Authentic Leaders Keep It Real
An authentic sunset
AUTHENTIC: You are true to your own personality, values, and spirit, regardless of the pressure that you're under to act otherwise. You are honest with yourself and with others, and you take responsibility for your mistakes. Your values and actions align.
🛒 At my local grocery check-out line, I put down my red plastic basket of AA batteries, eggs, and gum to browse Us Magazine.
Flipping through cheap tabloids, I admired beautiful women in designer ballgowns from The Golden Globes. They looked so perfect. Film, music, and TV stars are subliminally projected as the ideal standard of beauty positioned as royalty. “Beyonce is Queen”!
I took a step forward in line and turned the page. The mean-spirited paparazzi photos were on full display.
😬 In broad daylight, I saw the “horror” of a famous movie star looking normal, unfiltered, and average. Tripping over a curb with eyes half-closed and messy hair was Kate Hudson spilling her Starbucks coffee. A-list Kate was looking gritty and natural. US Magazine is snarky. “STARS! They’re just like us!”
Oh, the audacity to be unfiltered, normal, and average.
Authenticity is underrated at work while perfectionism is overvalued.
In the media, we see fresh, young starlets with perfect hair, makeup, and bodies – striving to be the next Jennifer Lawrence.
Thanks to social media filters, we never have to show our physical flaws. We are bombarded by advertisements to fix ourselves every day.
💰 Flipping to the corporate world, sensational stories of money and fame blanket TV and the pages of Fortune, Money, and Success magazines. Entrepreneurs and CEOs are worshipped for their wealth and financial abundance.
Quick side note. Why are we obsessed with Elon Musk and Twitter?
🤔 What I wonder is … what are these “tycoons” and “stars” like in everyday life?
What are their insecurities, so I can relate to them?
Now turn these questions inward and reflect on yourself:
• What is your story?
• How are you projecting yourself at home and work?
• Do your employees know about mistakes you are making? Or do you have all the answers, perfect and polished?
😰 Given we are in a constant state of change – hello Chat GPT - no one has all the answers.
Yet it’s scary to be real and admit our own insecurities.
🍋 I don’t want to drink my own lemonade, so I will pinch my nose and down it quickly.
Confession: I am a hopeless people-pleaser, self-critical, and impatient with the little things. To make matters worse, I criticize myself for being impatient in my impossible desire to please everyone. That’s a hot mess right there.
🫵🏼 Back to you…
🔬 Research has shown that highly effective leaders demonstrate a high capacity for curiosity and relatability.
Authentic leaders create safe environments where people feel empowered to take risks, make mistakes, and share lessons learned. These leaders offer autonomy by releasing control of HOW to get to a certain outcome.
⛑ Why does Safety matter? Because we can’t ignore the mountain of evidence that psychological safety is the #1 indicator for inclusion, innovation, and high performance.
“If you don’t have team safety, performance is derailed.” – I love this quote from a Chief People Office of a multi-billion-dollar corporation.
Authentic leaders are self-aware and seek honest feedback from employees to understand blind spots and where unresolved issues are hidden.
They act quickly to remove project and people-related logjams, so the team can achieve results.
Authentic leaders prioritize employee safety, health & well-being as a strategy to higher performance, retention, and recruitment.
🏆 In 2023, what culture are you creating? Consider these 7 proven, mini-culture strategies used by successful organizations:
1. Offer flexibility where possible. It provides an equitable environment to let people make their own choices.
2. Be clear and consistent with messaging on vision and strategic direction. The result will be less fire drills and anxiety.
3. Let teams self-organize to go back to the office again.
Empower your people with autonomy and decision-making authority that matches their responsibility levels.
4. Recruit a culture committee to represent the varied needs of employees. Ensure the committee is cross-functional and includes diverse perspectives.
5. Offer mental health support. Burnout is not the status quo.
One company I know offers free access to the therapy app called BetterHelp, and they have seen excellent results. It sends a message that the company truly cares and invests in employee health & well-being.
6. Early-out Fridays at 2:00pm or 3:00pm is a highly appreciated perk. This is a morale booster and signifies that work-life balance is important. Call it the Weekend Jumpstart perk. Just make sure employees don’t feel so overloaded that it’s impossible to use and enjoy.
7. New leadership skills are needed to evolve from old-school command & control to new-school management through coaching & mentorship.
“New school” coaching (vs. telling what to do) is a learned management skill. We cannot assume managers know how to coach without training. I offer a great masterclass on this topic.
Maybe your team can vote to try one of these ideas for 90 days, and then evaluate if it’s working for everyone.
Don’t try to be perfect. In fact, it’s more authentic if you are not.
Be real. Be relatable.
Check out the latest podcast talking about my new book - episode 58 published on 2/27/23: https://midlifefulfilled.com/podcast/
If you want to empower your people to do their best work and reduce burnout, let’s talk!