Tuturu – From Authority to Authenticity
Why workplaces thrive when people feel safe to be themselves
We all know that our workplaces are at their best when people can bring more of themselves, but let’s steer clear of phrases like “whole self”, “speaking my truth”, “keeping it real” and “my bad”.
In my opinion these phrases serve to absolve us of accountability and responsibility for the impact that our words and actions have on those around us (right up there alongside “With all due respect…)
What I believe we need more of in leadership is not the polished mask, not the edited version, but the real person with all their strengths, flaws, and stories.
That’s what it means to be tuturu: anchored in who you are, and safe enough to share it.
Why Psychological Safety Matters
Over the past few years, the idea of psychological safety has become a big talking point in workplaces and I continue to be a huge advocate for the environment that it can create at work.
People want more than just a regular salary and job security (is that even a thing in 2025?). They want to feel seen. They want to feel heard. They want to feel like they matter and like they can make a difference.
Although Covid-19 played a huge role in forcing us all to stop and think about how we care for one another, that worldwide trauma now feels like a long time ago and in a lot of industries it seems like the lessons we learnt have quickly be forgotten.
During those days of lockdowns and isolation, it felt like it wasn’t just about keeping businesses running, but it was about keeping people safe, connected, and supported.
Leaders started checking in on their people in a different way, not just as employees, but as human beings.
The argument for the value of doing this is not just an emotional one, but an economic one too – when people are happy and healthy, they do better work.
Psychological safety isn’t just about getting better results, it’s about authenticity. It’s about being able to show up without fear of being judged, punished, or excluded.
It’s about embracing who you really are, not just who you think you’re supposed to be.
What Tuturu Really Means
As most of you are aware, I grew up in New Zealand (the accent is a dead giveaway and no, I’m not going to say fush and chups!), and back home there’s a Māori word that captures this idea perfectly: tuturu.
Like many Māori words, it carries more than one meaning. Tuturu can mean real, true, authentic, original, fixed, permanent, but it’s more than just “being genuine.”
It’s about being anchored. Being tuturu means standing firm in your identity, your values, your whakapapa (your genealogy, your story), and your lived experience.
It’s about knowing who you are, and bringing that into the room – every room.
Rethinking ‘Professionalism’
I spend a lot of time with people who are either starting out in their careers or rethinking what they want from their work and I hear the same phrase again and again: “I want to be thought of as professional.”
When I ask what they mean by “professional,” the answers are often vague…
Some say “competent.”
Others say “polished” or “serious.”
Very few say “authentic,” “kind,” or “human.”
What if being “professional” didn’t mean hiding your quirks, your culture, or your difference? What if it meant being ‘tuturu’ – real, grounded, and ultimately yourself?
Imagine if that word and it’s intent became part of our workplace language?
“I want to be me, all of my strengths, all of my failings, all of my lessons learnt, and those still to come. I want to be tuturu to myself and those around me.”
That’s not just inspiring, it could be truly transformative.
The Cost of Pretending
It is my belief that many of the problems we see in workplaces, fatigue, poor mental health, judgment, fear of reprisals, exclusion, suspicion, come from people feeling like they can’t be themselves.
We avoid robust conversations and instead collude. We hide what we really think and we shrink parts of ourselves to please others and fit in.
Avoidance takes a massive amount of emotional and physiological energy and so it soon becomes exhausting.
No energy means less creativity, less trust and eventually leads to disconnection from those around us.
Building Tuturu Workplaces
How can we build a workplace where people can be tuturu?
The first thing to remember is that it doesn’t mean throwing out standards or becoming ‘touchy, feely’.
It means asking questions like:
- How do our policies allow people to speak openly?
- How do our leaders model honesty and vulnerability?
- How do our teams celebrate different ways of thinking, speaking, and being?
- How do we challenge ideas and not individuals?
- How do we make space for people to bring their culture, their neurodiversity, their lived experience into the room?
When we create environments that reward authenticity, we can’t help but build trust. We foster inclusivity and unlock innovation.
Most importantly, we connect with the humanity of the people that we spend more time with than our own families.
Supporting Leaders to Be Tuturu
It’s easy to place the responsibility for authenticity solely on leaders, but the truth is they need support too.
Although we’ve talked about the vulnerability of leadership at length over the years, Leaders still feel pressure to have all the answers, to appear strong, or to hide their own uncertainty.
Teams can play a powerful role in helping leaders be more tuturu by not only giving them permission to be human, but encouraging it.
That means listening without judgment, encouraging openness, and showing appreciation when leaders share honestly, even when it’s about mistakes or challenges.
When people respond with empathy rather than criticism, they create space for leaders to model vulnerability and when leaders feel safe, it sets the tone for everyone else to do the same.
A Call to Be More Tuturu
I’d like to leave you with this challenge, regardless of whether you’re a leader, a teammate, or someone figuring out your own career path:
Ask yourself: “Where could I be more tuturu?” “What would it mean to be real, true, and anchored, not just for yourself, but for those around you?”
Being more tuturu is about building workplaces where humanity thrives and people are valued not simply for what they deliver, but for who they are.
By Dan Symonds