When they say all the right words but don’t believe them

Recently one of my paid subscribers asked me to write about how authenticity relates to trauma-informed leadership. They told me about a leader they worked with who knew all the ‘right’ words, but either didn’t understand, didn’t believe, or didn’t care enough to act on them.

I’ve been thinking about this for weeks, trying to work out what to say, and the thing is – I don’t know how to address this.

I see it everywhere.

There are plenty of mentally healthy workplace bandwagons to jump on. Some have real value when they’re done well. Many are nothing but pseudoscience, wrapped in a slick marketing bow.

Here’s the problem I have with this: I don’t know where to draw the line. Is the inauthentic leader someone who really doesn’t care but will use the right words to make themself sound knowledgeable? Or have they been misled by an industry full of snake oil salespeople?

Read the full article at The Trauma-informed Leader on Substack.