Updated June 15, 2023
How to Be Authentic and Genuine in Your Workplace?
In this Topic, we are discussing being Authentic And Genuine. 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 infused such values within himself that he was the most forward-looking, innovative, creative, and genius mind, which catered to the needs of the World market very well. Steve Jobs has never hesitated to admit his failures. He dropped out of the university, stating he didn’t know what he was doing and, indeed, wasting his parents’ hard-earned money on something he didn’t know what he was doing all about.
Admit and Accept Your Weakness to be Authentic And Genuine
In a world marked by leaders, it’s not very authentic and genuine to not accept your weakness. It’s when the world demands you to be authentic and genuine enough to accept your shortcomings. Think and act in those thoughts that make you realize your strengths and weaknesses. Understand your capabilities. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said she used to go on one-to-one feedback asking her boss, Mark Zuckerberg, what went wrong. Be it anything, she was very authentic and genuine at work. If she couldn’t get feedback about her career, she would repetitively ask about the areas she needed to work on.
It is important to analyze those tasks that strengthen your thoughts –mark up all your strengths and weaknesses and then analyze them, which makes you feel stressed and lose most of your energy.
But also remember, being authentic and genuine is important, but it does not mean you need to be transparent. Indeed, there must be a balance between personal and professional at the workplace.
A very beautiful Oscar Wilde quote quotes it well –”to be yourself anywhere and everywhere.” Pay attention to how you speak, your body language, and how you present yourself with confidence at work, which is very important. Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Where do you want to go in life? Identify your ultimate career goals… Why don’t you ask your colleagues what image you are portraying about yourself and what strengths and weaknesses they see within you? This activity will help you set career goals and identify your hidden potential.
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. If you want to speak up about anything, practice writing it and then portray what you want to say or deliver to others. Preparing yourself is a good practice because sometimes some wrong words can display a bad image of ourselves. Thus, speaking the right words at the right time is very important. In the 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.
Be Positive to be Authentic And Genuine
Being positive is another great way of being authentic and genuine. Things may not be as much as you want. So try to be positive. Build a healthy work environment around yourself, encourage your colleagues and employees, and help everyone feel better. The work environment should always be positive. If the employees feel that the company is making losses, they might become job hoppers. Take a moment to understand what others have to say. Do not speak ill of others at the workplace, as this might hinder their trust in you.
They might not like sharing information about themselves soon, thinking you will spread ill about them. Think once before you put out your words. You must be conscious of your actions. Why speak about stories which you are unsure of? Remember making stories, rumors, and grapevine can hinder conversations at the workplace. A workplace can be badly affected by negative vibes if you and your employees feel demotivated due to negative thoughts and comments in the workplace.
These steps can make you a professional and authentic leader if taken care of.
Measure and weigh before you speak
It’s very important to think before you comment. Your employees need to feel that ambiance to yield higher productivity and performance at work. Avoid speaking about others, which might even violate the trust of employees and themselves. Ask yourself, are you saying right? Is it really important to talk about your colleague or friend? Is it worth speaking about? Are you on the right track/ This kind of behavior 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, not portray a false image, be who you are, be genuine with friends and colleagues, talk to them, and share their problems and ventures but do not be transparent. Don’t be harsh, rude, and fine –keep a distance between your personal and professional lives. Especially to those who are holding management positions, be as you are, genuine, helpful, accessible, and kind.
Here are some tips on why one should not be yourself at work. It’s important to portray an image people can trust. Portray a sincere, punctual, hard-working employee image –that’s very important today. Herminia Ibara speaks –Act Like a Leader and Be Like a Leader. Leadership is a very strong correlation with authenticity.
6 Best Steps to be Authentic and Genuine in the Workplace
1. You might lose the credibility and trust of employees
It’s very important. If you try to be yourself, true, and transparent, you might lose the trust and credibility of your colleagues, who might feel offended to trust you. You mustn’t flaunt your weaknesses before your colleagues. Maintain a thin line of distance between them. Letting them see you as a leader and a manager is very important.
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 lack those very important leadership skills and traits needed for a manager.
3. Leadership is about taking initiatives
It’s the great leaders who never hold themselves back. It’s about making the right decisions at the right time. It is, again, a very important part of a leader. Never hesitate to take up challenges. You might make wrong decisions if you are yourself. You might make bad and poor decisions that 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 you do not have.
4. Make the right decisions
Avoid ineffectiveness. Sometimes we make bad poor decisions trying to be all the more authentic and genuine at work! It’s ok to be late for work. At least you are not fake. Be real and true to yourself. People have stressed the importance of adaptive authenticity as the right term for leadership training. Authenticity is not a cover to cover up the negative feedback process. The attitude of not accepting bad feedback can lead to a step up the ladder of success. So one needs to take that initiative. Changing your mindset and thoughts is very important for deciding where your performance is weak and where you actually need to improve.
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. Your personality matters in top leadership roles. Maintaining the right balance between how you speak and what you seek is very important. Carrying yourself is also very important. The right body language is what companies look forward to in a manager. Do not make yourself vulnerable, which can harm your position at work.
Authenticity is the step to a good sense of leadership. All leaders are authentic and genuine, and practicing their basic etiquette and behavioral pattern at work helps one become a great leader. Following these steps can help an unauthentic person turn out authentic.
Oversharing can, at times, be a double-edged sword. Do not make the interviewer pity you. You are a skillful employee and behave so well that you don’t need sympathy. And this brings about the key things to remember while handling authenticity at the workplace.
Self-awareness is the first step to authenticity. It helps you understand your strengths and weaknesses, which are important. Communication and self-image are important to express yourself before your colleagues. Communication is the key to great leaders in the marketplace.
Leaders reveal clueless opinions. A team-oriented manager is also very important at work. People don’t like you if you are over-directive and give your idea out in everything you speak. You need to care about everyone’s opinions. Never show your weaknesses. It can hinder your performance at work. It’s the Bumblers who have better views on how and what type they portray of themselves, body language skills, physique, gesture, communication skills, etc.
Conclusion
Through this article, we have portrayed an 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 strengths and weaknesses. 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 effectively. It’s what you rediscover in yourself to know which areas you lack and where you need to build upon your skillsets.
To be an authentic quality leader, a true leader propagates the right workplace culture and encourages happy and empowered employees. It will help to increase employee retention and decrease job hopping 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.”
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