Leading with Authenticity: Building Confidence to Make a Meaningful Difference
For both the people manager and individual contributors, working cross-functionally across teams is a fact of daily work life. All in the space of a day we can go from participating in client discovery sessions, doing technical reviews, and contributing to internal workshops, stand-ups, and scrums. For many of us, especially in technology-related roles, we have moved from a purely doing job description to roles that require more of our time to be focused on how we work together to get things done.
This article will share ideas about leading with authenticity and some thoughts about how we can go about building confidence to make a meaningful difference.
In summary, these are:
- Observing oneself without judgment.
- Being transparent to build trust.
- Balancing and evaluating information from different sources.
Watch to see these in action, or read on.
Scroll down for comments. Feel very welcome to share your thoughts with a comment and join me to help keep the conversation going.
What you just watched.
On a scale of frequently, occasionally, or never - how much of your time is spent collaboratively working with other people?
If you answered never, then congratulations you can stop reading now because this article contains a discussion that will be of interest only to those people who spend time organising with others how to get the work done.
The concept of we are all leading together is clear in the results of the Stack Overflow Developer Survey of 2022. Where in the productivity impacts section the question "I have interactions with people outside of my team" when finding knowledge and information within the organisation is the only standout difference between people manager versus individual contributor.
Read on for some ideas about leading with authenticity and for thoughts about building confidence to make a meaningful difference.
Yes or no - would you TRUST this person?
If you are an authentic person where trust is important then most likely you will have said NO.
And, conversely, if you are that type of person who thrives in fakeness and you said YES then once again - stop reading now as the rest of this article will be of no interest.
Our individual authenticity is an integral part of who we are and our way of being and can be witnessed by others in our character, values, and preferences.
Authenticity is not a leadership skill, but rather flows from our willingness to be authentically mindful in the moment.
When you observe a person that is acting authentically mindfully in the moment you will witness these traits:
- Observing oneself without judgment - in practice, an authentically mindful person will observe how they feel about their emotional reactions to what is happening and will not automatically give in to social anxieties. Most likely you will see this person performing well under pressure.
- Being transparent to build trust - explaining how we feel warts and all show that we have confidence in who we are, this shows to others that the workplace can be considered to be a safe place to share concerns and ideas. Most likely you will see this type of person respected by others.
- Balancing and evaluating information from different sources - just like observing oneself, we should also observe others without judgment. As we really listen, we are able to better understand any underlying needs that may require attention. Most likely you will see this person asking others for their thoughts and having a measured approach for what to do next.
Let's put these concepts into action in a very simple story.
You are on a project and the deadline is quickly approaching for the product/campaign/app launch, there has been feature creep with no consideration for the effort required to get all the extra work done and it is expected by the team that the project will launch with issues.
Can this be turned around? most likely no. You have promised delivery so you are just going to have to hope for a miracle, renegotiate delivery or even fake it to deliver what was promised.
How to fix this situation, start the conversation much earlier with everyone, both internal and external to the project with the following considerations:
- Whilst observing ourselves without judgment - be mindful of who we are serving when we make the delivery promises. Are we committing on behalf of the team, or is it our personal ego that we are serving when we make a team delivery commitment?
- Transparency and trust - talking the problem through and asking others to share their thoughts allows the team as a whole to meet the challenge. This is especially important early in the project when expectations and ways of working are getting established.
- Balance and evaluate - really listening to what is shared by the team so that all the ideas about how to do what is required are surfaced and considered.
How do you feel when you are really listened to?
Why is the question about how do you feel when you are really listened to important? because if this is the way you feel when you are listened to, then by really listening you are going to empower others with these feelings too.
To wrap up, share a comment about an experience that you have had when the team has listened to really make a difference.
In this article, we have shared ideas about leading with authenticity and some thoughts about how we can go about building confidence to make a meaningful difference.
In summary, these were:
- Observing oneself without judgment.
- Being transparent to build trust.
- Balancing and evaluating information from different sources.
Join me and help keep the conversation going, share your thoughts with a comment.