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When you think of leaders you admire, you likely imagine them as authentic, at least in the sense of seeming genuine, real, and trustworthy. Science confirms this is usually the case. For example, data tells us that trustworthy leaders stand out for their no thrills patterns of behavior: They are, in other words, predictable, reliable, and unlikely to shock their employees or followers with erratic or excitable behavior that freaks them out. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-16X9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-1x1-2.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic","dek":"Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a professor of organizational psychology at UCL and Columbia University, and the co-founder of DeeperSignals. He has authored 15 books and over 250 scientific articles on the psychology of talent, leadership, AI, and entrepreneurship. ","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/drtomas.com\/intro\/","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91424798,"imageMobileId":91424800,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} Furthermore, the best meta-analysis (quantitative review of hundreds of independent top studies) on personality and leadership tells us that one of the most consistent predictors of whether someone emerges as a leader, and is in turn actually effective in that role, is conscientiousnessa trait embodied by people who are methodical, disciplined, gritty, and who excel at self-control and resisting temptations (in other words, the opposite personality to Charlie Sheen, though his current self has no doubt become more conscientious!). Unsurprisingly, leaders with this profile also tend to create higher levels of psychological safety, which as my colleague Amy Edmondson and I have recently illustrated is likely to create the conditions that enable teams to experiment, take healthy risks, fail smart, and speak up without fear of being reprimanded. Ironically, then, the more leaders can edit themselves, the less pressure their teams will feel to edit themselves. In other words, if you want people to feel safe and included, focus on being your best rather than your real or natural self. Works in progress More importantly, every leader is a work in progress. That is, the growing complexities and uncertainties underpinning each and every one of the new challenges leaders must face (e.g., navigating the human-AI age, coming to terms with global geopolitical conflicts, managing shareholder and stakeholder value, having a voice on polarizing matters without alienating or antagonizing or acting like a cult leader), make it imperative that leaders improve, evolve, and develop. This requires being coachable, and having the necessary curiosity, humility, and motivation to not just be yourselfto not be limited by your past and present self. As my colleague Herminia Ibarra noted, the evolution of the self always consists of going beyond who you already are and finding ways to broaden or enrich your identity. Inevitably, this means resisting the temptation to stay within your comfort zone, playing it safe or playing it to your strengths, and mastering new behaviors and adaptations. Simple example: A naturally extraverted leader will probably have a tendency to dominate meetings, making it hard to let other people speak. However, if they were interested in becoming better and evolving as a leader, they could develop the micro-skills needed to shut up and listen! By the same token, a naturally creative and innovative leader may have a tendency to jump from one idea to the next, getting easily bored with executional details or tactical operational road maps. However, if they were interested in being more effective and becoming a more complete version of themselves, they would benefit from cultivating some patience and interest for these details, and so on. Broadening skills So, as it turns out, self-editing is not just helpful when it comes to making leaders understand that their obligation to others generally eclipses their right to be themselves, but also broadening the skills and behavioral repertoire leaders must possess to manage in complex times. Indeed, even if you think you are effectiveperhaps even talentedas a leader, the only way to get better is by not simply applying your current skills, but learning new adaptations. This means decoupling the trigger-response connection to allow for a wider range of possibilities, responses, and behaviors, turning you into a more diverse and broader version of yourself, a kind of personal enrichment that expands your potential and gives you more choices to respond appropriately to each situation. Because lets not forget: Every situation benefits from the right response, rather than the first or most natural thing that comes to mind. In that sense, acting spontaneously and without much consideration or concern for what others think of you may make you feel more authentic, but also be less effective in the eyes of others. With that, here are eight simple tips for being better at self-editing. Eight practical ways to master the art of self-editing Dont believe your own hype.The moment you start inhaling your own PR, your learning curve flattens. Confidence is useful; self-delusion is not. Good leaders act like their reputation is a rumor they still need to verify. Remember: Its not how good you think you areits how good others think you are.Decades of psychological research show that self-ratings of talent or performance barely correlate (and often correlate negatively) with actual performance. Self-perception is comforting fiction; reputation is data. Pause before you react.The gap between impulse and action is where leadership lives. Emotional self-regulationthinking twice before sending that late-night emailis often the difference between credibility and regret. Curate what you share.Transparency doesnt mean oversharing. The best leaders disclose enough to build trust but not so much that it burdens others. Edit for relevance, not confession. Seek out editors.Every great writer has an editor; every great leader should too. Surround yourself with people who challenge, critique, and occasionally deflate you. If everyone around you nods, youre in an echo chamber, not a team. Balance passion with predictability.Enthusiasm is energizing, but mood swings are exhausting. Your team shouldnt need to forecast your emotional weather. Reliability is charismas less exciting but more mature (and employable) sibling. Audit your habits.What you do repeatedlyhow you listen, decide, interrupt, and delegateforms your leadership brand. Record yourself in meetings, solicit feedback, or keep a behavior log. Then rewrite the bad sentences. Edit forward.View your leadership style as a draft in progress. Ask: What part of me needs less airtime now? What version of me do my team and context need next? Continuous revision is how leaders evolve rather than ossify. In short, leadership maturity is less about finding yourself than about refining yourself. The best leaders dont broadcast every thought or impulse, they run an internal editorial process that filters noise, amplifies value, and leaves others with clarity rather than confusion. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-16X9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-1x1-2.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic","dek":"Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a professor of organizational psychology at UCL and Columbia University, and the co-founder of DeeperSignals. He has authored 15 books and over 250 scientific articles on the psychology of talent, leadership, AI, and entrepreneurship. ","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/drtomas.com\/intro\/","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91424798,"imageMobileId":91424800,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
There are a lot of words marketers cant seem to quit. Unique. Authentic. Real. But these are threadbare clichés, which have all but become nullified due to the erosion of their meaning, a dilution fueled by the desire for brands to be generally, yet specifically, for everyone. But everyone is not a target audience. Its a comfortable void. What brands really need right now isnt another lap around the buzzword block. Its courage. Courage to lean into the one trait that could cut through in a world of algorithms, sameness, and mediocrity. Marketers need to be weirder. If you want a sociological anecdote of how weird wins, look no further than online dating. Dating apps have shown us that people dont actually want the most normal partner. They want quirks that stand out. Hinge data shows that profiles mentioning a niche interestlike a specific video game or obscure hobbyare more likely to get matches than generic I like to travel statements. Marketing works the same way. Generic quality service or trusted partner claims are the equivalent of I love long walks on the beach. Tepid is a turnoff. While being good-looking can get you plenty far, to really connect, you need quirks. Mass marketing, like mass dating, creates fatigue. Precision, passion, and personalizationthe pillars of weirdcreate chemistry. When a brand flies its freak flag high, it shows the right customers: Yes, were your people. The Crocs case Take Crocs. Once the fashion worlds punchline, they leaned into their weirdness with bold collabsfrom KFC bucket Crocs to Balenciaga platform Crocs. Instead of pretending to be a lifestyle brand, they became a cameo brand: something you add to your life in a flash of bold comfort. Their revenue hit $3.96 billion in 2023, up nearly 12% from the year before. Thats what I call laughing all the way to the bank. Weird is always the evolutionary advantage, the bright feather on a dull bird. Yes, it may feel like a risk to shake off the camouflage, but if your biggest problem becomes being too visible, wouldnt that be a happy day. Weve all heard the phrase unprecedented times so much its basically become elevator music, but unprecedented times are exactly when evolution has the most fun. Charles Darwin called it adaptive radiationspecies diversifying into weird little niches that thrive when old systems collapse. Marketing is in its own adaptive radiation moment. Large language models (LLMs) and Generative AI are both collapsing the funnel and flooding the market with mediocrity and brand doppelgängers. Now more than ever, the average of averages is going to fail to thrive. Grow a horn So, whats a brand to do in this mush of mid? Grow a horn. Sprout a freaky little tail. If everyone else is cranking out the same optimized content marketing thought leadership, weird is the mutation that keeps you from extinction. Just ask Duolingo. Their TikTok presenceanchored by a giant green owl who is somehow equal parts threatening and adorablehas over 10 million followers. Its unhinged, its absurd, and its working. Weird didnt just help them survive. It helped them dominate the landscape and now anyone who tries to emulate that success is just doing a bad Duolingo impression. Now, absurdism isnt newits just having another renaissance. Whenever people face the unknown or the unbearable, weirdness bubbles up as both coping mechanism and cultural shorthand. Marketers should look to what is breaking though the anxieties of the moment and connecting and why. A giant owl twerking on TikTok, a water brand calling itself Liquid Death, a fast-food chain tweeting in all caps about sauce shortages. These are signals that brands are fluent in the absurdist yet timely language their audiences are already speaking. In an era where sameness is free, weird is priceless. Weird is precision. Weird is passion. Weird is personal. Some call it cringe. I call it survival. And if you want your brand to not just survive but thrive in 2025 and beyond, its time to get a little freaky.
Category:
E-Commerce
When it comes to inquiring aboutahemcertain products, shoppers prefer the inhuman touch. That is what we found in a study of consumer habits when it comes to products that traditionally have come with a degree of embarrassmentthink acne cream, diarrhea medication, adult sex toys, or personal lubricant. While brands may assume consumers hate chatbots, our series of studies involving more than 6,000 participants found a clear pattern: When it comes to purchases that make people feel embarrassed, consumers prefer chatbots over human service reps. In one experiment, we asked participants to imagine shopping for medications for diarrhea and hay fever. They were offered two online pharmacies, one with a human pharmacist and the other with a chatbot pharmacist. The medications were packaged identically, with the only difference being their labels for diarrhea or hay fever. More than 80% of consumers looking for diarrhea treatment preferred a store with a clearly nonhuman chatbot. In comparison, just 9% of those shopping for hay fever medication preferred nonhuman chatbots. This is because, participants told us, they did not think chatbots have mindsthat is, the ability to judge or feel. In fact, when it comes to selling embarrassing products, making chatbots look or sound human can actually backfire. In another study, we asked 1,500 people to imagine buying diarrhea pills online. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: an online drugstore with a human service rep, the same store with a humanlike chatbot with a profile photo and name, or the same store with a chatbot that was clearly botlike in both its name and icon. We then asked participants how likely they would be to seek help from the service agent. The results were clear: Willingness to interact dropped as the agent seemed more human. Interest peaked with the clearly machine-like chatbot and hit its lowest point with the human service rep. Why it matters As a scholar of marketing and consumer behavior, I know chatbots play an increasingly large part in e-retail. In fact, one report found 80% of retail and e-commerce business use AI chatbots or plan to use them in the near future. Companies need to answer two questions: When should they deploy chatbots? And how should the chatbots be designed? Many companies may assume the best strategy is to make bots look and sound more human, intuiting that consumers dont want to talk to machines. But our findings show the opposite can be true. In moments when embarrassment looms large, humanlike chatbots can backfire. The practical takeaway is that brands should not default to humanizing their chatbots. Sometimes the most effective bot is the one that looks and sounds like a machine. What still isnt known So far, weve looked at everyday purchases where embarrassment is easy to imagine, such as hemorrhoid cream, anti-wrinkle cream, personal lubricant, and adult toys. However, we believe the insights extend more broadly. For example, women getting a quote for car repair may be more self-conscious, as this is a purchase context where women have been traditionally more stigmatized. Similarly, men shopping for cosmetic products may feel judged in a category that has traditionally been marketed to women. In contexts like these, companies could deploy chatbotsespecially ones that clearly sound machine-liketo reduce discomfort and provide a better service. But more work is needed to test that hypothesis. The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work. Jianna Jin is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dames Mendoza College of Business. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
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