742: The Problem Leaders Have With Authenticity, with Sabina Nawaz
Coaching for Leaders
Dave Stachowiak
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 28 July 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sabina Nawaz is an executive coach who advises C-level executives and teams at Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, nonprofits, and academic institutions. During her 14-year tenure at Microsoft, she went from managing software development teams to leading the company’s executive development and succession planning efforts for over 11,000 managers and nearly a thousand executives, advising Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer directly. She’s the author of You're the Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need)*.
Every leader I know intends to be authentic. Unfortunately, we sometimes use authenticity as an excuse not to do the critical work of calibrating our actions. In this conversation, Sabina and I discuss how to avoid that trap so we can show up more genuinely for others.
Key Points
“Yeah, but…” signals justification and holds us back from what we most need to learn.
Your success comes despite unhelpful traits, not because of them.
Pure authenticity is a complete fallacy. Authenticity is not singular.
We sometimes use authenticity as an excuse not to do the important work of calibrating our actions.
Don’t let the smokescreen of past “authenticity” get in the way of growth.
Authenticity is not static. Reading your old past social media posts will remind you of this.
When shifting, start with small experiments to nudge you in a new direction.
Language that may be warning signs of the authenticity trap:
“That’s just how I am.”
“I’m not the kind of person who…”
“I’m not being true to myself if…”
“That’s the way I’ve always done things, and it’s worked for me.”
Resources Mentioned
You're the Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need)* by Sabina Nawaz
Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes
How to Change Your Behavior, with BJ Fogg (episode 507)
How to Start a Big Leadership Role, with Carol Kauffman (episode 617)
The Habits That Hold Leaders Back, with Marshall Goldsmith (episode 696)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Every leader I know intends to be authentic. |
| 0:03.8 | Unfortunately, we sometimes use authenticity as an excuse not to do the critical work of calibrating our actions. |
| 0:12.8 | In this episode, how to avoid that trap so we can show up more genuinely for others. |
| 0:19.3 | This is Coaching for Leaders, Episode 742. |
| 0:24.0 | Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential. |
| 0:32.3 | Greetings to you from Orange County, California. This is Coaching for Leaders, and I'm your host, Dave |
| 0:39.1 | Stahofiak. Leaders aren't born. They're made. And this weekly show helps you discover |
| 0:45.0 | leadership wisdom through insightful conversations. And one of the things that many of us have heard |
| 0:52.2 | as leaders is the importance of authenticity showing up in the way |
| 0:58.6 | that we want to. That's aligned with who we are, our values. And yet sometimes we struggle with |
| 1:05.1 | this. And we run into problems with this word authenticity and how we show up. Today, a conversation on how we can show up |
| 1:13.8 | in a way that is, yes, true to ourselves, also helps us to serve people better and support the |
| 1:22.0 | organization in a way that is really true authenticity and integrity. I'm so pleased to welcome Sabina Nawaz to the show. |
| 1:30.0 | She's an executive coach who advises sea level executives and teams at Fortune 500 corporations, |
| 1:35.6 | government agencies, nonprofits, and academic institutions. During her 14-year tenure at Microsoft, |
| 1:41.5 | she went from managing software development teams to leading the company's executive development and succession planning efforts for over 11,000 managers and nearly 1,000 executives, advising Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer directly. |
| 1:55.7 | She's the author of You're the Boss, Become the Manager You Want to be and others need. Sabina, such a pleasure |
| 2:03.7 | to have you on the show. Thank you so much, Dave. I was so struck by the book and so many of the |
| 2:15.4 | helpful ways you have like framed some of the things that we often think we know as leaders, but sometimes get us into trouble. |
| 2:24.6 | And there's two words that you highlight early in the book that get leaders into trouble. |
| 2:32.0 | And those two words are, yeah, but, what is it that's problematic |
| 2:38.2 | about those two words and beginning our thinking with those two words? |
... |
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