How to be Authentic in Your Workplace – Authenticity is the need of the hour at any Workplace. Consider Apple, it has ingrained some of the most valuable, genius leaders in the marketplace. It was Steve Jobs who had ingrained such values within himself that he was the most forward looking, innovative and creative and genius minds which catered to the needs of the World market very well. Steve Jobs has been never hesitating to admit his failures. He has very well spoken of that it’s something you need to believe in yourself. Be it your gut, destiny or any other factor. He dropped out from university stating he didn’t knew what he was doing and indeed wasting his parents hard earned money into something he didn’t know what he was doing all about.

Admit and Accept Your Weakness

In a world marked by leaders it’s not very authentic to not accept your weakness. It’s when the world demands you to be authentic enough to accept your weaknesses. Think and act in those thoughts which make you realize what are your sheer strengths and weaknesses. Understand your capabilities. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has clearly said that every time she used to go on a one to one feedback asking her boss Mark Zuckerberg, as to what went wrong.Why and why and where is she lacking, be it anything she was very genuine at work.If she couldn’t get a feedback about her work she would repetitively ask about the areas she needed to work on at.

What is important is to analyse those tasks which strengthen your thoughts –mark up all your strengths and weaknesses and then analyse them which makes you feel stresses, where you lost most of your energy. Where you think your skills should have been put in the right direction, it’s one of the best things –to keep asking your bosses to rate you to analyse your weak zones and work really hard on them.

But also remember, being authentic is important but it does not mean you need to be transparent. Indeed, there needs to be a balance between being personal and professional at workplace.

A very beautiful Oscar Wilde quote quotes it well –“to be yourself anywhere and everywhere.” Pay attention at how you speak, your body language, how you talk and present yourself at work which is again very important at work. Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Identify where you want to go in life. Identify your career goals…Why don’t you ask your colleagues what kind of image you are portraying about yourself and what are your strengths and weaknesses they see within you. This will help you also to set the right career goals and identify the hidden potential within you.

Keep a check on what you say and keep a note of what you portray before others

Try to keep confidential matters to yourself. Be very particular about what you share with others. In office matters, in case if you want to speak up anything, you can practice writing it and then portraying what you want to say or deliver to others. It is in itself the right practice to first prepare yourself because sometimes some wrong words can really portray a very bad image about ourselves. Thus, it is very important to speak the right words at the right time. In office, your colleagues might be having some personal problems. Articulate your thoughts in the best way such that however you think just does not come out in words as it is. Let it come out in a more graceful and better way and form of communication.

Be Postive

Be positive is another great way to being authentic. Many a times things might not turn out to be very much you want. So try to be positive. Build a positive work environment around yourself, encourage your colleagues and employees and help all to feel better. Work environment should always be positive. If the employees anyhow feel that the company is making losses, they might turn into job hoppers. Take a moment to understand what others have to say. Do not speak ill of other’s at workplace as this might hinder their trust upon you.

They might not like to share any information about themselves in near future, thinking that you will spread ill about them. Think once before you put out your words, it’s very important you are conscious about your actions. Why to speak about stories which you are unsure of. Remember making stories, rumour, and grapevine can hinder conversations at workplace. A workplace can be badly affected by negative vibes if you and your employees feel demotivated due to negative thoughts and comments at workplace.

These some steps if taken cared of can really make you a professional and an authentic leader.

Measure and weigh before you speak

It’s very important to think before you comment. Your employees need to feel that ambience to give yield to higher productivity and performance at work. Avoid speaking about others. This might violate the trust within employees and among themselves even. Ask yourself, are you speaking right? Is it really important to speak about your colleague or friend? Is it really worth speaking? Are you on the right track …This kind of behaviour can be misleading? It can direct you in the wrong direction.

But being transparent is not the key to it all. Remember you need to be good enough, down to earth, be yourself, do not portray a false image, be who you are, be genuine with friend and colleagues, talk to them and share their problems and ventures together but do not be transparent. Especially to those who are holding management positions, be as you are, genuine, helpful, accessible and kind but don’t be harsh and rude and transparent –keep a distance between your personal and professional lives…

Here are some tips also as to why one should not be yourself at work. Maybe it’s important to portray an image people can trust on. Portray a sincere punctual and a hard working employee image –that’s very important in today’s age. Herminia Ibara speaks –Act like a Leader and be like a Leader. Leadership is very strongly correlated to Authenticity.

6 Best Steps to Be Authentic in Your Workplace.

1. You might lose that credibility and trust of employees

It’s very important. If you try to be yourself, true and transparent you might lose that trust and credibility of your colleagues who might feel offended to trust you. It’s very important you do not flaunt upon your weaknesses before colleagues. Maintain a thin line of distance between them. It’s very important to let them see you as a leader and a manager at work.

2. You can be mistaken

If you act out to be chilled out and cool at work, you might get mistaken that you are not a true leader and that you lack those very important leadership skills and traits very much needed for a manager at work.

3. Leadership is about taking initiatives

It’s the great leaders who never hold themselves back. It’s about taking the right decisions at the right time. This is again very important part of a leader. To never hesitate to take up challenges. You might end up taking wrong decisions if you be yourself. You might take bad and poor decisions which guide you in the wrong way because you portray an image of over authenticity and over rigidness and show that you possess the traits of a manager while you actually do not have.

4. Therefore it is very important to take the right decisions

Sometimes we end up taking bad poor decisions trying to be all the more authentic at work! Avoid ineffectiveness. It’s ok to be late at work at least you are not fake…be real and true to yourself. People have stressed on the importance of adaptive authenticity to be right term for leadership training. Authenticity is not a cover to cover up bad feedback. The attitude of not accepting bad feedback can lead to step up the ladder of success. So one needs to take that initiative a change of mind set and thoughts is so very important for you to decide upon where your performance is going weak and where you actually need to improve upon.

5. Do not disclose everything and anything you feel

Generally your employees will not trust you if you speak out your heart. Speak out your heart before friends and relatives not among employees and colleagues.

6. Leaders respond differently to work pressure

It is very different and important to form first impressions. Its’ your personality which matters in top leadership roles which takes all the way you go… Being authentic doesn’t mean to get transparent but in a way to keep some distance and gap between personal and professional life. Maintaining a right balance between how you speak, what you seek is very important. Carrying yourself aptly is also very important. A right body language is what companies look forward to in a manager. Do not make yourself vulnerable which can harm your position at work.

Following out these steps can help an unauthentic person turn out authentic. Authenticity is the step to right sense of leadership. All leaders are authentic and practicing these basic etiquettes and behavioural pattern at work, helps one to turn into a great leader indeed. Oversharing can at times be a double edged sword. Let’s take the example of Mitch, from the department of U.S University. He was the one for negotiating with other research institutions.

In an interview he clearly stated that last time he didn’t get a call and was so- so very excited to get the call this time. Being so genuine in an interview is not appreciated and thus it resulted in a rejection and no deal was made indeed. Do not make the interviewer have pity on you. You are a skilful employee and behave so well that you don’t need any pity indeed. And this brings about the major key things to keep in mind while handling authenticity at workplace.

Self-awareness is the first step to authenticity. Its understanding yourself-your strengths and weaknesses which stands out being important, communication and self-portray is important to express yourself before your colleagues. Communication is the key to great leaders in the marketplace.

Leaders reveal opinions that are clueless. If your colleagues do not match the right trust in you think is it that you lack sheer authenticity at work. A team oriented manager is also very important at work. People don’t like you if you are over directive and give your opinion out in everything you speak out. You need to care about every one’s opinions. In cross cultural organizations, roger a partner in MNC’s to boost up the market share has turned out to be a true authentic leader. Never show upon your weaknesses, this can hinder your performance at work. It’s the Bumblers who have better opinions of how and what type they portray of themselves, body language, physique, gesture, communication skills etc.

Through this article we have portrayed areal image of how and what key skills are important for a leading leader in business and how authenticity is all about first rediscovering one’s own strengths and weaknesses. It’s what you rediscover in yourself to know which are the areas you lack upon and where you exactly need to build upon your skillsets. You can now better understand what and how to portray your image before your colleagues and how you can improve upon them in the workplace efficiently.

So be an authentic leader, a true leader and propagate the right work culture at the workplace and encourage happy and empowered employees at the workplace. This will help to increase employee retention and decrease job hoppers from changing jobs and switching workplaces due to dissatisfied job profiles and workplace cultures.

“A true leader doesn’t create followers –they create more leaders”

 — Anonymous

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