Strategy keeps failing when culture says otherwise. We’re kicking off a mini-series around our new book, The Authenticity Upgrade: Rebooting Leadership for Real Humans, and unpacking the simple, repeatable behaviors that turn “people-first” from a slogan into how work actually gets done. With Aaron Wilson guiding the conversation, we trace the journey from years of experiments and client transformations to the practical playbook leaders need when values and reality don’t match.
We get real about why authenticity is not a perk but a performance edge—how it fuels flow, reduces friction, and lets people contribute beyond their titles. We explore why good culture often feels invisible, how it quietly degrades when left unattended, and the everyday signals that you’re drifting out of alignment: dread before meetings, overfunctioning as a mask, and the loss of joy from work you once loved. There’s a hard look at the gap between what organizations declare and what they reward, and clear steps to close it: model the behavior you expect, make feedback mutual, invite dissent early, and align incentives with values under pressure.
You’ll hear why leaders have outsized influence on trust and mental health, and how small choices—explaining decisions, sharing constraints, celebrating specific wins—compound into a culture that can absorb change instead of choking on it. If you’ve ever wondered how to make authenticity safe without losing clarity, or how to keep the cultural engine tuned when everything seems fine, this conversation delivers the tools and the mindset to start now.
If this resonates, share it with a colleague, subscribe for the next mini-series installment, and leave a review telling us where your culture feels stuck and what you’re trying next.
