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And thanks for listening. Welcome to the HBRIDIA Cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Sarah Green.

Today I'm talking with Inciad Professor Hermania Ibarra, author of the new

HBO cover story, The Authenticity Paradox and the book

Act Like a Leader Think Like a Leader.

Her many it, thanks so much for talking with us today.

Thanks Sarah.

So I find it really interesting that you've identified this paradox of authenticity and I thought

we could just start there. What is the paradox? How do you define it?

Okay. The paradox is that a lot of times in order to become more authentic more fully yourself

but in a new capacity you can't start that way you actually have to do things that don't come naturally

and that sometimes make you feel like a fake or an imposter but by kind of

of getting out of your comfort zone and plowing through that discomfort and trying

some new and different things, you eventually arrive at a more authentic version of yourself. Authentic but different than how you were in the past,

because the worst thing of all is to define authenticity in terms of being as you've always been.

So that's interesting, the idea that... in terms of being as you've always been.

So that's interesting, the idea that trying to kind of

be who you have always been might actually hold you back in a way.

Yeah.

...