3 Steps to Increase Your Authenticity

You're here because you have already achieved some outer success and reached your current executive leadership position. But growth doesn't have to stop here. There is a thrill and satisfaction in challenging yourself, stretching and seeing how much you can achieve. Have an impact and make a contribution.

The talents, skills and tools that have got you to this point will not necessarily take you further. Or the approaches you've used to achieve this success may have been expensive in terms of time, energy, stress and effect on your relationships. You need new or upgraded power tools to make sure you can sustain or advance your position more easily.

The High-Performance Executive Newsletter introduces these tools, so that you can level up, as video-gamers would say. It draws on many areas of solid research into high-performance in business, including neuroscience, psychology, physiology, trauma therapy and flow-state study.

The three essential areas for high performance are neuro-regulation (to get and stay calm), clear the negative self-talk and the beliefs that create them (including imposter syndrome), and create new success habits.

This week we're looking at developing your authenticity.

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Three Steps to Increase Your Authenticity

Recent trends on 'must-have' attributes for leaders include resilience, vulnerability and authenticity.

Endless business articles explain why leaders should be authentic.

And I agree. A leader’s authenticity creates a positive work environment in which employees and the business as a whole can thrive.

It fosters trust, employee productivity and satisfaction, and has consequences on employee retention.

But few of these articles teach you how to improve your authenticity.

Why?

Because many such articles, telling you what traits make a good leader, imply that such traits are part of your personality.

They suggest you either have it or you don’t. A fixed mindset, in the framework of Carol Dweck.

I take issue with the ‘leadership as a personality trait’ viewpoint, and instead embrace ‘leadership as a?skill.’ Well, many skills – it’s a complex role.

But all of these skills can be learned, developed and then mastered. Including authenticity.

Evidence to support my view includes the consistent transformations I see in my clients (i.e. they are not undergoing a personality change) and the neuroscience that has discovered neuroplasticity and continual brain cell renewal.

All this means we can indeed change our thoughts, beliefs and behaviour patterns.

With that change in mind, here are three practical steps that will increase your congruence.

Step 1: Self-awareness

You first need to know your values and your principles.

This is another area that people often treat as fixed. That 'find your values' exercise you did once in a training course years ago, becomes a label or a definition of who you are.

But in fact, what is important to you changes with your life experiences.

Values are transient.

Have a health scare, for example, and your health and wellbeing will quickly become important to you.

To build your awareness of your current values, try this for the next 10 days;

First thing in the morning, list your top 10 values at that moment.??Ignore what you wrote the day before. Focus on what seems most present right now.

You may have similar words day to day, such as peace, calm, and patience. That’s fine.

You may have identical words cropping up on consecutive days. That’s fine too.

However, the point is not to try and distil the common or ‘fixed’ values from these lists.

The point is to become aware that your values change over time. Even day to day.

I recommend you do this value check-in once a year. New Year works well for me.

As you become more aware of your current values, you also become more aware of whether your decisions are aligned with those values or not.

This awareness naturally (effortlessly) enhances your authenticity.

Step 2: Automatic Focus

As your values become more present in your mind, they have more influence on your thoughts, actions and decisions.

If you post your values on the wall to remind yourself, however, they soon become ‘invisible.’ ?A prompt like this works less well after only 3 days!

This is your brain filtering out static backgrounds. If information around you is unchanging, your brain downregulates its importance, and you will stop seeing it.

Your brain seems to be working against you! But it's really just being efficient.

However, you can train your brain to pay attention using your Reticular Activation System (RAS).

Your RAS is the part of your brain that draws your attention to important information.

In hunter-gatherer times, it was essential that you notice edible plants, for example.

Your RAS would spot edible plants as you were walking along, separating them out from all the other plants, and the billions of bits of information coming into your brain from your senses.

The edible plants would draw your eye or seem to jump out at you. And you?would get to eat another day.

You can use this survival mechanism to keep you aligned with your values.

That is, you can deliberately programme your RAS to pay attention to the values you want to notice and embody each day.

Start by making the list of 10 values, as in step 1 above. Then select one of those values. Just one. (More than one dilutes the effect)

Next spend two minutes focusing on this value. Roll the concept around in your mind. Imagine what that value would look like when you saw it in yourself and in others.

This focus is all it takes to inform your RAS that this value is important. You've effectively 'programmed' your RAS to be on the alert for it.

Throughout the day you will start to notice this value in others, in yourself, and remember it in decision-making.

Not because you’re forcing yourself to remember, but because your RAS is working for you automatically.

Step 3: Express Yourself Authentically

You can improve authentic self-expression by removing what’s stopping you from doing so.

If you realise you’re not talking or acting in alignment with your values, look into why.

What’s stopping you?

-??Is there a value misalignment between you and your company or colleagues?

The clearer you are on your values (step 1), the more obvious this gap will be.

If there is a big values gap, then you can choose whether you stay or move on to an environment that is better aligned with your values.

You will be more comfortable in an aligned environment, of course.

Leaving is not the only option. Staying might mean you decide to shift the work culture, and as a leader you are well-placed to have this impact.

Bear in mind that values in organisations are often what is lived or allowed, rather than planned. Proactive, positive change in work-culture benefits everyone.

-??Are you worried about what will happen if you speak up authentically?

This may be due to,?say, a toxic work culture or bullying (external source) or due to imposter syndrome (internal source).

Knowledge is power. Having identified the source?of the problem, you can then take steps to address and resolve it.

With the right internal and external environments that are aligned with your values, authentic self-expression becomes easy.

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These three steps develop your awareness of your values and the skill of thinking, acting and therefore expressing yourself more authentically.

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What I've loved this week:

?Good Business by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Good Business is an exploration of the psychology and practice of optimal experience – the flow state – from the author who wrote ‘Flow.’

In line with authenticity, the book explores leadership, flow and the making of meaning. It touches on values, purpose, fulfilment and creating happiness in a high-performing career.

Authenticity and values aligned to your company and work are a key thread through this book.

I particularly enjoyed the section on flow in organisations, because it focuses on practical, tangible ways to stimulate flow throughout the organisation.

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We'll cover more on authenticity in future issues.

Do subscribe and share!

I'm Dr Tara Halliday, Imposter Syndrome Specialist.

I've been a holistic therapist and high-performance coach for over 21 years.

I'm the creator of the premium Inner Success for Execs programme - the fastest and best solution to imposter syndrome.

My book, Unmasking: The Coach's Guide to Imposter Syndrome , was an Amazon #1 bestseller in 2018.

Check out the Inner Success for Execs programme for fast 'up levelling' of your internal leadership tools.

https://www.completesuccess.co.uk

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Have an excellent, refreshing and recharging weekend!

Tara

P.S. Thank you for reading to the end of the newsletter, I appreciate your interest and attention!

To thank you further, I have a secret gift for you …

On 29th July, I will be launching a new short course, EASE, that dials down the stress and impact of imposter syndrome. It gets fast, powerful results so that you feel lighter and calmer. It’s self-paced, personalised and 100% private - you don’t even need to talk to me!

I’m offering the first 10 people to sign up for EASE a 30% discount!

Simply email me at [email protected] ?with EASE30 in the subject line and I’ll send you the details.