The 3-Step Method On How To Be Authentic at Work
To success in business you must be real. No one likes a fake. Here’s how to be authentic at work to enable you to thrive.
Hi Trish Davies here and one of my pet hates is unauthentic people at work and in life generally.
When it comes to business though you must remove any veil or mask that you are wearing.
Here’s how to be authentic at work. It’s not that hard!
Authenticity is the new black. The digital world has made us more transparent and authenticity is becoming more important than ever.
Authentic connections and relationships are now more important than the number of followers we have, likes or views we get.
In the workplace, being authentic not only improves your personal performance. It also gives you a competitive edge when it comes to job interviews or promotion.
Today, millennials are making their presence felt as they demand work that is mission-driven and impactful.
They want companies that are transparent and inclusive and where ideas are welcomed rather than stifled. Also where authenticity is encouraged over manufactured PR.
They look for leaders who understand them and their concerns. People they can trust rather than those who speak at them. Authentic leadership helps you be real in your relationships with others.
This means you are able to be yourself without pretending or putting up a facade. It also means you are able to lead from a place of your own values and beliefs.
Not from a place of what you think others expect from you as a leader. Here’s how to be authentic at work. It really is a simple 3 step process.
How To Be Authentic At Work
Step 1: Know Yourself
Understanding yourself is the first step in being authentic. You need to know your strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, passions, and fears. You need to know what makes you happy, what brings you joy. Also you need to know what is important to you and why it is important to you.
- What is your core?
- What do you stand for and what are your values?
- How do you want to be remembered?
- What is your leadership style?
- What do you want from your career or life?
Knowing yourself helps you identify the areas where you are most likely to feel pressured to be inauthentic. You can then take steps to protect yourself from being untrue to yourself.
Knowing yourself well also helps you to guide and inspire others to be authentic.
Step 2: Set Expectations
This means to set standards for yourself that you would like to live up to. This is not about impressing others. It’s about setting standards for yourself so that you can feel comfortable and authentic with yourself.
Setting expectations also means to set standards for your relationships with others. What do you expect from your colleagues, your manager, your employees, your clients, your customers? What do you expect from yourself?
Setting expectations is important for several reasons.
First, you need to know your own standards so that you can live up to them and remain authentic to yourself.
Second, you need to set standards for your relationships so that you can bring out the best in others.
Setting expectations and standards for yourself will not only help you to be authentic but also help you to avoid the “fake nice” syndrome.
This is where you put on a false smile and are polite to the point that you are inauthentic and actually lose respect from others.
Step 3: Be Authentic
Being authentic is about being true to who you are at all times. It is about letting go of what you think others expect from you and being who you are at each and every moment.
It is about being true to your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Being authentic is challenging and not always easy. It can be scary, especially if you are not used to it.
It is like jumping off a cliff and falling, but you are falling and flying at the same time. Being authentic can be especially challenging at work especially where you may have to work with people you don’t like.
Times when you may have to do tasks that you don’t like and you may have to work with people you don’t like. Being authentic in these cases can be especially challenging.
Being authentic does not mean to be brutally honest or say whatever comes to mind. It means to be true to you, to be true to your thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
How To Be Authentic At Work – 4 Additional Steps
Being authentic doesn’t just happen; it is a choice that you need to make and then take the steps to do so. To become more authentic at work, you need to make the decision to be true to yourself and then take the following steps:
Accept Yourself – Recognize your strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, passions, and fears.
Face Your Fears – Face your fears and challenge yourself to live according to your core values and what is important to you.
Be Truthful – Always be truthful and true to your thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Be Vulnerable – Be vulnerable and share your authenticity with others.
How To Be Authentic At Work – Conclusion
Authentic leadership is transformational. It transforms the organization, transforms cultures and transforms lives.
Authentic leaders are those who are real and genuine and make no effort whatsoever to be anything else. They are authentic because they don’t have to be anything else.
Authentic leaders do not try to be something that they aren’t. They do not try to be something that they think other people want them to be. They are not afraid to be themselves.
Also they are comfortable with who they are. They do not need to pretend and they do not need to put up a facade.
In fact, they don’t care about impressing people. That’s because authentic leaders don’t lead to make other people happy. They don’t lead to get people to like them.
They don’t lead to get people to approve of them and they don’t lead to get people to respect them.
No, they lead because they have a mission that they believe in. They lead because they have a cause that is important to them. They lead because they have a purpose in life.
Helping you build your authenticity, authority and audience.
Trish Davies
Build Your AU
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