" is the chief innovation officer at ManpowerGroup, a professor of business psychology at University College London and at Columbia University, a cofounder of Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic deepersignals.com, and an associate at Harvard's Entrepreneurial Finance Lab. He is the author of Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (and How to Fix It) (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019), upon which his TEDx talk was based, and I, Human: AI, Automation, and the Quest to Reclaim What Makes Us Unique, (Harvard Business Review Press, 2023)."
"In his new book, Don't Be Yourself: Why Authenticity Is Overrated (and What to Do Instead) (Harvard Business Review Press, 2025), Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic explores the surprising science of why being authentic holds you back. Here's an adapted excerpt. is the chief innovation officer at ManpowerGroup, a professor of business psychology at University College London and at Columbia University, a cofounder of Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic deepersignals.com, and an associate at Harvard's Entrepreneurial Finance Lab."
Authenticity often functions as a constraint rather than an advantage in professional and social settings. Insisting on a fixed, "true" self reduces flexibility, limits signaling, and can impede leadership, career advancement, and adaptation. Strategic self-presentation, deliberate persona management, and situational adaptability yield better outcomes in influence, performance, and social perception. Empirical psychology and organizational evidence demonstrate trade-offs between staying authentic and optimizing behavior for goals. Adopting a pragmatic, evidence-based approach to identity enables intentional choices about how to present abilities, values, and intentions while preserving core integrity where it matters most.
Read at Harvard Business Review
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