In today’s fast-moving consumer-driven world, customers, employees, clients, and investors alike are looking for one key element in your leadership and your business as a whole: authenticity. As a culture, we’ve moved far away from responding well to impersonal advertising, products, and customer service. Even AI is personalized, often knowing exactly who you are when you call customer service based on your phone number. People want authentic experiences and authenticity as a business or company leader is crucial. Here are three reasons you need to boost your level of authenticity if you want to boost your company.

You Provide a Shared Experience

When you, as a business leader or a company, are authentic, you provide a shared experience not only for your employees, but your customers, clientele, and investors. No one wants to interact with a mask – a person who has everything all put together, no button undone, no strand of hair out of place. That kind of person comes off as fake, insincere, and “in it” for themselves alone. When you take down the mask and become transparent and authentic, you allow others to join you on the journey of your business. When you are real, open, and honest about successes and failures, you give everyone a keen look into the inner workings of your company, and you allow them to join you in its creation – even if they only join as a spectator. We thrive on shared experiences – it’s what makes social media so powerful and transformative. But we only want to share real experiences that allow us to interact with real people.

You Provide an Exciting Journey

Customers who watch your successes and failures, your ups and downs as a company, are far more likely to stick around for the long-haul. They want to see what you’re made of, how you treat successes and learn from failures. Employees who can be part of your story are often capable of contributing dynamic innovations from failures and can celebrate successes with you.
As wonderful as any finished product may be, sharing the journey that gets you there and allowing others to join in on your authentic journey will go a long way in retaining customers and keeping happy, focused, and purpose-driven employees.

You Relate to the Customer

As much as we’d all like to think we’re a perfect powerhouse of innovation, success, and riches, the fact is that even the most powerful people know they’re just people. They have foibles, follies, and often need forgiveness. No one is a one-person show, we all need each other, and it is our imperfections, more than anything else, that helps us relate to one other.
By demonstrating a high level of authenticity and sincerity, you communicate to your customers that you are not Mr. or Ms. Perfect, who has it all together, but Mr. or Ms. Regular Person who has a dream.

When you can be fully authentic, problems you face become exciting opportunities to tackle, solving issues can be accomplished, and creating a connected and interested consumer base is completely possible. Inviting others into your journey allows customers to relate to you, not as the business exec, but as a human being they admire, want to learn from, and are happy to support. Customers want to know you – the person behind the mask, the person with the dream and vision to change the world in some small way. Authenticity opens the door to allow people to see into your world, and when they support you as a person, they’ll start supporting your vision, as well.