How Authentic Should You Be as a Leader?

When Rosalind Fox took over as manager of John Deere’s largest factory in Des Moines, Iowa, the plant employed 1,600 workers and included four major product lines. It was far bigger and more complex than the factory she’d been managing in North Carolina before her promotion. She had to shift from being a more operational, tactical manager to a more strategic role.

But Fox was also the first Black female manager at the Iowa factory, and her employees there were mostly white men. So she also had to figure out how to engage with her staff and build credibility with them. And that meant Fox had to decide how much of herself to bring to work.

“[T]he more authentic that you are, the greater sense of wellbeing you have, the greater sense of satisfaction you have, and that leads to greater engagement in the organization,” Harvard Business School senior lecturer Tony Mayo tells Cold Call host Brian Kenny. “[T]he key thing to know is that not everybody has the license to be authentic.”

Mayo interviewed Fox for his case study on her leadership at the agricultural equipment company.

In this episode, you’ll learn how Fox balanced the pressure to assimilate into the factory’s dominant cultures with her own sense of authenticity.

Key episode topics include: leadership, managing people, organizational culture, diversity and inclusion, race, authenticity, communication, agriculture, manufacturing, employee engagement.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original Cold Call episode: Fostering Authenticity and Employee Engagement at John Deere (2021)

· Find more episodes of Cold Call

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.