Authority vs. Transparency: Are You Leading with Authority or Transparency?

In this follow-up to my last post, we delve into a key question: How do you know if your organization leads with authority or transparency? Understanding where you fall on this spectrum is crucial to defining how you build trust, position your product, and ultimately resonate with your market. Here are three important criteria to help you determine your position.

1. What Are the Majority of Players Doing in Your Industry?

To start evaluating your position, consider what the majority of players in your industry are doing. Are they transparency-driven or authority-driven? A simple way to determine this is by examining how specific they get when describing what the product does versus what purpose it serves. Another way is to look at the typical sales process and see how much technical discussion is being had.

Take the personal computer industry as an example. Originally, it was all about transparency—specifications and configurations were central to the messaging. Buyers were drawn to the nitty-gritty details, such as the processor type, graphics card, and RAM capacity. Then Apple came along and completely shifted the paradigm. Apple transformed the PC market from transparency-led to authority-led by emphasizing the experience—the overall aesthetic, usability, and what their computers enabled people to create and do. Instead of focusing on what was under the hood, Apple led with authority built on design ethos, simplicity, and creative empowerment.

If your industry is still transparency-led—if companies are talking about each specific feature and technical detail—ask yourself whether there is an opportunity to differentiate by leading with authority instead. Or perhaps you're in a position where transparency is exactly what you need to stand out. Understanding where the majority of your industry sits is your starting point.

2. Where Does Your Product Fit Within the Industry Paradigm?

Next, consider where your product fits within the industry paradigm. Are you innovating in terms of business model and delivery, or are you innovating in terms of the product itself and its use-case? If your innovation is centered on how the product is delivered, such as pricing models, accessibility, or simplifying processes, you’ll likely need to be a transparency-led organization. Transparency becomes your edge because it provides clarity in how you are innovating for the customer.

On the other hand, if you are innovating the product itself or how customers should solve certain problems—pushing boundaries on features, performance, or entirely new solutions—then you’re more likely required to be authority-led to grow the business. Your narrative should emphasize why you are the most credible and capable of delivering this new solution, building trust through your vision, expertise, and thought leadership.

In my consulting work, it's not uncommon to see companies misunderstanding their position on this spectrum. So, if you feel like you are one of those companies, do not feel disheartened. It's not uncommon. What matters is what you do next. They end up applying logic alone to try to win customers, not recognizing that logic is never enough. You must know whether you need to build trust through transparency or authority—and execute accordingly.

3. What Creates Authority or Transparency in Your Industry?

If you've determined that you're an authority-led organization, the next question is: What creates authority in your industry? Social anthropology teaches us that authority can be built in a few key ways:

• Ideas and Knowledge: Demonstrating unique insights or a novel way of approaching a problem.

• Social Proof: Establishing credibility through testimonials, high-profile customers, or partnerships.

• Scarcity: Positioning your solution as something unique or exclusive that not everyone can easily access.

The challenge is to not simply echo what everyone else is doing. For instance, if every company is promoting the fact that they have PhDs on staff, then you doing the same will add no additional value in terms of social proof—it has simply become the industry norm. This is a classic example in the current ML/AI landscape where “PhDs on staff” has lost its shine. You need to look for an angle that makes your authority distinct and relevant.

If you've determined that transparency is your leading approach, you must also consider how it's currently being leveraged in your space and how you can make it impactful. Consider the electric vehicle market: it was initially dominated by transparency about range, battery type, and charging times. Tesla, as an early pioneer in the industry, provided transparency in a unique way by emphasizing its network of Superchargers, which promised accessible long-distance travel and a seamless experience. Instead of just focusing on battery specs, Tesla differentiated by emphasizing how their transparency translated into a better lifestyle—one that provided practicality and freedom of movement through an extensive charging infrastructure. If every competitor is touting the same features, like processing speed or battery range, simply repeating those points won't help you stand out or build trust—especially if you're new. Transparency, like authority, must be thoughtfully differentiated to truly make an impact.

Putting It All Together

If I had a dime for every time founders came to me asking why, despite raising a ton of money and hiring a bunch of salespeople and world-class sales leaders, they're not growing, I'd be an even richer man!

If you're struggling to figure out why you're hitting a plateau, this is your starting point. Putting thought into the human side of how markets function and how your buyers make decisions is absolutely critical to breaking out of the noise.

Ultimately, understanding whether you are leading with authority or transparency is about recognizing what resonates most in your market and for your customers. It requires a clear-eyed assessment of your industry norms, your product innovation, and how trust is currently being built. If you’re simply doing what everyone else is doing—whether it’s hyping up your PhDs or listing your RAM—you’re not differentiating, and you're likely missing out on an opportunity to connect with your audience in a way that truly drives growth.

So, are you an authority-led organization or transparency-led? And are you playing to that strength in a way that stands out?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how your organization builds trust and which approach resonates most with your customers. Feel free to share your experiences and insights. With your permission, I would be happy to discuss them anonymously in subsequent posts so everyone in the community can benefit.

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