He was only 16 years old when he left home, but he looked older, so he told people he was in his mid-20s. This is how he was able to begin his career as a pilot for Pan Am, traveling more than two million miles, and eventually finding a role recruiting stewardesses for the airline. He also took and passed the Bar exam, then served as an assistant state attorney for Louisiana. He was also a police officer in Scarsdale, New York, a doctor at a Georgia hospital, and a printer in Montpellier, France. His name is Frank Abagnale—and none of what you just read about his many careers is true.
In reality, Frank was a con man who lived from age 16 off of cashing more than 17,000 bad checks to the tune of $2.5 million. Frank was wanted in 26 countries. While on the run, he once cleverly escaped through an airplane toilet onto the tarmac, before eventually being captured by the FBI. Of his early life, Frank wrote, “I made a lot of exits through side doors, down fire escapes or over rooftops. I abandoned more wardrobes in the course of five years than most men acquire in a lifetime. I was slipperier than a buttered escargot.”
After his arrest and conviction, Frank received early release so that he could help federal authorities capture other forgers. By creating and cashing so many bad checks, Frank had become an expert in fake documents. Frank wrote, “I’ve been described by authorities and news reporters as one of this century’s cleverest bum-check passers, flimflam artists and crooks, a con man of Academy Award caliber. I was a swindler and poseur of astonishing ability.” Today he has a consulting business, skillfully helping banks and other financial institutions make their checks forger-proof. He was the subject of the Steven Spielberg film, Catch Me If You Can, the motion picture version of his autobiography. Frank was played by Leonardo DeCaprio.
But that’s not true either. While Spielberg did make a movie of Frank’s story being a pilot, and a doctor, and a lawyer who forged checks, more recent research from journalists has debunked nearly all of that narrative as well. Louisiana officials found no record of him taking the Bar exam or serving as an attorney, even under an alias. There is no trace of him faking it as a doctor in Georgia. And though he may have had a pilot’s uniform, there’s also no record of him flying millions of miles on Pan Am or starting a stewardess program. The airplane toilet escape never happened. Though he wrote he had been “arrested just once,” there are records of Abagnale being detained in New York, California, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Georgia and Texas. Frank, you see, is more fake than anyone realized. The First Assistant Attorney General of Louisiana, Kenneth DeJean, put it succinctly: “The man is not an imposter, he is a liar.”
Though Frank Abagnale eventually became successful and even legitimate, he has never been authentic. Authenticity is the character trait of being true to oneself. One’s personality, character, decisions and determination are on display for all to see. And authentic leaders are also consistent over time—their values, ideals and actions align. Sometimes we describe authenticity as complete openness and honesty, but it’s more than just being truthful. An authentic person must also remain true to the truths they tell.
At some point all men grapple with the question, “Who am I?” How you identify yourself is a crucial component to understanding your purpose and direction in life. Traditionally, one’s gender, upbringing, experiences, spirituality and other personal-internals forge the unique human that is you. Over time, you come to understand your path in life more substantially. Authenticity, then, is the factor in your character that helps you live and lead as your true self. Authenticity helps you as a leader to make good decisions, influence others, maintain consistent values, convey a sense of purpose, and have a strong self-awareness. Authentic leaders have a clear personal identity.
A recent twist on authenticity is a cultural subset that desires to redefine their identity. They reject the fact they are born to male or female, and attempt to assume different inherent biological traits. They believe it is possible to choose an identity, then adjust their behaviors, dress, mannerisms and even physical bodies to become more like the person they imagine themselves as. Cultural, even governmental leaders—at least in the United States—have embraced this mindset. The “transgender” movement is fundamentally a flawed ideology that denies rudimentary science, and suggests a choice where none exists. It also upends the very notion of authenticity, imposing a fraud to cover up the true self. It redefines a delusion as authenticity. There is a distinction between being true to yourself and being your true self.
That debate won’t be resolved simply, and it makes more difficult the idea of living authentically. How, then, in an environment where we have started valuing perception over truth, and feeling over fact, can a leader be authentic? Begin by knowing that only in Christ can we realize authenticity as pursuing our true self, that is, the person that God intended us to be. Consider these four spiritual pursuits toward authenticity:
Authentic leaders pursue self-discipline. The Apostle Paul reminds us that the Spirit of God Who lives in every Christ-follower is a helper for us in self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” The Scripture tells us that self-discipline is not just a leadership characteristic, but first a spiritual characteristic. Self-discipline helps us to resist temptations to sin and to conform to the world’s ways. It requires the patience and forethought to consider one’s words and actions, and whether or not they represent authentic, Christ-centered leadership.
It's easy to see a leader without self-discipline. They may be defined as impulsive, short-tempered. Or they may be a conformist, easy-going to the point of having no ethical or moral backbone. Christian leaders who develop self-control are spoken of often in the New Testament as fully effective (2 Timothy 1:7, Titus 2:6, 12, 1 Peter 4:7, 2 Peter 1:6). Self-discipline (or self-control) is listed as a Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), meaning the Spirit of God empowers the Christ-follower with self-discipline. That is to say, self-discipline is not about bringing ourselves under our own authority, but rather bringing ourselves under the power of Jesus.
Self-discipline requires the leader to know areas of his life and work that must be brought under control, where he is prone to go off-course. And in these cases, the leader must not only recognize that wayward desire, but actively pursue Christ and ask Him, through the Holy Spirit, to help him bring it under control. This means that self-discipline is not only a handling of our public words and actions, but the internal emotions and mindset that motivates the leader. The self-disciplined leader seeks to live out 1 Timothy 3:2, to be “sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach…”
Authentic leaders pursue self-sacrifice. Jesus gave a clear command to His followers in Matthew 15:24-25: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” To deny yourself is to set your own wants, desires and goals aside in favor of another. For the authentic leader, this happens on two levels—first, the spiritual, where we pursue Christ and His ways instead of our own. Secondly, the personal, where we look to the interests of others above our own interests.
The depth of self-sacrifice is in the phrase “…take up his cross”—an instrument of torture and death. Jesus is challenging faith-centered leaders to sacrifice their own desires for the cause of Christ, up to and including the cost of their own lives, if necessary. It is profoundly difficult for a leader to pursue activities and goals which are not in his own self-interest. Instead we tend to redefine self-sacrifice so that the interests of others happen to align with our own self-interests—“if it’s good for me then it is also good for others.” This overlooks the key thought-line of self-sacrifice, however, which is to engage others with the specific intent of determining what good we can do for them, regardless of how it affects our own lives and leadership.
Self-sacrificing leaders are instead consistently investing their time and resources for the benefit of those around them. They also seek out those in need for whom they can provide personal and spiritual benefits. Self-sacrifice is most often demonstrated in generosity. Beyond this there is also the unmerited favor of grace—giving where no gift is deserved. This is following the example of Christ Himself, Who gave His own life on the cross in self-sacrifice for all of us.
Authentic leaders pursue self-awareness. 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us to “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” Your journey toward authenticity as a leader includes a regular look in the mirror. Self-awareness is the skill of focusing on your own actions, thoughts and emotions, and accurately determining whether these align with God’s standard. Scripture tells us to develop self-awareness, to be testing ourselves to see if Christ is in us and if we are growing in that most important of relationships.
A self-aware leader not only questions themselves, they are confident enough to ask others questions about themselves. They want to know how they are perceived by those around them. They also possess strong emotional intelligence. That is, they can “read the room”, understanding the effect their words and actions have on others. A self-aware person sees himself as others see him.[1] This is another characteristic that is most evident in the Christ-follower.
Romans 8:26-27 says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” The Spirit of God in us is revealing our own weaknesses, even as the Spirit helps us to grow beyond those weaknesses. The Spirit of God is an engine of personal and spiritual growth. He helps us see personal and spiritual shortcomings, sins, wounds, mistakes—and empowers us to understand them, endure hardship and become strengthened as we work through them.
Authentic leaders pursue self-clarity. A character trait highly valued in leaders is transparency, the quality of one’s motives, values and objectives being clearly seen by others. This goes beyond honesty. Self-clarity is not just telling the truth, but living in such a way that others know why you are the way you are. You can be an effective leader, an honest leader, without being transparent. You can certainly “hold your cards close to you” as you lead. Self-clarity, though, improves relationships and increases trust.
When you lead openly, you allow others an awareness of your thinking. Self-clarity, then, is a leadership development or mentoring tool. When you share your thoughts, it lets others know the process by which you make decisions, which is helpful for their own personal, professional and spiritual growth. Further, you gain their input, which can have a positive effect on your leadership. The challenge of self-clarity is to share and gain input without necessarily having to accept others’ conclusions or their critique of your thoughts. Ephesians 4:29 instructs, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
Transparency helps us fulfill many New Testament commands to Christ-followers with respect to our relationships. Author Terry Powell writes that, “Without a willingness to be transparent, we cannot bear each other's burdens (Galatians 6:2); comfort one another (2 Corinthians 1:4-7); encourage each other (1 Thessalonians 5:11); forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32); care for one another (1 Corinthians 12:25); nor weep or rejoice with each other (Romans 12:15).”[2]
Frank Abagnale’s tall tales of life as a con man have been scrubbed from his website. In 2002, following media investigations, Abagnale posted that his biographical co-writer, “over dramatized and exaggerated some of the story”.[3] He has become a sought-after consultant and fraud expert. Despite his inauthentic past, has Abagnale, to some degree, become authentic? Perhaps he has become a little more honest over time, certainly more self-aware, but his lack of self-clarity, self-sacrifice and self-discipline deny the core of an authentic leader.
Abagnale’s story points to the great challenge of authenticity, which is a constant desire to present ourselves as a certain person, whether or not we live up to that image. And if not, we tend to adjust our actions to fit the perception. Instead, an authentic leader lets others’ perceptions be reflected in their authenticity. They pursue the true self, with Christ as the standard-bearer, and the Holy Spirit as the active influence that helps them live and lead as the best version of themselves.
Authenticity is the factor in your character that helps you live and lead as your true self. Authenticity helps you to make good decisions, influence others, maintain consistent values, convey a sense of purpose, and have a strong self-awareness.