Leadership Traits Decoded
Leadership is shifting - and so are the demands on today’s leaders.
Join Cynthia Kyriazis and Andrea Martin as they spotlight a core leadership trait, exploring how it meets the evolving challenges of today’s workplace.
Through candid, practical conversations, they unpack how each trait influences culture, drives development, and creates the conditions for growth and performance in modern organizations.
Learn more at www.plllab.com.
Leadership Traits Decoded
Authenticity Creates Trust - How Leaders Build Stronger Organizations
What happens when a leader shows up as their authentic self? Trust deepens, alignment accelerates, and organizations become more resilient and high-performing.
In this episode, Cynthia Kyriazis and Drea Martin explore authenticity as a measurable leadership trait - one that plays a critical role in shaping culture and driving business outcomes.
Backed by insights and analytics from our platforms - they break down how authenticity links directly to two essential cultural dimensions: trust and alignment.
Through contrasting real-world examples, the conversation reveals what authenticity looks like in action - and what happens when it’s missing.
You’ll hear how one CEO builds trust and alignment by openly sharing her mission, values, and personality across work and life. In contrast, another leader’s guarded approach creates cultural friction, despite technical competence.
Authenticity isn’t just a nice-to-have - it’s a developable trait that drives measurable impact. Cynthia and Drea outline a clear path for growth, starting with self-awareness, personal reflection, and support from leaders or coaches.
The episode also underscores authenticity’s link to personal fulfillment. When leaders act in alignment with their values, they don’t just perform better - they experience greater meaning in their work.
Whether you're building a leadership bench or developing your own leadership style, this episode offers practical takeaways for leading with clarity, trust, and impact.
Ready to explore your leadership traits? Connect with us on LinkedIn or visit www.plllab.com to see how we transform leadership intelligence into return-driven action.
Welcome to Leadership Traits Decoded. I'm Cynthia Kyriazis, Chief Experience Officer at the Culture Think Tank.
Andrea Martin:And I'm Drea Martin, Product Owner of the Crucible. We are collaborative partners at Performance Leadership Learning Lab, where we transform leadership intelligence into return driven action.
Cynthia Kyriazis:Today we're unpacking the leadership traits essential for building, investing in and scaling successful companies. Our insights come directly from data-driven metrics within our platform's solution. So, with that information, let's dive in.
Andrea Martin:Andrea, how are you? Yeah, doing well. How are you, Cynthia?
Cynthia Kyriazis:I'm good. I'm so looking forward to this particular topic, and I believe the topic that we picked today was authenticity, and that can mean different things to different people, so what I'm going to ask you to do is just start by telling us what does authenticity mean in a traits assessment?
Andrea Martin:So authenticity means someone is acting according to one's true self, so another way of saying that is that they're behaving congruently with their values and their personality.
Cynthia Kyriazis:So it's pretty much what you see is really what you get. This is who I am. Okay, All right, Cool. So authenticity Very good. In order to understand that particular trait in any organization investor-backed, family-owned, any kind of situation can you give me an example of somebody who is high-performing when it comes to authenticity?
Andrea Martin:Certainly yeah. So interestingly, the most authentic leader that I've worked with, from clients and beyond, is actually the CEO at the Crucible. Lindsay is an incredibly authentic leader and she shows us and demonstrates her authenticity by being very open. She's clear about what she wants for the company. She gains significant trust by showing us all that she's well-intentioned, that her mission aligns with what we want, what the company can benefit from, and by sharing quite a bit about who she is, not only as a leader in the workplace, but also as a mom and within her day day.
Cynthia Kyriazis:That is awesome to know about your wonderful boss, lindsay. The other thing that I heard you say is you know she's open, she's clear, her actions lead to trust, which leads to, I guess, a certain amount of alignment, right? So trust and alignment are two of the cultural dimensions that we assess in our platform. It's four dimensions. On all there's communication, trust, alignment and accountability. So you're hitting on two of those that authenticity kind of hits on. So this is good to know what that looks like when somebody is high performing. Now, of course, the next question is can you give me an example of this experience you had with somebody who is challenged by authenticity, that trait?
Andrea Martin:So an interesting example that we had recently is we're working with a client and I'm going to share another CEO example, because when a CEO is inauthentic or particularly authentic, that travels down through the rest of the organization. So while authenticity is important in all roles, it's particularly important for that figurehead leader of a company. We're working with a company that already had a CEO set in place. They were very happy with him. He was incredibly good at what he did and works with the rest of the team. He's been around these people for a significant period of time and has established trust with the rest of the organization.
Andrea Martin:But upon testing him, we found that he actually had low levels of authenticity, which made us trying to help them find the right fit of a CFO very difficult, because it meant we had to pick a very particular persona to fit into this team that could still encourage the high performance of this group, without detracting from the fact that there wouldn't be this initial trust with this leader. And the conversations with him were very interesting because he wasn't inauthentic intentionally, but rather set very clear boundaries. He didn't want to be or bring any of his personal life into the workplace, which is all right, but it's also difficult, then, for an organization and for people who don't know him to interact with him when they can't ever really know who he is, what he stands for. They just see this persona he puts forward at work.
Cynthia Kyriazis:Yes, and so therefore, that speaks right back to communication and trust are the heavy hitters of those four dimensions I mentioned earlier. Alignment and accountability are important, but communication and trust in an organization are critical traits for sure that need to be developed. So that kind of leads me to the next question, which is we have someone who is challenged by authenticity. They need some guidance, and the CEO or the leader of this team or the organization wants to help that individual because they're bringing value. It's just they have this little thing they're doing that needs some work, that needs some help. So can you tell me, can you speak to the areas of development, if you have somebody on your team who some of this profile of not a strong authentic trait?
Andrea Martin:Definitely yeah. So self-awareness is a big first step because, like most traits that we test, these are areas that can be developed. While developing authenticity is not as easy as, say, if you scored low in math and then have to practice more math problems, it is something that can be worked on and it's actually something that, once you are self-aware whether it's taking a test or even getting and receiving that feedback from others you have to then take a step back and really reflect and try to get to know yourself more deeply. Authentically is knowing what do you stand for and what kind of an impact do you want to make. So a huge part of authenticity and kind of developing in this space is accepting your own background, understanding what you bring to the table, how you can grow and improve within that space, but not trying to be anyone that you aren't, while also trying to make sure that your identities are as consistent and congruent across different aspects of your life.
Cynthia Kyriazis:So, yes, it sounds like reflection is a big part of this to begin with, and then and that reflection can come with a discussion with either a coach or somebody on the management team, on the leadership team, their direct supervisor, who can help coach through that. That's the first step and the second step is, you know, feeling supported and moving forward with taking the steps required to try to develop a trait that is foreign to you, as it would be with any trait that's foreign to someone. There's the support aspect first, and then the practice, practice, practice second.
Andrea Martin:Exactly.
Cynthia Kyriazis:Yeah, I have one last question for you, drea, and it's something that you said to me a while back, when we were discussing which trait to talk about today. A while back, you said oh, let's talk about authenticity. It's one of my favorite, and so I want to ask you what is it about that that makes it one of your favorite?
Andrea Martin:Yeah, authenticity definitely stands out because, while a lot of what I like about what I do at work is related to helping people and companies and investors find better fit and find alignment within their organizations for better performing teams and organizations as a whole, something I'm very passionate about as well is individual alignment. I want people to be able to find fulfillment in what they're doing, and where authenticity stands out in this space is that in order to have higher authenticity, you have to be more aware, or at least already quite consistent, who you are, what your values are and the impact and the way you want to change or do and kind of show up every day. So I found that higher authenticity is not only better for relationships I like working with people who are more authentic but it also means that the people who are actually going through and developing the skill set are getting more out of what they're doing because they're able to find that greater sense of fulfillment.
Cynthia Kyriazis:Super. So it's communication, trust, alignment which we hear a lot about and we see a lot about in our platform. Those things are very important to help somebody develop because of the value they bring. Exactly, drea, thanks for all the information. I look forward to learning about the next trait in our next episode. Thanks everybody for joining us today. Thanks for listening to this episode of Leadership Traits Decoded. You'll be able to find all our episodes on the Performance Leadership Learning Lab at www. plllab. com or you can listen on your favorite streaming platform.
Andrea Martin:We'll be back soon to explore the next essential trait. Until then, feel free to connect with us on LinkedIn if you have any questions or ideas.
