About this session
Authentic leadership is often reduced to the advice to 'be yourself.' That is incomplete. Leaders operate inside roles that carry authority, responsibility, confidentiality, competing stakeholder expectations, and consequences for other people.
Effective authenticity therefore requires more than self-expression. It requires self-awareness, judgment, consistency, and the discipline to understand how personal values translate into leadership behavior.
People assess authenticity through repeated evidence.
They notice whether a leader's decisions match their stated principles, whether commitments are honored, whether mistakes are acknowledged, whether difficult information is hidden or explained honestly, and whether the leader remains open to challenge when the stakes increase.
Credibility is built when people can see enough consistency between words and actions to know what they can reasonably expect.
Authenticity also requires an accurate view of oneself. A leader may intend to be direct but be experienced as dismissive, intend to empower but create ambiguity, or see themselves as approachable while colleagues remain reluctant to challenge them.
Greater self-awareness therefore depends on feedback, reflection, and a willingness to compare intention with impact.
Participants work through four connected dimensions of authentic leadership: understanding the leader they bring into the room, translating values into credible behavior, building trust through honest relationships, and developing influence through consistent, accountable leadership.
They examine triggers, assumptions, personal values, transparency, vulnerability, power, feedback, judgment, and leadership reputation.
The aim is not to create a polished leadership persona or encourage leaders to reveal more of themselves than is useful.
It is to become more intentional about who they are as leaders, more consistent about how their values appear in practice, and more credible in the eyes of the people they need to lead and influence.
What your people take away
- Develop greater awareness of the values, assumptions, strengths, triggers, and habits that shape leadership behavior
- Translate personal values into observable leadership decisions and behaviors rather than relying on statements of intent
- Compare intended leadership impact with how behavior may actually be experienced by others
- Use transparency and vulnerability with appropriate professional judgment and boundaries
- Receive challenge, disagreement, and feedback without allowing defensiveness or positional authority to shut down useful information
- Build lasting credibility and influence through consistency, accountability, sound judgment, and alignment between words and actions
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What each length covers
2 hours
Lead With Authenticity and CredibilityA practical introduction to authentic leadership. Participants examine leadership values, triggers, self-perception, transparency, feedback habits, accountability, and decision-making and identify the behaviors that most influence whether others experience them as credible and trustworthy.
- Authentic leadership principles
- Leadership identity and self-awareness
- Values and observable behavior
- Triggers and default responses
- Intent vs. impact
- Values-based decisions
- Transparency and boundaries
- Appropriate vulnerability
- Receiving challenge
- Credibility and influence
- Authentic Leadership Reflection Map
Covers 2 of 4 parts: Know the Leader You Bring Into the Room and Turn Values Into Credible Leadership.
Half day
Authentic Leadership & Genuine Influence LabA practical half-day workshop covering all four modules. Participants explore the values and patterns shaping their leadership, examine real credibility challenges, practice accountability and feedback conversations, analyze how hierarchy affects information flow, and build a practical plan for increasing trust and genuine influence.
- Module 1 — Know the Leader You Bring Into the Room
- Module 2 — Turn Values Into Credible Leadership
- Module 3 — Build Trust Through Honest Relationships
- Module 4 — Build Genuine Influence Over Time
- Leadership Values Clarification
- Leadership Identity Mapping
- Intent vs. Impact Exercise
- Trigger Mapping
- Values Under Pressure Scenario
- Accountability Practice
- Transparency & Boundary Review
- Feedback Reception Practice
- Power & Information Flow Audit
- Credibility Gap Analysis
- 90-Day Authentic Leadership Plan
Covers all 4 parts.
Also available as a 4-week or 8-week program, for change that lasts. Ask us about it.
What’s covered
Know the Leader You Bring Into the Room
Every length- Build real self-awarenessLeadership behavior is shaped by experience, values, habits, strengths, assumptions, insecurities, and learned responses.
- Clarify what you stand forValues become useful when they guide difficult choices.
- Notice triggers and default responsesPressure can narrow leadership behavior.
- Compare intent with impactA leader may intend to be decisive and be experienced as dismissive, intend to be supportive and create ambiguity, or intend to empower while withdrawing guidance that the team still needs.
Turn Values Into Credible Leadership
Every length- Make values visible in decisionsEmployees experience leadership values through decisions about priorities, resources, opportunities, workload, recognition, accountability, and how difficult situations are handled.
- Be consistent without becoming rigidCredibility does not require making the same decision in every situation.
- Own mistakes and repair impactAcknowledging a mistake can strengthen credibility when the leader is specific about what happened, takes appropriate responsibility, addresses the impact, and explains what will change.
- Know what happens to your values under pressureThe strongest tests of leadership values often occur when urgency, hierarchy, reputation, commercial pressure, or stakeholder expectations create an incentive to behave differently.
Build Trust Through Honest Relationships
Half day only- Use transparency with judgmentAuthentic leaders do not need to disclose everything they know or feel.
- Use vulnerability without making others carry youAppropriate vulnerability can strengthen trust when leaders acknowledge uncertainty, ask for help, admit an error, or recognize that a situation is genuinely difficult.
- Invite feedback you may not likeLeaders can genuinely believe they are open to feedback while becoming defensive when information conflicts with their self-image.
- Make respectful disagreement saferAuthentic leadership does not require agreement.
Build Genuine Influence Over Time
Half day only- Use balanced judgmentAuthenticity is weakened when leaders confuse strongly held beliefs with complete evidence.
- Understand how power changes the roomThe more authority a leader holds, the less likely they may be to receive completely unfiltered information.
- Build a reputation people can predictTrust grows when people accumulate evidence about how a leader behaves.
- Let influence follow credibilityFormal authority can require compliance, but genuine influence is different.
Tools and materials
- Authentic Leadership Reflection Map
- Leadership Identity Map
- Leadership Values Clarifier
- Values-to-Behavior Alignment Canvas
- Trigger & Default Response Map
- Intent vs. Impact Review
- Values Under Pressure Review
- Transparency & Boundary Planner
- Leadership Feedback Planner
- Listen-Before-Respond Guide
- Leadership Accountability Review
- Power & Information Flow Audit
- Leadership Credibility Review
- Authentic Leadership Playbook
How booking works
- Book online. Create a free Workbliss profile, then pay with session credits, by card or by invoice.
- Pick a date. Choose a date at least 14 days ahead, or book now and set the date later.
- Choose your expert. Within 3 working days, we send you profiles of the experts available for your date.
- We deliver it. Your expert is briefed on your people and goals, then runs the session live online or at your site.
Questions about Authentic Leadership: Building Genuine Influence
How long is Authentic Leadership: Building Genuine Influence?
Authentic Leadership: Building Genuine Influence runs as 2 hours or half day. You choose the length when you book. A 2-hour session covers Know the Leader You Bring Into the Room and Turn Values Into Credible Leadership. A half-day session adds Build Trust Through Honest Relationships and Build Genuine Influence Over Time. It is also available as a 4-week or 8-week program.
Can Authentic Leadership: Building Genuine Influence be delivered online or in person?
Yes, both. It runs live online, so every office can join at the same time, or in person at your site, in any country.
How do we book Authentic Leadership: Building Genuine Influence?
Create a free Workbliss profile with your work email, then open Authentic Leadership: Building Genuine Influence to see the price for each length and book it. You can pay with session credits, by card or by invoice, and choose a date at least 14 days ahead, or set it later.
Who leads the session?
A vetted Workbliss expert, briefed on your people, culture and goals before the session. After you book, we send you profiles of the experts available for your date within 3 working days, so you can choose who leads it.
Can it be tailored to our company?
Yes. Every session is shaped around your goals, your people and the benefits you already offer, and delivered by experts in your people’s languages.