“Imagine if we could all show up in more, if not all, places in life fully ourselves – that we could fully open ourselves to learning, making mistakes, taking feedback, taking risks, and be being fully seen for our humanity and our potential without the fear of embarrassment or retribution.”
Move from socially defined to self-authored
Have you ever felt that internal tug-of-war where you yearn to bring your whole self to a situation – but you hold yourself back? Perhaps you self-impose guidelines for how you “should” speak and act in your organization?
Endeavoring to live with authenticity often causes internal conflict. We suffer when we constantly try to become what (we assume) others expect of us. As a result, we have less energy to innovate, improve and positively impact stakeholders. We end up with a decreased sense of well-being and satisfaction with work and life.
Ultimately, we want to live and lead in a way that exemplifies what’s most important to us.
To help you ground and elevate your authenticity, I share:
-What it means to live and lead with authenticity and be “self-authored”
-The cost incurred when we don’t fully show up as ourselves
-5 practices to help create more authenticity
Image management hogs organizational resources
[03:05] “In an ordinary organization, most people are doing a second job no one is paying them for … spending time and energy covering up their weaknesses, managing other people’s impressions of them, showing themselves to their best advantage, playing politics, hiding their inadequacies, hiding their uncertainties, hiding their limitations. We regard this as the single biggest loss of resources that organizations suffer every day.”
– From An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Harvard Professors Bog Kegan and Lisa Lahey
When we’re inauthentic, we suffer
[04:55] “Jesus said, ‘If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.’” – From the Gospel of Thomas
The result of authenticity? Vitality
[16:13] “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman, author, philosopher and theologian”.
“An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization” by Harvard Professors Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey: https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781625278623
Self-Authoring mind: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/01/27/what-having-a-self-authoring-mind-means/?sh=51a3a1953b77
The Gospel of Thomas:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/thomas.html
Howard Thurman:
https://www.bu.edu/thurman/about-us/who-is-howard-thurman/
StrengthsFinder; CliftonStrengths: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/01/27/what-having-a-self-authoring-mind-means/?sh=51a3a1953b77
Owning Your Value | Key Elements for Authenticity & Personal Power: www.rise-leaders.com/podcast Episode 21
A Guide for Owning Your Value: https://mailchi.mp/d37649fa5f04/own-your-value
Article: Authentic Leadership: https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-is-authentic-leadership2004.html#close
Rise Leaders YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKZAhRU1iLsXYwpvCECVreg
Insight Meditation App (search for body scans that work for you) https://insighttimer.com/
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