Written by 
Authenticity Insurance – Lee Swann
Genre: Business, Productivity, Nonfiction
Publisher: Koehler Books
Release Date: 2025
Format read: Paperback
Source of book: This book was provided in exchange for an honest review.
My Thoughts
Previously on the blog I had reviewed The Fractional Leader’s Playbook, which was a guide for senior leaders who wanted to pivot their career in a new direction. It is appropriate then, that after covering a book intended for senior executives, that I then cover a book that is suitable for leaders at the other end of the spectrum.
After all, it is one thing to be an executive with extensive senior experience. It is another to be a manager of frontline employees, a middle manager, or just a manager with no official background. It is exactly this kind of leader that Lee Swann is speaking to in this book.
In Authenticity Insurance, she advocates for an honest, transparency and human style of leadership. By tapping into your individual differences and unique attributes, and treating your employees on a similar level, it leads to significant corporate change and improved workplace culture.
What I overall appreciate about Swann’s work is the focus on our shared humanity in the workplace, which is apparent in both the content and in her distinctive writing style.
Content & Information
There is one minor negative point regarding this book which occurred at the start, so I will introduce with that. In beginning to read this book, based on the blurb and the first chapter, it is actually rather difficult to determine exactly what the content is going to be about. I wondered at first, what on earth does it even mean to lead with authenticity? That made for a bit of an unclear start as I was unsure exactly what I was getting into at first. But after that, it was smooth sailing and as you read it becomes evident quickly what the book is about.
Authenticity Insurance is a reflective guide intended for leaders within organisations (at any level). It specifically focuses on how to improve leadership by embracing authenticity and the uniqueness that is within the individual leader. Swann largely explains her points using her own life and career as a case study. By showing how her varied and disparate experiences shaped her skills and her workplace values, she demonstrates how leaders can better use their own personal contexts and show up more authentically at work. Overall it is informative, engaging and overall structured in its points.
This book is intentionally quite personal and reflective, making it a prompt for leaders to consider their own journeys, skills and mindsets. In order to get your value out of this book you are required to think, reflect and critically consider how to lead authentically. Swann uses her own life as a case study in this. She details various anecdotes and reflections from her career and personal life. Then, she applies the lessons she’s learning from her experiences into her leadership. After demonstrating this she invites the reader to reflect themselves. As part of this review I did engage with the included reflection questions and found some of them to be quite illuminating for myself.
So even though the content seemed a bit nebulous at first, the book established itself well and otherwise was well structured and organised. Additionally, I found the book useful for myself and lead me to think more about leadership in my own life.
One final note. Swann is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. It’s not a major area of focus of the book itself. But, it is a major focus of Swann’s career objectives and it is incorporated into her work. Having safe and healthy workplaces is incredibly important, but it’s important to do this in ways that are not counterintuitive. DEI initiatives risk creating the same structural inequalities that they are trying to fix, especially if they focus on prioritising the needs of certain groups above others.
What Swann correctly recognises is that workplaces need to be fair and equal in their treatment of employees, treat them respectfully as individuals, and to not create barriers that prevent access to health and wellbeing. Swann also correctly acknowledges personal responsibility and accountability. In a section of the book directed towards Black women in particular she argues that Black women should take responsibility for how they show up in the workplace so to not victimise themselves. Even for readers that are not Black, this advice still very applies. Therefore, rather than adopt certain DEI methodologies that fragment populations and keep working class/middle class populations fighting amongst themselves, we should adopt a different approach. It is better to both ensure accountability on the individual end, and then to eliminate all barriers, walls, incentives and ‘leg-ups’ for any person in the workplace on the structural end.
Writing
Swann’s writing style is primarily autoethnographic. For the uninitiated, that refers to a style which uses the author’s personal experience and reflections as the primary basis for making arguments or research conclusions. This is a deliberate choice used to make Swann’s key point, which is that it is our unique and personal attributes (our authenticity, in other words) that should determine how leaders show up in the workplace.
Readers often criticise this style of writing, saying it is impractical and unhelpful. I could rattle off a dozen books where I’ve seen this critique applied, including one previously reviewed here on Crokes (How To Do The Work). However there is a place for more personality-centred writing alongside the more straightforward instructional method. It is worth going into a book knowing exactly what you are looking for. If you are wanting to read a bullet-point step-by-step guide on what to do, you are not going to get that here. However, if you are looking for a book that will make you reflect and become more thoughtful on your career, then this book suits you well.
In keeping with the theme, Swann injects her own authentic tone and energy. The book reads casual, as if it is a transcript of Swann talking to you in a phone call. This means her personality as an author comes through distinctly. One amusing example is that the last major element of authenticity, Endurance, is covered at the end of the book after you have “endured” all the previous content. This humour, while also being entertaining, is a demonstration of Swann’s argument and shows how her writing aligns very well with the content.
Overall, this book is a recommended read for anyone in a leadership journey in a workplace, but especially for emerging leaders. Reading this is a way to check in on yourself and how you approach leadership. By clarifying your values, your skills and your unique experiences, and then showing up authentically in the workplace, you have the ability to change the environment of the people you serve. And that’s an important message for any leader to receive.
TL;DR: An excellent contemplation on leadership for real humans, without the stuffy corporate jargon or expectations.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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