Authentic Leadership Style
Say what you actually believe so the wrong people leave before they arrive.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 85%
Glazer, voted a top CEO on Glassdoor by team vote, attributes it to using his core values to understand his authentic leadership style and then getting comfortable saying it out loud. His pitch is explicitly exclusionary: if you work on my team, we're going to work on making things better — 'find a better way and share it' — and if you like steady state and doing the same thing every day, you don't want to be on my team. He compares this to universities: a big-city school and a rural liberal arts school each have a value proposition, and you might love one and hate the other, but neither pretends to be the opposite. Too many leaders try to appeal to everyone rather than saying what they really believe and can stand by. He pairs this with Jim Collins' level five leadership and a hard caveat: weaknesses are strengths overused, so the value you lead with will also be the thing you do to a fault.
Origin
Glazer's Acceleration Partners team voted him one of the top CEOs on Glassdoor. He traces it to the point where he stopped trying to be anyone else and got comfortable being who he was — supporting people, being respectful, having direct conversations when it didn't work out, and trying to help people get better — all downstream of the values he excavated after 2013.
Core principles
- 01Your values define your authentic leadership style, and it may not be for everyone — that's the point.
- 02Too many leaders say things that appeal to everyone rather than things they believe and can stand by.
- 03Great institutions have a value proposition and don't pretend to be the opposite.
- 04State the disqualifier explicitly so the wrong people chase themselves away.
- 05Weaknesses are strengths overused — every value you lead with has an Achilles heel.
How to run it
- 1
Derive your leadership style from your values
Don't import a style. Read it off your articulated values — Glazer's 'find a better way and share it' directly produces a team of tinkerers.
- 2
Say it out loud, including the exclusion
State plainly what your team is and isn't. 'We're going to work on making things better — if you like steady state, you don't want to be on my team.'
Pro tip Universities model this well: a clear value proposition, no pretending to be the opposite.
- 3
Name your non-negotiable disqualifier
Tell people the one thing you can't put up with. Glazer's example for Hala: 'there are a lot of things I can put up with on my team, but disloyalty isn't one of them.'
- 4
Chase away the mismatches before they arrive
Be explicit that this isn't the place to come for a title bump and then leave. Signal it in your employer messaging so the wrong candidates never apply.
Pro tip Interview probe: 'you've jumped jobs every year — tell me why you left those jobs.' Listen for 'I deserved better, I didn't get a raise.'
- 5
Audit your dominant value for overuse
Weaknesses are strengths overused. Glazer's 'find a better way' tips into overwhelming the team by trying to improve everything and improving nothing.
Watch out Anything you're good at has an Achilles heel — expect to do your strongest value to a fault.
- 6
Distinguish good loyalty from bad loyalty
Loyalty as reliability and trustworthiness is a value. Loyalty as doing something wrong because you were told to is not. Don't reward loyalty paired with bad behavior or underperformance.
In the wild
Glazer was voted one of the top CEOs on Glassdoor in a vote by his own team. He attributes it not to being universally likable but to being consistent: supporting people, being respectful, having direct conversations when things didn't work, and being visibly himself.
→ Authenticity, not broad appeal, produced the strongest possible internal endorsement.
Looking at schools for his youngest, Glazer noticed big-city schools and rural liberal arts schools each have a distinct value proposition. You could love one and hate the other — but neither pretends to be the opposite.
→ A model for leaders: the clarity that repels the wrong fit is the same clarity that attracts the right one.
Hala kept an employee of five years out of loyalty until her business partner pushed her to let the person go for no longer being good enough at the job. She still believes it was a mistake. Glazer's read: her strength, overused, means she'll struggle when good soldiers stop performing.
→ Illustrates the Achilles heel principle — the value that got you here is also the one you'll apply past its usefulness.
Common mistakes
Trying to be everyone's friend
Leaders who say what everyone wants to hear produce no signal, attract mismatched people, and can't be stood by consistently.
Confusing loyalty with performance
There's good loyalty (reliable, trustworthy, does what they say) and bad loyalty (does something wrong because you asked). Rewarding tenure over capability is the strength-overused trap.
Pretending to be the opposite of what you are
A company that's political and competitive should say so. Marketing yourself as the thing you're not just relocates the mismatch cost into the exit interview.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and CEOs building a team who want culture to do hiring work for them.
Not ideal for
Leaders who haven't articulated their values yet — stating beliefs you haven't examined just makes the incoherence louder.
From the transcript
“If you work on my team, find a better way and share it — we are going to work on making things better. If you…”
“What those schools don't do is pretend to be the opposite. I think too many leaders try to say stuff that appeals to everyone.”
“My definition of weaknesses are strengths overused.”
“I'd be chasing them away before they came to my company.”
From the episode
Robert Glazer: The Proven Decision-Making Framework High Achievers Use to Unlock Fulfillment
Robert Glazer