Are you being an authentic leader?
When you are leading from an authentic place, people will naturally gravitate to you. They want to work with you or work for you and be on your team. They trust you and see that you are genuine. This type of leadership translates to sharing information with each other at a deeper level. Finding ways to connect with each other beyond a superficial level brings a team closer together and increases their performance to phenomenally higher rates. They stand for each other’s success and care about the group more than themselves.
Challenges with authenticity can happen when a leader who doesn’t feel ready for new leadership responsibilities and will struggle to trust their abilities. They will compare themselves to everyone else, live with doubt and insecurity. They want to show up authentically, but because of their own doubts it isn’t easy for them. Brene Brown said that “authenticity is a practice and you choose it every day.”
Brene Brown is also quoted as saying, “the core of authenticity is the courage to be imperfect, to be vulnerable.” What stories are you telling yourself about the connections you have with people? Do you purposely hold yourself back and only share so much with them? Without realizing it, you may be missing out on letting people see what you are all about. You may be keeping yourself safe and building an invisible wall between yourself and other people. What if you change that by letting yourself be a little more vulnerable, so people can actually see the “real you?”
I wrote this in The Visibility Factor, “everyone deserves that moment when they realize they have shifted their perception of themselves and no longer need or want to hide behind anyone else. Everyone can be authentic in their own leadership, use their voice and show their value.”
The best way to see if you are being authentic is to do a little self-evaluation and then ask yourself these questions.
- Where would you rate yourself in terms of being truly authentic?
- Are there certain situations, places or people that you are more authentic with than others?
- How can you build in more of it into your leadership?