Podcast Episode Details
Back to Podcast Episodes
You are not a product
Episode 42
In today’s episode, I explore a tension many leaders feel but rarely name: the pressure to perform leadership instead of inhabiting it.
It starts with a moment in a boardroom—a senior executive freezing mid-sentence as she realizes the words coming out of her mouth aren’t hers at all. They’re borrowed. Polished. Safe. And completely disconnected from the leader her team actually knows.
That moment becomes a doorway into a deeper question: What do we lose when we turn ourselves into brands?
For years, leaders have been told that personal branding is the path to clarity, credibility, and influence. Distill yourself. Stay on message. Smooth the edges. Be coherent at all costs. But branding is a form of compression—and humans aren’t meant to be compressed.
Drawing on psychology, leadership research, and lived experience, this episode argues that presence—not polish—is what creates trust. The leaders who move us aren’t the most consistent; they’re the most responsive. The most alive to the room. The most willing to let contradiction, uncertainty, and growth be visible.
Join me as I explore:
✅ Why personal branding often undermines the very trust it promises to build
✅ How compressing your identity erodes presence and credibility
✅ What Jung and James Hillman reveal about the myth of a singular “authentic self”
✅ Why leaders who change their minds are often the ones we follow most
✅ How human presence creates safety, connection, and momentum in organizations
🔑 Key Takeaways:
✔ A brand is a compression; leadership is a living process
✔ People don’t follow polish—they follow attunement
✔ Consistency matters less than responsiveness
✔ Packaging yourself turns growth into performance
✔ Your contradictions don’t weaken trust—they create it
🔎 Resources & References:
📖 Carl Jung – The psyche as a multiplicity, not a singular self
📖 James Hillman – The “parliament of gods” and psychological pluralism
📜 Tao Te Ching – “The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness”
📊 Organizational trust research on psychological safety and leadership presence
📩 Subscribe & Share:
If this episode challenges how you think about leadership, branding, and authenticity, share it with someone feeling pressure to perform instead of lead. And subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of leadership, culture, and the human experience.
#Leadership #PresenceOverPerformance #PersonalBranding #AuthenticLeadership #Culture #HumanCenteredLeadership
Steven Morris, CEO of Matter Consulting is an ever-curious life-seeker, brand and culture building expert, advisor, author, and speaker.
With over 27 years of entrepreneurial experience, he has served as a trusted advisor to over 3,000 business leaders and evolved more than 250 brands and cultures, including Google, Habitat for Humanity, Samsung, and Disney.
His best-selling book, "The Beautiful Business," and his widely read Insights blog are a testament to his consulting expertise in creating unignorable, magnetic, and sustainable companies.
His diverse interests, including meditation, fine art painting, surfing, and beekeeping, infuse his work with creativity, soul, and a deep understanding of the human experience.
You can find more podcasts and join 30,000+ other brilliant and soulful readers of his weekl
Published on 13 hours ago