Photo by Meredith_Farmer

A recent post by Steve Pavlina on authenticity strikes a chord in me, and prompted me to write this article. In his post, Steve talks about the importance of authenticity in what he considers good blogging.

It helps me realize the reason why I (and many others) have always enjoyed his posts. Steve is a living example of authenticity. Through his writings, I can almost feel his presence and his sincerity. He may be an expert in self improvement, but he is also very forward about his weaknesses, negative emotion and imperfection; he does not try to be Mr. Perfect. In essence, he is very human.

Ironically, such authenticity helps us to relate to Steve’s writings and his philosophies, which I believe contributed largely to his success as a blogger.

I like to extend Steve’s argument beyond blogging/writing into career and business life.

WHAT IS AUTHENTICITY?

Before that, let’s understand what authenticity is. To quote Steve,

Authenticity means being real and genuine when you communicate. Let truth be your guiding principle.

As simple as it may seemed, it is not easy to be authentic.

Firstly, authenticity requires you to know yourself as an individual; your character, purpose, likings, dislikes… what is it that you truly want to make out of your life or of the situation? Knowing oneself also includes acknowledging your weaknesses, shortcomings, negativities; things that you instinctively want to hide and hope nobody will find out.

In my experience, there’s a large number of people who don’t know themselves well enough; simply because they don’t give much thoughts to reflect inwardly and they have fear about what they will find where they look inwards.

I believe this is where self improvement comes in. Sustaining improvements has to begin from inside out; you have to change your perspectives and thinkings in order for external results to be lasting. Self improvement is the catalyst and trigger for self awareness which is necessary for this change.

At the same time, you need the courage to be yourself. This means having the maturity to accept and acknowledge your imperfections; and the strength to communicate them to the world. It means having the honesty to stand up and say, “I don’t know for sure if this will work, I don’t know everything”, yet at the same time having the courage to say “this is my take, this is how I think we should do it.”

In our world today, where the culture and media overly emphasis perfections and outstanding performances; such open, and outward expression of your own imperfections is almost suicidal.

So it leaves us that only the minority have the wisdom to be truly authentic.

THE AUTHENTICITY CHALLENGE IN CAREER.

In my working experiences, I have went through countless interviews, both as an interviewer and interviewee. It is very common to find interviewees rattling off “standard lines” which you can easily find on career sites and books. To the uninitiated, these candidates seemed positive and proactive, when actually it’s only a facade to hide their weaknesses.

To me, they just lacked the passion and conviction in their delivery. Simply because whatever they are saying is memorized and not genuinely from their heart. Any hiring manager unwise enough to hire these candidates will only find themselves with a non-supporting team when it comes to the crunch; all those positivity and pro-activeness during the interview have vanished into thin air.

In many cases, these candidates lack the amount of honesty or strength to express their shortcomings. Being an interviewee myself for many times, it seems only logical to display your best-looking facade to impress; however, too often it’s done at a price of not being real enough to connect at a deeper level with another human being. What ends up is a very superficial conversation that fails to leave an impression.

How do I know? Well, I was both such an unauthentic hiring manager, and candidate.

THE AUTHENTICITY CHALLENGE IN BUSINESS.

When it comes to business dealings, there are many forces which prevents us from being authentic. The pressures of meeting the budget, of agreeing with bosses just so that we “fit in”, or communicating half truths with clients in order to close the deal.

It is not easy. I have learned that in business, saying the wrong thing can potentially mean the difference of closing or losing a million dollar deal. The topmost concerns on businessman’s mind are cash flow, revenue and the bottom-line. It means the ability to fulfill financial liabilities and issue pay packets at the end of the month.

I’m not saying those are not valid concerns, they are; however, in such a setting, authenticity based on values like honesty, integrity, and excellence often have to take a backseat when it comes to business communications.

I have seen business discussions where the bigger company will “muscle” their way with the smaller vendors, to have things their way. As a deal with such big MNCs adds a lot of credibility to their portfolio, smaller vendors go out of their way, bend their back backwards to accommodate what is seemingly an unreasonable request; at the same time over-promising, only to under deliver later.

Sadly, lack of authenticity in business communications contradicts one tenet of business dealings: trust. What we end up with are two parties operating at the a win-lose mentality, “If you win, I lose”. Lack of trust introduces second-guessing of intentions and redirects the business focus from mutual benefits to defending one’s interest.

AUTHENTICITY IN CAREER AND BUSINESS.

When done correctly, authenticity can be very disarming. You foster trust by lowering your own defenses. It enables us to connect as humans. It’s like saying “I am not afraid of being open about myself, because I trust that you will respect my position, whether you agree with me or not.”

I have seen varying degrees of authenticity with other people at work and in business. Taking a quick review, I’d realized that the people that I trust and depend on are those who tend to practice authenticity. This is a very powerful trust-building concept that springboards the effectiveness of the individual and group to a totally different level.

I remember one interview session, when I practiced authenticity and was very forward about my lack of track records for the position I was applying for. It was a very open conversation about both our needs, my strength, weaknesses and experiences; it was obvious that both the interviewer and myself enjoyed the session very much. At the end, I was not offered the position I applied for; but I was offered another position which is equally attractive, if not more.

At my current workplace, I am glad to say that I am working with an authentic team. For each business opportunity that we have, we constantly ask ourselves what are the mutual benefits for both parties. What is the value that we can deliver vis-a-vis what the client needs? Is there a need that we cannot deliver upon? In some cases, we are prepared to walk away from an opportunity that does not offer a win-win deal. This seemingly counter-intuitive approach, actually helps us to build trust and long-term business relationships with our clients.

THE ROAD TO AUTHENTICITY.

Having this blog is a great exercise of authenticity for me. A public blog as this implies exposing my views, opinions, philosophies to the scrutiny and judgment of all the readers like yourself. It is quite a scary thought, at times.

The implicit pressure to be positive, and knowledgeable often get in the way of being a good writer, a good self developer. There’s this constant temptation to present myself as “Mr. Know-It-All”, and “Mr. Positive”, as if I am never down or negative. I just attended Anthony Robbin’s “Unlimited Power” recently; sometimes, I wonder if Anthony Robbins is always all hyped up like he appears to be on stage. My conclusion from this is a resounding “No”.

I’m glad I have started this blog, and started this road to authenticity. As I advocate my philosophies on self development through this channel, I grow in awareness of my shortcomings. Through this awareness and my writings creates a drive to constantly improve myself, so that I “walk the talk”.

Only in such a way can I be authentic as I continue on the long, long road of learning, growth and blogging.

So my friend, have you been authentic and true to yourself lately?

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