“If you go to see Hamilton on Broadway when it reopens, you’re certainly hoping for no one in the cast to be authentic, you want everyone in the cast to give their best possible performance.”

Seth Godin

I recently heard Seth Godin challenging the popular idea of “being authentic”. Seth’s statement got me thinking as I have been an advocate on this blog for being our authentic selves.

Almost everywhere you look, the idea has cottoned on to be more authentic in our lives. But as Seth eludes to, do we want everyone to be authentic all the time?

Imagine if you go to your local doctor about and illness and the doctor says “sorry I’m exhausted and just not in the mood today, I am my authentic self, and I don’t feel like helping you today”. That would be ridiculous. Obviously, in this scenario, we want the doctor to show up as a professional and do their job. 

Now, that was an extreme example, but you get the idea. Maybe we don’t need to be fully authentic all the time, or it could have negative consequences for our work and society.

Seth instead promotes that we should focus more on consistency and empathy. I feel this is particularly true in business if we are servicing customers or clients. We want to be consistent in our products or services, and we want to express empathy to our customers so they can feel heard. So, this may mean that sometimes you have to sacrifice some authenticity for the greater good.

So which is the way to go – authentic or inauthentic?

After reflecting on both sides of the argument, I think there is room for both in my own entrepreneurial context… 

When we are first creating our products and services, we should be authentic. We are designing something true to us that we can stick with for the long term. 

Once the product or service is out in the market, that is when we have to be comfortable with at times being inauthentic. We need to remain consistent with our customers. If you’re having a bad day, it’s not the customer’s problem. Have some empathy, are they coming just to hear about your concerns.

Reflection

• What was a recent time in my work where I was “being authentic” for the sake of being authentic, but there was a real cost to my customers or colleagues?
  
• How can I bring more consistency and empathy to my work so that I can be of better service to my customers?