points out in his book The Motive, leaders tend to have one of two motives: a self-seeking motive or a service motive.

Leaders with self-seeking motives view a leadership role as:

• A reward for their hard work
• A path to status, respect, or money
• A way to advance their career
• About the perks and benefits they receive

Leaders with service motives view leadership as:

• A responsibility to help the team and organization succeed
• About serving the mission, not themselves
• Requiring hard work to help others achieve
• A duty to put the team’s needs above personal comfort

If you have self-seeking motives, you’ll never be as effective as you could be. Your team will sense your priorities, and it will damage their trust in you.

The second way this “leadership is about you” misconception shows up is in how we talk about leadership development. Many approaches focus on:

• Finding your “authentic leadership style”
• Discovering how you like to lead
• Playing to your strengths and preferences
• Being comfortable in your leadership

But here’s the truth: It doesn’t matter how you like to lead. It doesn’t matter what feels comfortable. It doesn’t matter what you prefer or what seems natural to you.

It’s about the mission and doing what’s effective

Brendon Burchard shares a powerful story in his book High Performance Habits. One of his coaching clients gave him an ultimatum after they had done all the personality tests and strength assessments but still wasn’t getting results.

The client told him:

“But, look, we know my supposed ‘strengths’ and they’re still not helping me get ahead. My natural tendencies don’t do the job. As a leader, I have to be honest – sometimes it’s just not about who I am, what I prefer, or what I’m naturally good at. It’s about me rising to serve a mission, not the mission bowing down to match my limited strengths.”

That captures the heart of leadership perfectly. Leadership isn’t about you staying in your comfort zone – it’s about you growing to meet the needs of your team and mission.

Think about it this way:

• Soccer players don’t get to play however they feel most “authentic” – they play how the game requires
• Surgeons don’t operate however feels most natural – they follow proven techniques
• Pilots don’t fly however seems most comfortable – they follow flight protocols

In each case, effectiveness matters more than personal preference or comfort. Leadership is no different.

It’s about results. It’s about doing what works. It’s about serving the mission and your team, not practicing being the best “you.”

Leadership is based on principles

Leadership is a skill, and like any skill, it’s based on principles. If you follow and practice these principles, you’ll be effective. If you ignore them, no amount of “authenticity” will save you.

Think about other skills:

• Graphic design follows principles of visual hierarchy, contrast, and balance
• Carpentry follows principles of effective construction
• Surgery follows principles of sterility, precision, and anatomy

Leadership is just the same. It has principles that must be followed for effectiveness.

This doesn’t mean ignoring your uniqueness entirely. Once you master the principles, you can bring your own style to how you implement them – just like different graphic designers can create distinct work while following the same design principles. But the principles must come first.

That’s why if you look at great leadership books, they focus on principles, not on style or discovering your authentic self. John Maxwell, Jim Collins, Patrick Lencioni, and Jocko Willink don’t tell you to “find your leadership style” – they tell you, “Here are the principles that work.”

You can grow and adapt – that’s not being “inauthentic”

Here’s perhaps the most important point: Growing, changing, and adapting aren’t “inauthentic” – they’re essential parts of being human.

Saying “this is who I am and I’m not going to change” isn’t authentic – it’s limiting. It denies who you could become.

If your current values or behaviors aren’t helping your team, changing them isn’t being fake – it’s being responsible. (This doesn’t mean compromising ethical standards, of course. If a company asks you to do something unethical, the problem isn’t your unwillingness to “adapt” – it’s the company’s values.)

If you find your core values fundamentally clash with what’s needed in your role or organization, sometimes the right move is to find an environment that’s a better fit. But don’t confuse comfort zones with ethical boundaries.

If you need to develop new skills to lead effectively, that’s not being inauthentic – it’s being committed to your role.

Remember the piano analogy from earlier? Your full range as a leader is like all 88 keys on the piano. Don’t limit yourself to just the few keys that feel comfortable right now.

Don’t hurt yourself, your team, and your ability to lead by clinging to a narrow, fixed idea of who you are. Instead, focus on becoming the leader your team and mission need you to be.

What About “Academic” Authentic Leadership?

So far, I’ve focused primarily on the more common presentation of authentic leadership today. But it’s worth acknowledging that academic theories offer a more nuanced perspective.

Scholars like Bill George have developed frameworks of authentic leadership that include elements like:

• Self-awareness (understanding your strengths, weaknesses, and impact)
• Balanced processing (considering different perspectives before decisions)
• Internalized moral perspective (developing ethical frameworks)
• Relational transparency (appropriate openness with others)
• Growth orientation (continuous development)

Many aspects of these academic models include valuable insights – and they work precisely because they align with effective leadership principles:

• Acting with integrity and building character
• Giving purpose to others
• Serving rather than seeking personal glory
• Continuous growth and development
• Building relationships and trust
• Developing future leaders

I appreciate that the “academic” version emphasizes growth and acknowledges that leadership requires ongoing development. Some even emphasize effectiveness.

However, from what I’ve read (and I haven’t read everything written on the topic) there’s still often an emphasis on discovering your personal values and “authentic leadership style” that I believe gets the order of priority wrong. The starting point should be understanding effective leadership principles, then growing to embody them – not starting with your personal preferences and trying to build leadership around them.

Consider exercises where leaders select their top personal values from a list (one list I saw included: creativity, daring, curiosity, awareness, etc.). While helpful for self-understanding, these exercises can sometimes suggest that leadership begins with identifying what matters most to you personally. But great leadership starts with understanding what works, not what you prefer.

For example, it can be useful to discover what drives you and your story that led you to where you are. But just as knowing what drives you as a carpenter or soccer player doesn’t make you a great carpenter or soccer player, knowing what drives you as a leader doesn’t make you a great leader. It’s following principles of leadership and developing the necessary skills that makes a leader effective (same as a carpenter or soccer player).

What Really Matters in Leadership

So where does this leave us with “authentic leadership”?

The problem isn’t with being genuine. You don’t want to be “fake” in the sense of trying to be someone else or being people pleasing, trying to find your self-worth in others.

The problem is with the way “authentic leadership” is often presented – as if discovering and focusing on your values, preferences, strengths, and comfort zones is the key to leadership success.

Real leadership isn’t about yourself or revolving your leadership around your preferences, etc.  – it’s about growing yourself to meet the needs of your team and mission.

It’s not about what feels comfortable – it’s about what’s effective.

It’s not about being true to a fixed idea of who you are – it’s about expanding who you are to include new capabilities.

Leadership isn’t based on discovering yourself but on learning and practicing the principles and skills that make up great leadership.

If you want to be an effective leader:

• Focus on leadership principles that have been proven to work, not on discovering your “authentic style”
• Ask yourself “What does my team need from me right now?” rather than “What feels most natural to me?”
• Recognize that your current comfort zone isn’t your destiny – it’s just your starting point
• Remember that leadership is about serving others, not expressing yourself
• Understand that growth and adaptation aren’t “inauthentic” – they’re the most authentic expression of your full potential

Don’t let a misguided idea of “authenticity” keep you from becoming the leader your team deserves. The real you includes not just who you are today, but all you can become tomorrow.

What areas do you need to start growing in as a leader?