

Think about a leader you’ve respected or the person who had the biggest impact on you personally. If you have important issues to talk about and work through, consider hiring a professional. And above all, don’t use people at work to process your stuff. Don’t confuse authenticity with blurting things out or having no filter. Your employees are not your family or your closest friends. Why am I talking?” Not everything has to be said, especially at work. Before you openly share something, think, “WAIT. Admitting mistakes will earn you more trust from people, not less.ĥ. Say, “I’m sorry, I screwed up.” I don't know why this one is such a toughie, but it seems to be. The dismantling of my “perfection act” gave my team an opening to step up and be proficient in areas where I’m not. I started doing more of this and it was liberating for both me and my team. Several years ago, a dear friend challenged me to share with my team more authentically, to talk about the things I was unsure or confused about. As a result, I used to be anxious and fret about all kinds of things. Being a leader isn’t about always being polished or perfect.īecause I’m pretty organized, it can sometimes look like I’m “perfect.” But on the inside, I don’t always feel like I have it together at all. You can complete the list of synonyms of keep it real given by the English Thesaurus dictionary with other English dictionaries: Wikipedia, Lexilogos, Oxford, Cambridge, Chambers Harrap, Wordreference, Collins Lexibase dictionaries, Merriam Webster. Stop trying to look like you’ve got it all together all the time. Search keep it real and thousands of other words in English definition and synonym dictionary from Reverso. The challenge with many managers is that they were trained in “active listening,” which is where you lean in, make eye contact and say “yes” and “uh huh.” But are you really listening? Or is your mind making your to-do list? When my daughter was nine years old, she called this "fake listening." Stop, really listen and share what you’ve heard the other person saying.ģ.

But really look to see if you are limiting communication because you are too busy or too guarded, and consider who needs to know what.Ģ. Of course, there are limits to what can be shared in some circumstances. You’ll get more buy-in by being transparent about why a decision was made, and in a world of Freedom of Information Acts, WikiLeaks and social media, the age of corporate secrets is over anyway. Share as much as you can to help your team be prepared for what’s coming next. To get started, here are five ways to be more authentic as a leader at work:ġ. It’s the first step in fostering a culture where employees can be their true selves at work. As Boute explains, the findings showed that authentic employees had “significantly higher job satisfaction and engagement, greater happiness at work, a stronger sense of community, more inspiration and lower job stress…The more of themselves that people shared with others, the better their workplace experience.”Ĭonsidering that highly engaged employees will go the extra mile to strengthen your competitive advantage, being more authentic as a leader is critical.
