Authenticity Builds Stronger Teams, Not Blind Loyalty

A note to young professionals.

The more insecure the leadership, the more it will insist on blind loyalty and the need for the team to “follow the leader”.

In highly dysfunctional cultures, this goes so far as an unwritten rule that “to get ahead in this place, it’s a good idea to be like the leader”. You can always tell such places because everyone starts to look like, think like and speak like the leader.

Great leaders don’t insist on any conformity beyond conformity with the company’s core values and mission. Team members should in all other respects be free to be themselves.

This leads to authenticity – and from authenticity springs idiosyncrasy, colour, humour and companionship.

And what, after all, is a “company” if there be no “companionship”?