Welcome to Week 42 of the Authenticity@Work Leadership Tool-kit! My intention for this series is to share a quick tool each week to help you lead with more authenticity, adaptability and inspiration so we can together create workplaces where we bring the best of ourselves and inspire others. So grab a journal and an accountability partner to make these practices even more powerful for you!
In last week’s post we talked about what courage is and facing the dragon. Did you identify times in your life where you have been courageous?
If you’re like me, your mind makes up assumptions about yourself, others, and the world as a way to have the “rules of the game” to survive. These are called mental models. It is our personal story about the way the world works, and it’s mostly fairly useful. The problem happens when we believe that our way of seeing the world is the truth about how the world really is. Then we get knocked down by people and situations that don’t fit into our mental model and we are forced to confront the truth. This requires tremendous courage. It is said that “the truth sets you free.” Just recognize it may at first cause you to get really angry!
It takes enormous courage to seek and see the truth of what’s really going on. We make assumptions about our “goodness,” about others, and about the world mostly as a way to cope and feel safe. It’s important to have courage to reexamine the assumptions we carry as leaders so we can adapt more skillfully, pursue dreams important to us, and act from a place of greater authenticity and choice rather than our habitual patterns.
This Week’s Tool:
It takes courage, but ask yourself the following: Who am I being in this moment? What assumptions am I making in this situation? What am I avoiding looking at in my career and life right now?
Seek out feedback from trusted advisors and mentors.
Learn how to give feedback to others, always asking for their permission first. Do it in a way that it would help them see the truth without getting defensive. A great way to do this would be to practice be before do.
Get the latest resources for Authenticity@Work (this tab will get updated with all kinds of cool resources). Curious to know more about the book? Read the reviews about Wired for Authenticity here.
