I was listening to the Seth Godin podcast today on Tribes and there was a lot of talk about being authentic. Now, the question is what is being authentic and is it something that you or your company needs to do?
Well…no.
Let’s take a look at what being authentic means. Essentially authentic means being real and true, not false. We have all been in situations where we wanted to call someone an idiot or curse at a boss, etc. Company executives have all received emails and comments where they want to respond and call the user a moron, but they don’t, why?. Does this mean that people are not being authentic? After all shouldn’t an “authentic person” just be honest all the time and speak their mind?
As Seth mentioned on the call sometimes we are all faking it. It’s not being authentic that counts but it’s making sure that the intent and goals (among other things) are authentic. In other words, being authentic can be interpreted as not manipulating people and ideas to make them think you are doing A when you are actually planning on doing B. It’s not about being a liar or biting your tongue, it’s about respect. It’s about understanding that each person wields a certain influence (leaders more than others) and that influence should not be used to deceive.
If you’re a leader this bit of advice/information particularly applies to you, I will say that I try to be a leader both online and offline.
Are you authentic?
thanks for reading
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