DS Cohen & Associates
It’s 7:30 a.m., and your day is already demanding you show off your managerial skills. It would have been nice to finish your coffee first. You’ve received four emails, two texts, and an actual voicemail already. You feel like you’re juggling flaming torches, and you haven’t even left the house yet. And, if you’re like most new managers, you’ve been thrown into this chaos mostly untrained and unprepared.
Consider the chaos brewing in that corner office: a key team member’s defiant demand for remote work, a star performer sidelined by a migraine again, and two overzealous interns pitching a pointless project. As the hours tick by, your tasks multiply. Your team frets over AI, potentially usurping their jobs while your boss dangles the productivity gains promised by the same technology. You feel like you just can’t win.
Welcome to Tuesday.
Navigating this whirlpool unprepared is not unique to you. According to the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), 82% of those who have stepped into managerial roles feel they were never given the proper toolkit. Practical training in leadership remains a rare gem, often supplanted by misplaced confidence in past individual achievements. Upper management often assumes success in an individual role when successfully managing a team. By CMI’s count, 46% of managers rose to their positions via office politics rather than competence.
So, can you fake it ’til you make it?
Your inner monologue suggests a tempting deception: “Just pretend to be the leader they need… It worked for others.” However, insights from organizational psychologist Ben Dattner caution against this illusion, which is often sustained by strategic credit-grabbing. While this duplicitous technique may work for some, this approach is risky, unethical, and ultimately could end one’s career.
There’s a strong impulse to avoid disappointing those who count on you, a rationale familiar to conscientious managers. You craft a picture of the leader you want to be seen as rather than revealing the raw, floundering rookie inside full of doubt and imposter syndrome. However, Amy Edmondson warns that such an obsession with appearances stifles genuine learning and inhibits creating safe spaces for your team to fail and grow—overperformance as a façade stunts actual progress. Above everything else, your people need to know that you’re real.
It’s a bit of a double-edged sword in that the people who do follow you are, indeed, oftentimes looking for a specific kind of leader themselves. It becomes a chicken-and-egg scenario. Sociologist Barbara Kellerman points out that people are drawn to narcissistic, overconfident leaders rather than humble, ethically sound types. Authenticity seems rarely demanded, yet it harshly scrutinizes the image you project. This paradox can toy with your sense of identity, steering you to become a crowd-pleaser at the expense of substantial leadership development.
Your entitlement whispers another compelling lie: “They don’t appreciate me enough. Maybe I should be louder and push harder for my due credit.” This is the slippery slope, where self-deception fosters an inflated self-image, a psychological trap potentially more pervasive than imposter syndrome.
Faking It ‘til You Make It
If these rationales to fake it resonate deeply, beware—you’re skating on thin ice. The allure of counterfeit leadership is solid and promising rewards without the grind. However, it’s akin to flaunting a fake Rolex—you’ll attract attention only until the façade crumbles. Then, you’re left embarrassed and ineffective.
Authentic leadership isn’t about the noise you make but the substance you deliver. While modern leadership literature champions authenticity, humility, and integrity, people often spot a faker better than recognizing the genuine article’s subtle nuances. Your actions, reflected in the mirror of team performance and tangible results, will tell your authentic story.
Abandoning the pretence means exposing the professional insecurities that mask your leadership persona, revealing an uncomfortable reality. Social media’s eye will seem daunting and exhausting; once leaders falter, they are spotlighted for scorn. However, it’s better to navigate this volatile landscape with sincerity. Gallup reveals that a mere 21% of employees trust their leaders, a stat evidencing authenticity over bravado.
Feeling like a fraud doesn’t have to dictate your actions. Most leaders grapple with imposter syndrome. Rather than give in to it, use it as your compass. As Lincoln famously said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Your leadership’s lasting success will hinge on your team’s performance, cutting through luck and circumstances to reveal your true capability.
The Key Takeaway
So, here’s the takeaway: Faking leadership constructively builds nothing lasting, no matter how tempting. Results are the ultimate refutation of any illusion. Transform your team into a cohesive, high-performing unit by genuinely investing in their growth. Authentic leadership glows in these quiet transformations. Truth prevails.
Nothing will stop newly minted managers from feeling like imposters, thrust into roles without a solid foundation and with a severe lack of preparation and training. Consequently, they may resort to managing impressions and maintaining appearances, leading to burnout, increased turnover, a lack of accountability, and a perpetual blame game. There’s a better way.
Organizations need a game plan to develop people before promoting them. Meaningful investment in employee development is crucial, allowing individuals to realize whether they can or should step into managerial roles. Corporations often promote managers without comprehensive development merely to fill vacant roles. This leaves our 7:30 a.m. newly minted manager relying on ChatGPT to craft responses to office tensions.
Ultimately, corporate leadership is responsible for ensuring new managers are not just warming a seat but are equipped to lead effectively. It’s time to support employees before they are promoted with the training and resources, they need to succeed from day one, making those early-morning challenges a little less daunting.
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David Cohen is completing his second book on how to hire for fit to values/culture. His first book is called The Talent Edge. He has conducted workshops globally on Structured Behavioural Interviewing. For more information on the workshop, please contact DAVID.
