All too often, leaders feel compelled to hide their personal foibles for the sake of projecting competence to their teams. After all, who would trust a leader who admits to sometimes procrastinating? *Coughs*

Turns out, plenty of people. In fact, there’s even an advantage to letting your guard down, according to research from Kellogg professor Maryam Kouchaki.

“When we make ourselves vulnerable and when we share some of our failures and challenges, we are seen as more authentic,” Kouchaki says.

Today, we’ll hear more about that research and make the case for leaders who don’t maintain a shiny facade. Then, as consumers are bombarded with more product choices than ever, we’ll look at how companies can make customers’ experiences less overwhelming by winnowing things down for them.

The upside of vulnerability at work

Across several studies, Kouchaki and her colleagues found that leaders who admitted to small flaws were seen as more authentic than leaders who did not—and people found this authenticity appealing.

For one study, the researchers recruited 298 working professionals who were randomly divided into a control group and an experimental group. The online participants were asked to imagine they’d been hired at a fictitious investment firm and were meeting managers they could choose to work with if they wished. Then, they read a statement from one of those potential managers.

In the control group, the manager’s statement included a simple description of his career path and interests outside of work. In the experimental group, the manager also disclosed a fear of public speaking. Then, participants rated the manager’s authenticity, warmth, and competence.

Admitting a fear of public speaking made the manager appear more authentic but no less warm or competent, the results showed. Another experiment showed that people preferred to work with leaders who seemed more authentic.

But in order to be seen as authentic, these self-disclosures must be seen as voluntary. When the researchers repeated the investment-firm experiment again, but revealed to some participants that the manager had been asked to admit a personal failing in his statement, the boost in perceived authenticity disappeared.

And there’s another caveat here: not all flaws are created equal in people’s minds. A fear of public speaking is one thing, but lying on expense reports? That’s a big no-no.

“There’s a sweet spot here,” Kouchaki says.

You can read more about Kouchaki’s research here.

What leaders miss about the customer experience

Consumers like choices. But these days consumers are bombarded. That can lead to a lot of frustration among customers, says marketing professor Alexander Chernev.

In a recent article in Harvard Business Review, Chernev lays out a few strategies marketers can adopt to improve the customer experience by reducing frustration and boredom.

One tip: provide a default option.

“What makes defaults particularly effective is that they give consumers a way to make a choice and progress toward their goal without the rigors of making the decision themselves. This is why defaults have become an increasingly prevalent aspect of the customer experience, from consenting to be contacted by companies for promotional purposes and agreeing to allow browser cookies, to selecting offerings tagged as ‘Customers’ favorite,’ ‘Recommended for you’ and ‘Editor’s choice.’”

You can read Chernev’s HBR piece here.