Authenticity Isn’t About You. It’s About What You Enable
Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson shares that in his communication, he focuses on clarity and authenticity. He finds that people can tell when you’re not being authentic, and he’s absolutely right.
But authenticity isn’t just about personal courage or communication skill. It is also shaped by the social dynamics of the groups we work in.
Most people don’t go to work wanting to hide who they are or censor what they want to say. Role conflict, office politics, and pressures from above and below slowly push people into ways of speaking and behaving that appear inauthentic. Often, these behaviors help them fit in, and more importantly, protect them from negative visibility.
In 1958, Edwin P. Hollander introduced the concept of idiosyncrasy credit, which is based on the idea that as individuals gain status in group, they are given more freedom to behave in nonconforming and even deviant ways. This “credit” gives them leeway to challenge norms without being rejected or sanctioned. Hollander gives us a language for understanding why some people can afford authenticity and others can’t.
You’ve likely seen this: one person’s behavior is labeled “disruptive,” while the same behavior from someone with higher status is praised as visionary or “thinking outside the box.” Have you ever wondered why some people can “say what others can’t” in meetings? Why is it that only some people get to be authentic?
If authenticity is the freedom to be yourself, then idiosyncrasy credit is what enables that freedom. We perceive authenticity (as opposed to weirdness, nuttiness) in those we ascribe status and power to. It’s the old saying: a wealthy person’s eccentricity is a poor person’s ‘crazy’. Status shapes interpretation.
For those lower in the organizational hierarchy, or from marginalized and minority groups, the focus can be more on fitting in, managing up, and enacting appropriate ‘professional’ dress, conduct and communication. It’s the administrative assistant who hides their tattoos or the line manager avoiding mention of a same-sex partner. It’s the director who spends months softening bad news before bringing it to an executive, carefully packaging it in indirect language. The CEO is absolutely free to send two-line concise, “authentic” emails. But good luck to their executive assistant who attempts the same.
I remind my students that being an authentic leader is often a reflection of privilege and status. The real test of leadership is how much you enable others to be authentic. Do you get offended when those below you dare to be authentic with you? The true measure of your authentic leadership is not how much you feel you can be real and candid with people, it’s about how safe others feel being candid with you.
Hollander, E. P. (1958). Conformity, status, and idiosyncrasy credit. Psychological Review, 65(2), 117–127. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0042501