Prepare Your Leadership: Authenticity In The Workplace

Hello. Hello. Happy Monday. It's noon, halfway through the day, about depending on where you are, when you start, work, when you end. But we're getting to that halfway mark of the day. If you saw the title, it's about authenticity in the workplace. I didn't know Jean was going to talk about authenticity as well. She talked about leadership authenticity. So if you haven't seen that, I suggest going back and watching the recording of that right here on the app. But I guess today might be authentic Monday.

Hi, Titan. Hi. I was just saying that Gene also talked about authenticity earlier today, about a half hour ago. I didn't know that. So if you go back, you can go back and watch hers. There's a great, great recording about her talking about authentic leadership. So I'm saying today, I'm declaring authentic Monday here on Cadre. Not anything that was planned or anything, but I guess right here at 1130 and noon, we talk about authenticity. I'll give it another minute here, where wait for some more people to show up.

Hope you had a great weekend. Got outside if the weather was nice. Got some rest if needed. Okay. Yeah. So let's talk about authenticity in the workplace. And the main reason I want to talk about it is, this weekend, around some family and friends, I started talking about authenticity in the workplace and how I'm kind of making fun of it, poking fun, where they're saying, well, if I was authentic in the workplace, I'd yell at the other people displaying my genuine emotions. And that's not what authenticity in the workplace really is.

The definition that is used in research is transparent with intentions, having a seamless link between exposed values, actions, and behaviors. So it's not about these emotions. It's instead about what are the values? Who do I want to become? Does that align with the actions that I'm taking right now? And if we don't use authenticity in the workplace, we run the risk of being self centered, being destructive, and really hurting our group or ourselves, either in tasks and projects or either in career development.

If we don't align our values and who we are with these actions that we're taking, if we're letting our emotions become the best of us, well, then who do we want to become? Those aren't aligned. We'll never really reach that full potential. And what the research did, they combined for authentic leadership. And now authenticity in the workplace is they combined a lot of different things that were being talked about with positive organizational behavior. So, grand theory of a lot of coming out of positive psychology, applying it to the workplace, they kind of brought that together with transformational leadership along with ethical leadership, combining all this to make authentic leadership.

Now. So the misconceptions I was talking about earlier, how some family is, well, authentically, I might feel, I might have felt emotion, that genuine emotion, might feel upset at a co worker, might feel upset at my followers at the moment. So genuinely, I would feel the emotion for anger, to yell or frustration, ignore, possibly. But instead, authentic leadership is not about that genuine emotion, but about who you want to become. So does that anger align with who you want to be seen as a leader, who you want to become as a professional in that area?

So it's not about expressing negative emotions, even if they're genuine. It's about leading with values when faced with negativity. And consider, would this behavior align with who I want to be seen as? It's also not about talking poorly about others or the organization. A lot of people, you know, these genuine emotions come up about how you don't feel good towards something, but it's more about constructively working around it. If there's conflict, how can I constructively manage this, that align with my values?

And lastly, it's not about being out there authoritarian. It's not about, you know, pushing everyone to the limit. If you're kind of a type a personality where you want everything to be perfect, it's not about pushing, pushing, pushing. In that case, it would be, how can I work around this to best help the people around me? So authenticity is. Requires moral maturity, thinking about what is good for my team, not what is good for myself, but what is good for my team and what is good for each of us.

There's no disparity about values and the actions that you take. And it's about being open and vulnerable. So it's pairing those vulnerabilities with goals. So we talk about how you being someone you want to become and align those values and actions with that. You have to be open and vulnerable to acknowledging those weaknesses that you have so you can improve. It's about going in advance of others when there's risk in doing so. So you're modeling that confidence, hope, optimism, that inspiration to take action.

You're being the role model that everybody can look to, because if you're saying one thing and you're doing another, well, then your actions don't align with your values or the words that you're saying. So instead it's about doing, instead of just saying. And lastly, it's having the moral capacity for issues and dilemmas. So it's exploring from all angles and seeking alternative ways of approaching them. So if you think about authenticity, a lot of the misconception is, well, just do what I feel.

But it's not. It's more about do what's needed for the team. So it's exploring what's needed. So if we want to build our authenticity in the workplace, there's a great exercise and I'll run through it. Might need a pen and paper or something to kind of write down. But first, learn from your life story. This involves making note of which people and experiences in your life had the greatest impact on you. What did you learn from them? How did they shape you and who you are? Do you share these lessons with those you lead in situations of learning?

Do you kind of pass this on? What talents and skills do you admire the most in others? So what did you admire in those people that kind of shaped you and helped you develop? And what behaviors, traits, or qualities do you want other people to admire in you? So, taking from the past, what people have, what qualities and values and traits have people displayed which you very much admire? This could be leaders, coaches. If you're in sports, teachers, parents, friends, anyone, what kind of people do you admire the most?

Second, know your authentic self. So who is your authentic self? When are the moments when you should think, this is the real me? When are you not your authentic self? What forces are influencing you to behave authentically? And how might you counter these forces? What people and tools can you utilize to strengthen the self awareness? Hi, welcome. We're just kind of wrapping up here talking about an exercise. All we can do to build our authenticity in the workplace. So the second one, know your authentic self is really acknowledging.

When do you feel the most like yourself? And this doesn't mean when am I feeling these emotions instead, authentic leadership. It's more about that self awareness and self regulation to not let emotions take us away from our authentic self. So when do you really feel truly yourself and displaying these positive values in your workplace? And then what can you do to help to build that? Are there people that you can count on, things you can do before the day starts to kind of get you grounded? Third, practice your values and your principles.

What are your most deeply held values and where did they come from? Do your core values drive your actions? Where is their alignment and misalignment? So let's really get into how do you live every single day? Do you follow your values and your goals and continue to be the person that you want to be? Or are you just kind of going with it. Fourth, is balance your extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. What motivates you extrinsically, is it like salaries, the bonuses? So extrinsic is coming from the outside.

So it's like the salaries, bonuses, promotion, getting, status, recognition. And then what are your intrinsic motivations? So the purpose that impact satisfaction. So are you balancing extrinsic and intrinsic motivations in your life? And, you know, you might not really enjoy your job. So extrinsically, you might be doing your job for the pay. But what's that pay getting you in life? Is it getting you being able for you to cook because you love to cook on the side? Maybe it's helping your family.

Maybe you can go on vacation with this pay. So, balancing and understanding where, where your motivations are coming from. Fourth, build your support team. So do you have a support team currently? How can a support team make a difference for you authentically? How could you diversify your team to broaden your perspective? So it's kind of just having an accountability partner. To say, it kind of seems like you're going off the rails a little bit, or not off the rails, but you're not like yourself today.

Just kind of have somebody to ask you questions, get to know one each other to help you both become the people that you want to be. And lastly, what talent or skill do you wish to develop in yourself? So this is that last part of authentic authenticity is becoming the person that you want to become and having those actions and values align with that. So, set clear goals, personal and professional, and take proactive steps to enhance your capabilities in areas where you see room for improvement. So it's about that growth and the self regulation to know, this is not who I want to be.

Because, again, the emotions and thoughts are different than who you are. That's just what you're experiencing at the moment. But who you are is a completely different thing. So if you can begin to self regulate those thoughts and these emotions and maybe drives that are leading you astray from who you want to be, professionally and personally, that's when you can start living with authenticity. Well, thanks. Keep it here. We got people on all day. We got JC on at 1230 talking about bold followership.

If you want to check out our whole calendar, you can check it right here on the app. So thank you for joining me and hope you have a great rest of your week. Bye.