authentic – Dispatches From The Front

Typically, entertainers travel by limo to the red carpet at awards shows. Granger Smith is not normal. He insisted on traveling to the recent Country Music Awards red carpet in a Chevy Silverado. It’s authentically who he is: Smith has always owned a Silverado and it’s what his “customers” expect from him.

It reminded me of a similar incident 20 years earlier at the ACM awards. Alan Jackson walked the red carpet in jeans and a T-shirt. The show producers told Jackson to “play along” with a pre-recorded track. Jackson disagreed, so he had his drummer play along without drumsticks as a weird way of clueing in his audience. He walked away with the male vocalist of the year award and I would argue his authenticity is precisely why fans love him.

It may seem like you’re helping your career by being a team player and building relationships by faking interest in meetings, pretending to like a co-worker when you don’t or supporting ideas you’re not in favor of. However, new research shows that employees are hurting themselves when they’re not true to their beliefs.

Being inauthentic can make employees feel immoral, which in turn can lead to job unhappiness, frustration and burnout, according to a study recently published in the Psychological Science journal.

It’s important to not overlook the psychological distress that comes with inauthentic behavior, said Maryam Kouchaki, one of the study’s authors and a professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Tag: authentic

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