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“Be your authentic self.”
It is a mantra repeated across leadership seminars and coaching sessions, comforting in its simplicity. But in practice, especially in systems undergoing deep transformation, this advice often collides with reality. Authenticity, understood as constancy in persona, can become a burden in contexts where multiplicity and adaptability are essential. Take the true story of Vivian, a leader operating at the intersection of corporate strategy, sustainability, and community impact, Vivian doesn’t fit a single mould. In the space of one week, she defends transition plans to skeptical colleagues, co-designs initiatives with eco-activists, and listens to the concerns of workers fearing displacement. She moves between the identities of engineer, negotiator, eco-feminist, and executive and feels each role pulls her in a different direction. “I used to think leadership meant knowing who I was,” she reflects. “Now I think it’s about knowing who to be, without losing what matters.” Vivian’s reflection is not about confusion. It is about identity complexity, the nuanced reality of leading across fractured, overlapping worlds. Rather than insist on a singular self, she models a more adaptive form of leadership rooted in clarity of values rather than consistency of form.
We are who others see us to be, and often, that contradicts who we think we are.
We propose a shift: from authenticity as behavioural consistency to Dynamic Identity Alignment, the ability to adapt one’s expression across contexts, while staying grounded in a core ethical compass. We build this argument by weaving together: Luigi Pirandello’s (the Italian dramatist) exploration of identity fragmentation, Jamil Zaki’s (the Stanford University professor of psychology) psychological and neuroscientific work on context-shaped selves, and Deborah Ancona’s (professor and Founder of the MIT Leadership Center) leadership theory on sensemaking and values-based action.
Together, they offer a new model for leading through transition, not by being the same in every room, but by choosing who to be, intentionally, in each one.
The concept of Dynamic Identity Alignment (DIA) crystallizes insights from over 25 years of leadership in the oil and gas industry, across complex operational, political, and social interfaces, including industrial transformation, international assignments, and high-stakes engagement with trade unions, public institutions, and academic stakeholders.
As a senior executive within a major energy company, I have often found myself shifting roles, not for convenience, but for survival and coherence. One week, I was negotiating site evolution plans with labour representatives concerned about job losses; the next, I was discussing those same plans with university researchers or regional authorities advocating for sustainability and social value. In such fractured landscapes, “being authentic” could no longer mean “being the same.”
This reframes adaptation not as mask-wearing or inauthenticity, but as relational intelligence.
DIA emerged from this lived complexity. It is not only grounded in the work of Pirandello, Zaki, and Ancona, but tested in environments where ethical clarity and adaptive identity were daily leadership imperatives, not abstract ideals.
Luigi Pirandello’s One, No-one and One Hundred Thousand (1926) offers a philosophical provocation still resonant nearly a century later. Its protagonist, Vitangelo Moscarda, undergoes a psychological unravellingwhen he realizes that every person around him sees him differently. For his wife, he is one man; for his banker, another; for himself, yet another. As this realization deepens, Moscarda declares: “I am one person for myself, and one for each of the others. In fact, I am one hundred thousand.”
His conclusion is devastating if each person perceives him differently.
Pirandello’s insight was not merely literary; it was existential and social. Identity, he suggests, is not internal and stable but externally mediated and multiply constructed. We are who others see us to be, and often, that contradicts who we think we are. Far from celebrating multiplicity, however, Moscarda spirals into fragmentation, eventually rejecting all socially constructed versions of himself and embracing “nobody-ness” as a form of freedom. For leaders, Pirandello’s diagnosis is both a warning and a mirror. The pressure to be perceived consistently, as visionary, strong, empathic, credible is immense. But the reality is that leaders, like Moscarda, are seen differently by each stakeholder. To a union leader, a CEO may be an opponent; to investors, a steward; to employees, a mentor; to local communities, a distant figurehead. These roles are not false; they are relationally true. And attempting to unify them into one “authentic self” may create more dissonance than coherence.
While Pirandello offers a philosophical lens on identity multiplicity, Jamil Zaki provides the empirical evidence that identity is not only socially perceived, but also biologically shaped by social interaction. Zaki, a psychologist and director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, argues that the self is not a solitary core, but a dynamic process shaped by relationships. In The War for Kindness (2019), he explains how empathy, emotion, and even moral judgment are not hardwired traits but neuroplastic capacities that develop or diminish based on our social environments. In one study, participants who spent time with empathetic peers showed increased activity in brain regions associated with compassion, suggesting that who we are is profoundly influenced by who we are with.
The role of a leader, like that of a stage actor, is to be credible, not uniform. Performing a role doesn’t make it false; it makes it purposeful.
In leadership practice, trying to maintain a fixed persona across all contexts is not only psychologically exhausting, but it may also be neurologically impossible. Instead, leaders function best when they embrace the fluid, co-created nature of self, and develop the skill to align their roles with intention rather than default to habitual performance.
Zaki challenges the “authenticity trap” head-on. As he puts it: “There is no ‘true self’ you are hiding from the world. You are the world.” This insight reframes adaptation not as mask-wearing or inauthenticity, but as relational intelligence.
Together, Pirandello and Zaki dismantle the myth of the singular self from two powerful directions: one through the lens of narrative and existential tension, the other through neuroscience and empirical psychology. For leadership, their work invites a critical shift: from seeking identity as a singular truth to cultivating identity as a flexible, value-guided practice.
If identity is fluid, relational, and situational, as both Pirandello’s narrative and Zaki’s science suggest, then why does adapting who we are often feel like lying? The answer lies in how we have been taught to associate consistency with virtue. Many leaders feel pressure to present a coherent persona, fearing that any deviation might be seen as weakness, inconsistency, or, worst of all, inauthenticity.
But what if this view is not only psychologically inaccurate, but strategically limiting?
In traditional leadership discourse, there is a pervasive binary: either you are being “your real self” or you are performing and therefore pretending. This dichotomy is both false and harmful. It ignores the fact that all social roles involve performance. We speak differently to a board of directors than we do to frontline workers; we negotiate differently with regulators than we do with community leaders. As the Canadian sociologist Erving Goffman famously noted in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959), human beings are always performing, not in the sense of deceit, but in the pragmatic sense of aligning behaviour to social context. The role of a leader, like that of a stage actor, is to be credible, not uniform. Performing a role does not make it false; it makes it purposeful.
Values are not roles. They are anchors, providing coherence across diverse performances, especially in uncertain environments.
As Rob Salafia, executive coach and former performer, recalls from his own experience:
“I remember standing in the middle of a circle of 400 people for an outside performance at Faneuil Hall, Boston. The sky was clear; the breeze was warm on my face. All eyes were on me, but I did not feel the pressure. In fact, I experienced the pressure drop away. The need to be liked, to prove myself. Instead, I felt myself expand and embrace my audience. I was at once leading them and responding to them. I was myself as well as the performer. I was fully aware I could adjust in real time, shaping the moment to the audience’s energy. That’s the paradox of presence: you’re anchored in who you are, but alive to what the situation demands.”
This reflection exemplifies the essence of DIA: authenticity is not about refusing to adapt, but about choosing how to adapt, consciously and coherently, in service of what matters most.
In today’s complex ecosystems, especially in sectors like energy, leaders must navigate competing narratives, values, and timelines. A leader may be expected to be a visionary at an industry conference, a cautious operator at an internal risk meeting, and a deeply empathetic listener during a community consultation, all within the same week. This multiplicity is not dysfunction. It is the new baseline. The key is not to resist the shift between roles, but to manage it with self-awareness, value clarity, and strategic intent. When a leader adapts to context while remaining anchored to core values, role-shifting becomes a form of relational leadership, not manipulation. Returning to Vivian’s example, her ability to wear multiple hats, engineer, negotiator, feminist, and public speaker, is not inauthentic. It is an evolved form of presence, one that meets stakeholders where they are without losing ethical coherence.
This brings us to a critical distinction: when identity performance is unconscious, it risks becoming fragmented, performative in the shallow sense. But when it is intentional and value-aligned, it becomes a disciplined leadership practice. Authenticity, then, is not about refusing to adapt. It is about choosing how to adapt, consciously, coherently, and in service of what matters most.
The difference between a pretender and a leader lies not in whether they perform, but in why and how they perform.
If identity is multiple and leadership requires role-shifting, what keeps a leader from becoming unmoored, merely reactive, chameleonic, or performative in the hollow sense? The answer lies in values. Values are not roles. They are anchors, providing coherence across diverse performances, especially in uncertain environments.
This is where Deborah Ancona’s work becomes essential.
Ancona, a professor at MIT Sloan and founder of the MIT Leadership Center, has spent decades studying how leaders operate in rapidly changing environments. Her insight is simple but powerful: In the face of overload, clarity does not come from perfect information; it comes from a clear sense of identity and values. In her research on leadership during ambiguity, Ancona emphasizes sensemaking, the process by which leaders interpret complexity and chart paths forward not by relying on rigid frameworks, but by drawing on internal alignment. As she puts it, “It’s not about knowing all the answers. It’s about knowing who you want to be in the moment.”
This redefinition reframes identity as a verb rather than a noun. Leadership becomes a series of ethical decisions shaped by intention, not performance. The leader does not ask, “What should I do?” but rather, “Who am I being right now, and is that aligned with what I believe in?”
Ancona also introduces the idea of a leadership signature, a consistent thread of values and intentions that runs through a leader’s many roles. Like a watermark on paper, a leadership signature may appear differently depending on the light, but it is always present. This model allows for adaptation without dilutionand flexibility without fragmentation.
The DIA leader lets go of the mask, not to reveal one “true face,” but to move skillfully among many selves in service of a larger truth.
A leader like Vivian, for example, can shift between being a negotiator, strategist, and community advocate, but across all roles, her signature might be defined by values such as equity, transparency, and long-term sustainability. Her behaviour shifts; her compass does not.
This approach elegantly bridges the tension between consistency and contextual agility. Rather than choosing between “staying true to yourself” and “being what others need,” Ancona’s model suggests that leaders must integrate both, being many, while remaining rooted in what matters most.
Values, in Ancona’s framing, are not soft traits. They are strategic tools. They provide:
When leaders are asked to wear many masks, it is their values that determine how those masks are worn, and whether those roles build trust or erode credibility.
In systems transforming, like the energy sector where I work, this grounding becomes more than a personal asset. It becomes an organizational necessity. Teams, stakeholders, and societies look to leaders not for constancy in behaviour, but for integrity in navigation.
DIA is the capacity of a leader to modulate their identity performance, roles, language, and presenceacross diverse contexts while remaining rooted in a consistent set of internal values and ethical intentions.
Dynamic Identity Alignment: A New Leadership Lens
If identity is plural (Pirandello), adaptive (Zaki), and ethically anchored (Ancona), then the challenge for leaders is not to find their “true self", it is to intentionally navigate multiple selves while maintaining alignment with their core values. This is the heart of Dynamic Identity Alignment. DIA is the capacity of a leader to modulate their identity performance, roles, language, and presence across diverse contexts while remaining rooted in a consistent set of internal values and ethical intentions. It is not about pleasing everyone, nor is it a form of performative adaptability. It is about being strategically plural and ethically coherent.
Multiplicity is Normal, Not Problematic: Leaders inevitably show up differently across teams, cultures, and conversations. This is not a failure of integrity; it is evidence of social complexity. A leader’s authenticity lies in the alignment between role performance and core values, not in acting the same way in all settings.
Personality is adaptable. Values, when consciously articulated, provide direction. This allows for growth and change without ethical drift. Effective leadership interprets and adapts to context rather than resisting it. Context-awareness is not inauthenticity; it is intelligence.
Conclusion: Redefining Leadership for a Plural World
The classical model of leadership, stable, consistent, singular, may have served a simpler world. Today’s leaders operate in fractured landscapes, across cultural, generational, and ideological lines. The idea that one identity can suffice is no longer viable, nor desirable. DIA offers a new lens not only for how leaders perform, but for how they exist in their roles: plural, adaptable, and grounded in values. This is not a shift from truth to manipulation.
It is a shift from essentialism to intentionalism. Where the “hero” leader claims certainty, the DIA leader asks better questions. Where the hero presents consistency as strength, the DIA leader demonstrates coherence through presence, reflection, and value alignment. The hero hides behind a mask of certainty. The DIA leader lets go of the mask, not to reveal one “true face,” but to move skillfully among many selves in service of a larger truth.
In volatile sectors such as energy, this model is not optional. Leaders must engage engineers and activists, investors and communities, often within the same week. DIA equips them with a compass (values), a toolkit (role modulation), and a mindset (identity as context-sensitive), enabling leaders not just to adapt, but to lead ethically within adaptation.
We return, finally, to Pirandello’s insight: we are many, not one. Yet rather than dissolving into “nobody,” today’s leader can become intentionally many with coherence, clarity, and courage. Leadership in the 21st century is not about discovering a fixed identity, but about crafting presence in ways that serve the moment without betraying the core. This is not inauthenticity, this is art, this is leadership.
Companion article to this article: The DIA Playbook is available here,
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