Provides an approach to improving presentation skills. Presentation skills are typically poor among most people, and few people, if any, are natural presenters. One phrase really stood out - "those who fake it will never make it." I agree with the author's core premise that you have to be authentic - you have to be real and you have to care. Many people are just pretending throughout the day, or acting in ways they thing others expect. Author does a good job in explaining the apparent dichotomy between being authentic, while at the same recognizing and adjusting to your audience. The only thing I didn't like as much was the use of the characters (Josh, Rachel, etc.) to illustrate the author's points. It's just not my preferred way to learn, but I expect most of the readers will like it. A lot of writers can't execute this well - it comes off as fake or contrived; I think the author did pretty well. The questions at the end of each chapter are good. It's a good way to get the reader to reflect on the chapter. A key audience for this book are people in college, or even in high school, and on the cusp of entering the full-time work environment. Although even more experienced people will not have figured out a lot of this, so it should have a broad audience.

I love the code - your presence + your audience + your presentation = your success. In my presence - I am practicing living my authentic brand statement and my authentic presence qualities. Then before I write a presentation or communication, I assess the audience using the audience understanding matrix and the style recognition preferences. Finally, my presentations are way better, because I am following the formula for presentation success. I am seeing a huge improvement in my communication. This book is like having a personal coach in your own living room. It really helped me assess who I am as a professional and who I am becoming.

The Authenticity Code shares a lot of practical advice that young professionals can benefit from to develop more passion advancing their careers, while also understanding how to enhance important relationships. Unlike a lot of other books I have read about Executive Presence, or giving presentations, or about understanding your audience, this book pulls them all together with a lot of useful exercises that could even be good for students as they get started in life. I think the book can be summed up as helping you become a better communicator.

As an executive coach, leadership educator, and trainer for up-and-coming leaders, this information is critical to help young professionals see the importance of applying authenticity. The Authenticity Code is excellent as it is written as a parable, sharing valuable tools through a story, vs the typical format of a business book. Having a resource like this for my clients is excellent and is much needed. I also believe there are mid-range and senior leaders that will benefit from this reading, and I will be recommending it to them as well.

Finally an engaging business book with practical tools that work. I understand why Texas CEO Magazine rated this book one of the top 6 business books to read this fall.

I enjoyed the parable and answered the questions in the back of the chapters. I loved the authentic brand statement exercise. I am re-evaluating my career and it helped me see what I want to do next and what my unique authentic brand is. I believe Dr. Lamm-Hartman accomplished her purpose with this book which is to bring proven tools from a program her company teaches to benefit many more people with this book. I am going to give this to my college age son because the younger we can get in touch with our authenticity the better

I will also be recommending this book to all my college students. I appreciated how Dr. Sharon Lamm-Hartman shared her proven exercises. Doing these exercises, will help my students really connect with their authenticity in choosing their major and going on interviews.

Great book, so many young professionals could and would benefit GREATLY
The younger generations need this!

One of the first rules of The Authenticity Code is to know your audience. I am not the audience for this book. I am a former Toastmaster and proficient speaker. That being said I do think that there is some good in this book for a new, young, or unassertive speaker. It’s something that maybe I would give to a class of college or high school Freshmen to help them learn the basic skill of presenting, something that as much as we as a culture hate doing, is often necessary. The book is written as a version of Dr. Lamm-Hartman’s work The Authenticity Code but also as a way to sell it.

It’s written as a parable about two office workers presenting presentations for a job promotion but is written in such a way that the workers come across more like petulant children and not people who are even remotely capable to take on this job promotion. It’s clunky at best. The story goes on and the workers fail miserably in their first presentation and because apparently, this company has loads of time to waste the boss takes the time to teach them both this method.

While I really love the concepts I do genuinely think they would be better passed along as a guidebook and not a parable, with exercise and examples. Then again, this book isn’t written for me.

4/10

The irony of the premise is mindboggling - "it is important to be authentic. Let me teach you how to be authentic" - that false framing spelt doom for this book. If it had been couched as a book to help think through strategies for effective presentations (sale-sy or not), the author would have come across with more credibility. Examples that sound made-up and trumped-up are scattered throughout the book; overall, some few pointers on presentation skills - but nothing structured, no real thought framework, and certainly nothing to do with any code for authenticity.

The Authenticity Code is a book intent on leading people to discover the best way to present themselves in personal and professional contexts. I usually really like business books written in novel or parable format because it makes the context easier to understand and grasp. In this book, however, it read like an infomercial. The author used every opportunity to attach their corporate tag lines to the messaging (“The Authenticity Code: Your Presence + Your Audience + Your Presentation = Your Success”). It felt like the key concept coming from this book was “take the Authentic Presence and Presentation Skills course.”

Aside from the writing style, I struggled with the idea of the “authenticity code” that felt incredibly inauthentic. I agree wholeheartedly that knowing your audience and changing your presentation style based on that knowledge is a key to successful presentations. I just think of that as strategy and not as an authentic interaction. Overall, this book wasn’t all I had hoped it would be.