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Reed Hastings on Leadership: Authenticity is Key
- Startup Bell
- Oct 4, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: May 30
Picture this: It's 2011, and Reed Hastings is standing in front of his Netflix board, about to make one of the most controversial decisions in entertainment history. The company had just hit 24 million subscribers through their revolutionary DVD-by-mail service, but Hastings was about to announce something that would make their stock plummet 77% and trigger a customer revolt of epic proportions.
He was going to split Netflix into two companies—one for DVDs (Qwikster) and one for streaming (Netflix). The backlash was swift and brutal. Customers canceled subscriptions in droves, nearly 800,000 of them. The media called it corporate suicide. Investors fled faster than you could say "streaming."
But here's what made the difference: Hastings didn't pretend everything was fine. He didn't put on a corporate mask and speak in carefully crafted PR language. Instead, he did something revolutionary for a CEO—he admitted he was wrong, authentically explained his vision, and doubled down on what he believed was right for the company's future.
Today, Netflix is worth over $500 billion and has fundamentally changed how the world consumes entertainment. And Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix, offers a simple yet profound piece of advice for leaders at any stage of their journey: be authentic.
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The Netflix Journey: From DVD Rentals to a Global Entertainment Empire
Before we dig into the advice, let’s remember who we’re listening to. Reed Hastings started Netflix in 1997 as a DVD rental-by-mail service. Blockbuster laughed at them. Investors weren’t sure if mailing movies was even a business.
But Hastings saw the future. More importantly, he led Netflix through multiple reinventions: from DVDs to streaming, then from streaming to original content. Each pivot required not only technical and strategic skills—but the ability to earn trust, inspire teams, and keep people aligned through change.
That’s where authenticity came in.
“People are inspired by authenticity,” Hastings says. “And I'm just surprised how many people feel like they're acting.”
The Authenticity Crisis That's Killing Companies
Before we dive into Hastings' blueprint for authentic leadership, let's address the elephant in the room: most leaders are terrible actors, and everyone knows it.
Walk into any corporate meeting, and you'll witness a peculiar theater. CEOs trying to channel Steve Jobs' presentation style, middle managers mimicking Jeff Bezos' customer obsession speeches, and team leads attempting to recreate Elon Musk's disruptive energy. It's like watching a really expensive, really bad impersonation show.
The problem isn't that these leaders lack talent or vision—it's that they've convinced themselves that leadership means becoming someone else. They've bought into the myth that there's a "CEO personality" they need to adopt, a leadership persona they must wear like an ill-fitting suit.
But here's what Reed Hastings discovered during Netflix's journey from 30 employees to over 14,000: authenticity isn't just a nice-to-have leadership quality—it's the fundamental ingredient that determines whether your company thrives or dies during critical growth phases.
"You have to be authentic," Hastings explains. "You've got no hope if you try to pretend to be Reed Hastings or Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates or whoever you want to think your CEOs are that you've met. That is crazy and you got to really get comfortable with yourself, your strengths and weaknesses."
Steve Jobs and the Power of Raw Truth
Steve Jobs is a perfect example of someone who led through authenticity—even if that authenticity was tough love. He didn’t try to sugarcoat feedback. He didn’t play politics. And he certainly didn’t mold himself into someone else’s idea of a CEO.
What he did do was stay obsessively true to his belief in making insanely great products. Jony Ive, Apple’s legendary design chief, once recalled a moment of unflinching honesty from Steve Jobs:
“And he said this brutally, brilliantly insightful thing, which was: ‘No, Jony, you’re just really vain…’ And he said, “No, you just want people to like you. And I’m surprised at you, because I thought you really held the work up as the most important... not how you believed that you were perceived by other people.””
That’s authenticity.
Howard Schultz and Being Value-Driven
Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks, often spoke about growing up in public housing and watching his father struggle without healthcare. That authentic connection to working-class struggles became the reason Starbucks offers health benefits to part-time workers. Closing 8,000 stores for racial bias training? Authentic to his commitment to social responsibility.
This authenticity allowed him to make decisions that seemed crazy to Wall Street but made perfect sense for Starbucks' mission. Schultz never had to waste mental energy pretending to be someone else. He could focus entirely on what was best for the company.
You tell your story, connect it to your mission, and let that drive decisions. It builds loyalty that can’t be faked.
The Authenticity Framework: Three Pillars of Genuine Leadership
Based on Reed Hastings' insights and the patterns we see in other authentically successful leaders, there are three core pillars that support authentic leadership at scale:
Pillar 1: Self-Awareness Without Self-Absorption
Authentic leaders know their strengths and weaknesses, but they don't make everything about themselves. Hastings emphasizes that authentic leadership requires your "own role to be secondary" to what's good for the company.
Take Jensen Huang of NVIDIA. Huang's authentic leadership style is intensely focused and somewhat obsessive about technology—traits that might seem like weaknesses in traditional leadership frameworks. But rather than trying to be more "well-rounded," Huang has authentically embraced these characteristics while building systems and teams that complement his natural strengths.
His obsessive focus on GPUs seemed like a narrow niche for decades, but when AI exploded, NVIDIA was perfectly positioned. Huang didn't try to be a generalist CEO; he authentically led from his strengths while ensuring the company had the diverse expertise it needed.
Pillar 2: Transparent Communication That Serves the Mission
Authentic leaders don't hide behind corporate speak or carefully crafted messaging. They communicate in their natural voice while staying focused on what serves the organization's mission.
Hastings demonstrated this during Netflix's most challenging periods. When the Qwikster decision backfired, he didn't hire a crisis PR firm to craft the perfect apology. Instead, he wrote a straightforward blog post acknowledging the mistake and explaining his reasoning. It was authentically him—direct, honest, and focused on what he believed was best for Netflix's future. Although the blog no longer is on Netflix's website, Hastings also issued a video apology:
Pillar 3: Values-Driven Decision Making
Authentic leaders make decisions based on their genuine values and beliefs about what's right for the company, not what they think others expect them to decide.
Marc Benioff of Salesforce exemplifies this principle. His authentic commitment to equality and social justice isn't a marketing strategy—it's a genuine expression of his values. When he discovered pay gaps between male and female employees, he spent $6 million to eliminate them.
This decision was also popular with all stakeholders, and it was authentically aligned with Benioff's values and Salesforce's mission. That consistency has built tremendous trust and loyalty both inside and outside the company.
Final Thoughts: Be You—But Fiercely
There’s a reason so many great leaders, when asked about their secret, say some version of “Just be yourself.” It’s not a cliché—it’s a strategy.
"So that's all it takes is to be authentic and not try to be something else and to fundamentally care at your core about what's good for the company," Hastings concludes. "And if everybody knows and you act in the notion of what's good as best as your judgment can tell, they will see that and people will follow you and they won't be cynical."
The path forward isn't about becoming a different person—it's about becoming more authentically yourself while developing the skills and systems that allow that authentic self to lead effectively at scale. In a world full of leaders trying to be someone else, the most radical thing you can do is be genuinely, effectively yourself.
Your company's growth depends on it. Your team's trust requires it. And your own sustainability as a leader amongst the chaos of entrepreneurship demands it. The question isn't whether you can afford to lead authentically as you scale. The question is whether you can afford not to.
Ready to harness the founder’s edge and build something extraordinary? Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly insights, tips, and stories to help you lead with passion and purpose!
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