Cultivating Authenticity

You're here because you have already achieved some outer success and got to 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 relationship. 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 success habits and how to foster your authenticity.

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The Authentic Leader

Being authentic is a popular trait for leaders to strive for these days (alongside resilience and vulnerability).

But there are few guidelines for how to become more authentic.

Most articles say ‘just do it’ which doesn’t help at all!

See the action steps at the end of this newsletter for a tried-and-tested way to develop authenticity.

But first, let’s go deeper into why it is such a good idea.

?The Benefits of Authenticity

‘Individuals considered authentic are those who strive to align their actions with their core values and beliefs with the hope of discovering, and then acting in sync with, their true selves.’ - Psychology Today

When you are authentic, you are congruent with your core values and beliefs.

It feels good to operate from your core values, because by definition these are what you value most of all.

You feel satisfied?with your choices and decisions and enjoy your work more in general.

There is also a sense of ease, and flow, when you’re being authentic.

Decisions are easier to make because you don’t have to expend precious brain energy in deciding what to do; your core values are your guiding principles.

Practically, this means you make faster decisions with less energy, which makes for efficiency, productivity and less stress.

Being Inauthentic

And what about inauthenticity?

What happens when you are not operating authentically or your work culture isn’t aligned to your values?

‘When people act in ways that violate their self-concept, they may experience negative feelings, ranging from mild discomfort to heavy guilt.’ - Psychology Today

Let’s put some scientific data behind this statement.

In 2021, Arianna Prudenzi and her colleagues published a paper on wellbeing and burnout at work. Their study included measuring the influence of not acting in alignment with your values.

They showed that psychological distress increased by 12% and physical fatigue increased by 10%.

Inauthentic behaviour will therefore disturb and distract you, exhaust you and so increase your risk of burnout.

Developing?authenticity is definitely a power tool for your own high performance.

?Authenticity and Leadership

Your authenticity helps your team too.

Sound decision making

Authenticity means that you make good decisions quickly being clear about your values and opinions and being comfortable sharing them.

Your responses and decisions are also more predictable, which creates a more psychologically-safe environment for your team.

This in turn improves their neuro-regulation and their ability to operate at high-performance levels.

In contrast, if you’ve ever had a mercurial boss, then you’ll know how stressful that can be!

Trustworthiness

Your authenticity makes it easy for your team to trust you with your genuine sense of honesty and openness.

Your body language, tone of voice and micro-expressions communicate your inner alignment.

These are unconscious signals that we give off, and the others pick up on even at a subliminal level.

And, of course, a team that trusts?you will follow you well.

Setting the tone

The culture you create in your team is influenced by what you tolerate and what you demonstrate.

When you are authentic, your example encourages your team to be authentic. This reduces psychological distress and fatigue, as we have seen, and creates a positive high-performance working environment.

This can also make them comfortable to flag potential problems or creative solutions quickly.

Motivation

Working authentically mean you have more energy and enjoyment in what you do.

Your enjoyment of your work and challenges is contagious, and your passion energises your team.

Responsiveness

When you are in tune with your values, you start to develop more self-acceptance.

This can mean you don’t jump to angry or fearful reactiveness when challenged.

Instead you respond with emotional intelligence, creating a positive, balanced atmosphere.

Self-acceptance is the best high-performance power tool there is, and being authentic is a good step in that?direction.

?Growth-focus

Your self-awareness of your values and your alignment with them keeps your eye on what is most important in your work.

This can make you a good mentor because you are keeping these positive values in mind as you teach this and develop the talents in your team.

The ripple effect of a congruent, consistent, value-driven leader is huge within a company’s culture.

Your positive impact and contribution are significant.

And of course, your work and career become far more satisfying and enjoyable.

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What I’ve loved (re-read!) this week:

Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg

B.J. Fogg hasn’t written ‘yet another’ book about installing great habits and routines in his book, Tiny Habits.

It’s different because he has based it on his solid research into the neuroscience behind creating success habits.

I always like to know why a particular approach works, not just what to do, as it gives me more confidence that I can achieve the promised results.

Besides the neuroscience, I like the detailed step-by-step process that allows you to select a new success activity and then make it habitual.

The secret of the process is making your new habit so easy to achieve that it doesn’t create any internal resistance to change.

Then linking it to another routine, so that your brain does not need to work harder to remember your new habit.

This is a remarkable book, and if you follow the instructions you’ll likely be as surprised and delighted as I was with the results.

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An action step you can do today…

Developing Authenticity

This will take you just one minute each morning for the next 10 days and create alignment to your core values.

Forget everything that you've ever done to find your 'top three values' - that's not what this exercise is about. Our values shift as our lives change; what is most important to you today can be subtly different from yesterday.

Soon after you wake up, ask yourself what is a deep, inner value at this moment.

Name it. Say the word. Roll it around in your mind.

Feel into what this value means to you and what it looks like to you for a minute.

Then get up and go about your day.

You have primed your brain’s Reticular Activating System to pay attention to that value in your day-to-day life.

If the value that you've chosen for that day is, for example, kindness, you might find yourself being kinder.

You might recognise kindness in other people more. You will make your decisions with this value in mind naturally.

Since you're paying more attention to that value, your thoughts and actions will reflect that value more.

This surprisingly simple exercise makes you more authentic and congruent with your core values.

* This exercise is given to MBA students at Loyola Marymount University, LA, from ‘Words Can Change Your Brain’ by Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman.

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Growth opportunity…

I’m trialling a new form of the transformational Inner Success programme at the end of the year.

The five days between Christmas and New Year create a perfect window for rapid personal and professional growth.

If your office is closed and your commitments are few over this ‘Twixmas’ time, and you want to take a massive leap forward for 2022, then email me [email protected] for details.

For this you must;

- have 3 flexible hours per day available December 27th to 31st

- be open and coachable one-to-one

- be ready for a big positive change for 2022

The Inner Success for Execs programme is the fastest and most effective solution to imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome is self-doubt and secretly feeling like a fraud, when you’re not.

It affects 70% of high-achievers, men and women equally.

It is not a personality trait or flaw, and you can get rid if it for good.

You don’t need to suffer the misery it causes.

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We'll cover more on creating success habits for high-performance in future issues.

Do subscribe and share!

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

https://www.completesuccess.co.uk

Think you may have imposter syndrome? Take this free quiz to find out:

https://bit.ly/ImpostorQuiz

Want to fast-track and have a chat about your inner success, book a quick 15-minute call here:

https://bit.ly/callTara

Have an excellent, refreshing and recharging weekend!

Tara

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