Develop and express authenticity

- Authenticity is a word that we've been hearing a lot over the last decade. In fact, I've heard people tell me not to use that word because it's been overplayed. Yes, authenticity seems to be trendy right now, but you certainly wouldn't know it by looking at social media and watching everyone's well-crafted image of themselves and their lives on display. What I'm saying is sure, it's easy to say you're authentic, but authenticity takes very real and very hard work. So while it might be a trendy term that's overused, my challenge to you is to ask yourselves if you're really expressing yourselves authentically. What does that look like? An authentic expression is one that comes from a deep sense of knowing yourself and communicating based on that knowledge. It also means you are communicating your truth without a great deal of regard for what others might think. How does this factor into communicating transparently? Plainly stated, it goes back to the concept of emotional neutrality. When you communicate with emotional neutrality, your job is to convey the facts without adding in any additional internal stories, like anxiety or conjecture. The same goes for authenticity. It means that once you've figured out your stance on something, or are communicating about an experience, you're able to do so in full truth, without adding in the consideration of what others might think. This is extremely difficult, especially when we take this concept into the workplace. But here is an example of how it can work. Imagine for a moment that you oversee a very large team of salespeople, 100 people. You learn that corporate has asked for a cost reduction across the board. You know, as the leader, that any cost reduction would severely affect the team's ability to be successful. How do you use authenticity to communicate news that you yourself don't agree with? Let's start with the least authentic, and therefore least effective method. You stand up in front of your team and share the news, singing the praises of the decision from corporate, and highlighting all the reasons why it had to be done so that you can appear to be a team player. Why won't this work? Because it does not authentically communicate what you think and people can see through that. But how do you communicate information like this while representing corporate's desire for you as a leader to stand united with them, and still be authentic? You start with your truth. You might start with I'm really concerned about these cuts and I know that it's going to be hard to hit our numbers. Or this is not easy news, and I'm really disappointed to have to share it. All of this is your truth, and it shows them that you get it. This is where you lead with authenticity. From there, you can communicate the corporate mandate and make clear that it does have to happen, but that doesn't mean you can't inspire them along the way by sharing your belief in their ability to rise to the challenge, or come together as a team when times get hard. Being authentic doesn't mean you don't have to do the hard thing if you don't believe in it. It just means you're honest about how you feel or think while sharing your solutions, inspiring your team to follow your lead.