5 reasons why authenticity at work is tricky

Below, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic shares five key insights from his new book, Don’t Be Yourself: Why Authenticity Is Overrated (and What to Do Instead).

Chamorro-Premuzic is the chief innovation officer at ManpowerGroup, a professor of business psychology at University College London and at Columbia University, cofounder of Deeper Signals, and an associate at Harvard’s Entrepreneurial Finance Lab.

What’s the big idea?

Authenticity is overrated and can backfire, especially at work. Success comes from strategic self-presentation, empathy, and balancing personal freedom with responsibility to others.

Listen to the audio version of this Book Bite—read by Chamorro-Premuzic himself—below, or in the Next Big Idea App.

1. Authenticity isn’t the life hack it’s cracked up to be

Authenticity has b