Leadership has had a powerful impact on the course of human development. Leadership today is very different from the leadership of previous generations. The old "top down" management no longer works today. Workers today like to be fully engaged and committed to what they do and want to feel important about their work, also to trust people who manage. Just because of those expectations, leaders need to know how to stimulate interest and inspire trust in the people they lead. When people work with a true authentic leader, they often give their all to achieve the goal. In such situations, the spirit of teamwork and loyalty can spread through the organization, which subsequently results in high morale and outstanding achievements. Authentic leaders always remain true to their own values, know who they are and do not allow anyone to sway them in order to make decisions they deem right. The main reason for the implementation of authentic leadership as a key approach to leadership is a higher level of employee satisfaction, and thus productivity growth. The main goal of this paper is to show how the level of authenticity of the leader is related to the motivation of employees in Croatian business practice. For the purpose of preparing the paper, an empirical research will be conducted through a questionnaire on employees of Croatian companies.