The Art of Authenticity

4Followers Beware…of Charisma

“Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.”

—Niccol?? Machiavelli, The Prince¹

He's not who I thought he was,” she said. I had just joined a former client for lunch at a hip sushi joint in New York. “I was so excited to come to work at this company but mostly to come to work with and for Charlie. He seemed so bright and so interested in having me join his team.”

We ordered drinks and she continued: “I felt on top of the world when I took this job. It is hard to believe that I have only been working here a year. Within the first month, I started to figure out that things were a little off. My bonus did not turn out exactly as it was promised when I looked at the paperwork in detail. Then, a colleague left and I picked up her work—temporarily, I thought. I still have her work and my work. The morale of the team gets worse every month. I have tried to address issues with Charlie, but I just leave his office either convinced it is only me or that he is really trying to make things work. He seems to dodge negative feedback like a superhero deflecting bullets. How could I have been this wrong about a person? I left a job I loved to come here and follow a fake, an imposter.”

By the time the waitress impatiently looked at us as if to say Are you going ...