Why Authenticity Matters in New Leadership

Why and why can showing ourselves as we are help us to be better leaders?

The best way to achieve trust has to do with the transparency that we can show within our teams and with the people around us.

The value of trust is one of the most important attributes when it comes to managing authentic leadership that puts long-term human relationships at the center.

The leaders who achieve results are those who awaken their inner being and manifest it in their daily activities; Through this process, they generate and maintain a high level of self-confidence, and inspire that same is mutual among the members of a team .

However, many of them continue to ignore the powerful tool that authenticity represents in the management of these teams , perhaps because they carry old leadership models where verticalism did not allow a sincere expression of who each person is.

As authenticity is a fundamental value, it is relevant to work on it within teams, enhancing the advantages for everyone of being more and more genuine and trustworthy.

People bond with others for whom we feel respect and admiration. These relationships are more fluid than those with whom we do not feel a certain identification.

Respect and admiration are two of the qualities that will have the most impact on teams, and they are precisely related to that degree of human bond that develops every day with those around you.

Leaders as agents of change for their teams

Another of the great attributes of leaders is that they can help others to develop skills that until then they did not know they had. This transfer of self-discovery and own skills put at the service of others, is strategic for the development of each member

For example, it is necessary to work hand in hand to improve the good management of intra- and extra-personal communication, conflict management and the basic technical skills that you already have, planting seeds so that they germinate in other people.

These kinds of leadership qualities develop alongside all the other skills that a good leader has.

So, you first need to have them and then transfer them, because it is not possible to lead if you have not learned to lead yourself beforehand.

How to develop authenticity in yourself and others

Authenticity is the glue that binds people together. When they perceive you in this way, the approaches are more spontaneous, they solidify over time and can build a greater energy to carry out common purposes, visions and projects.

In order to help develop authenticity in other people, it is important that others perceive you as a person of value, trustworthy, that you know how to listen empathically and that you have enough open-mindedness to respect opinions different from yours.

Authenticity is an element that serves as a social lubricant in achieving common goals. The more you exercise it, the more confidence you will project; And if, in addition, you lead with humility, people will come to you for advice or opinions due to this human warmth that they will see in total transparency.

Here are 10 tips to develop authenticity starting with yourself, and to awaken it in others:

1. Be precise in your words and empathetic in your listening.
2. Don’t make judgments without valuing other people’s point of view.
3. Avoid contradicting yourself and seek consistency in everything you do.
4. Avoid lying and tell the truth assertively, even if it requires your firmness and character.
5. Take professional coaching often.
6. It cultivates and encourages basic human values such as respect, self-control, ethics, solidarity and altruism, among others.
7. Practice presence in mind, body and being, connected with each person and in each exchange you have.
8. Maintain an ethical stance in accordance with your values, aligned with those of the project you represent.
9. Practice vulnerability: it is okay to say “I don’t know” or to have doubts; Take advantage of what you detect to focus on your continuous improvement.
10. Hold the energy of serenity and calm in times of crisis and challenge. Be a beacon.

A humble leader is an authentic leader

It is not about thinking of authenticity as a way of being in the world where only you are right and everyone else is wrong as if they were traitors to their own ideas. Each person leads in their own way.

Authenticity has to do with acting according to your ideas, beliefs, purposes and experiences, while respecting those of others and your own coherence between what you think, say, feel and do. Even if your incoherence appears at some point you can connect with wisdom, which is expressed there in accepting it as part of the human condition.

For all this, being authentic leaders constitutes a rising value to lead teams.

Authenticity is a way of being and living that permanently adds value, and that also allows you to put a stamp of your style on everything you do. This is what very often makes you unforgettable: you will have left your legacy in the hearts and experiences of each person you have come across.

Original Article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/382865