Partial Hypocrisy of Authenticity Trend

If you check volume of search on the term “authenticity” in Google Trends tool, you’ll see that authenticity as a topic of interest remains alive and well.

In fact, I did a query on Google Trends this morning: the search volume has barely declined since 2004 and if we look at the period 2009-2021, the search volume has increased by 122%.

I understand that number of people searching a word on Google is not the best proxy for popularity of a concept in society but I think directionally it’s good enough and at least helps us understand if interest in a topic is rising.

Here is more anecdotal evidence about popularity of the concept: by searching for “authenticity” on Harvard Business Review website, we’ll get 186 results. Repeating the same for “Python” yields 8 results.

…”authenticity” seems to be word of the day but when it comes to action, it seems “performative” behavior still rules.

In popular media, certain leaders are being praised for being authentic and authenticity is being celebrated by some academics as one of the most important traits of effective leadership. Human resource departments in many companies have also started encouraging mid-career professionals to be more authentic.

At the same time, I’ve noticed some contradictive behavior in the business community when it comes to this topic:

• Many professionals are being coached to act or behave a certain way online if they want to get ahead. For example, many are being encouraged to publish posts online with certain frequency, use certain words, talk about certain topics and so on.
• People are being encouraged to be “interesting” or have exotic hobbies.
• There are protocols or programs in many corporations to coach people to behave or talk in certain way and even dress similarly.
• Failure to comply with the above often times results in losing promotion or growth opportunities.

But what if a person is an introvert and has other priorities? Invisible or internal authenticity seems to matter less.

The bottom line is “authenticity” seems to be word of the day but when it comes to action, it seems “performative” behavior still rules.