Lucia Rahilly

Welcome to McKinsey Talks Talent, featuring McKinsey leaders and talent experts, Brian Hancock and Brooke Weddle.

I'm Lucia Rahilly.

Being your true self at work might sound like a liberating and even a productive idea, but author and psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premusic warns against it.

Today we'll hear about his new book, Don't Be Yourself, to help us figure out just how real we should be in the workplace.

Demas, welcome back to McKinsey Talks Talent.

Congratulations on your book, Don't Be Yourself, such a timely and fun and insightful read.

So this research challenges the prevalent mantra, as you describe it, of authenticity in the workplace, that folks should figure out who they are and bring that true self, if such a thing exists, to their professional lives and their professional relationships.

What exactly does authenticity mean in this context?

And what do you think catalyzed the rise of this imperative that became really part of corporate mantra, as you say, to bring your whole self to work?

When HR talks about bringing one's whole self to work, who is the intended audience?

It almost seems like we're talking about it in terms of employee engagement, driving productivity, but there's a power factor to it as well, yes?

So walk us through how to manage for self-presentation successfully, given that, as we've said, we're all operating in certain contexts where the perception of authenticity is often more important than authenticity itself.

So as an alternative, you encourage this notion of what you call organizational citizenship.

Could you give us some examples of what that might look like and how it differs from what we've been discussing?

Did you grapple with the implications of AI as it intersects with this thesis?

And how might AI change what we think of or value about authenticity?

I'll ask you one last question, Tomas.

You just mentioned being your best self.

You teed that up earlier in the conversation.

You conclude the book with this question, why be yourself when you can be someone better, which is a really vital message at a moment of so much change.