Workplaces are Fake. Why Authenticity is the Ultimate Leadership Trait :)

Workplaces are fake.

Employees are afraid of speaking up because they fear losing their job.

Company politics is exactly this:

"I'm going to tell you what you want to hear, not what a really believe."

And you see it, all the time.

Could you imagine doing that anywhere else in your life?!Literally disagreeing 100% with something yet just nodding your head in agreement? Scared out of your mind to disagree. To have an original (different) thought.

It's utterly ridiculous.

You don't do that at home with your family. You don't do that at the bar with your friends. But at work, you feel the need to be fake. You can't say what is truly on your mind.

Guys, its SO BAD out there, that we have to teach our new employees that it's okay to say what's on their mind. If they come straight from college, it's usually okay...because they aren't already sick with the FAKE virus.

But, most of our new employees have worked at companies where their soul has already been crushed. They are not allowed to speak their mind. It's like trying to un-learn how to ride a bike. It's impossible. They hold this fear in them forever. It's always in the back of their mind, fearful from a past workplace experience.

So where does this come from?

It comes from the top. Always from the top.

Here's my point.

If you run a company, division, branch....the most important thing I want to stress to you is this...AUTHENTICITY IS EVERYTHING.

You don't need to be God. You don't need to have all the answers. It's okay to be wrong. It's okay to make huge mistakes.

JUST. BE. FREAKING. REAL.

LET DOWN THE DRAWBRIDGE.

Let people in.

This whole wall of perfection you have built around your excellence is not needed. It hurts your leadership capabilities, and it hurts the organization.

When you let down the drawbridge and let people in, they see the humanity.

By the way, it's okay that you are like this. I was too! I thought I had to be some huge bigger than life CEO figure. MY ideas! My opinion! My decisions! MY! MY! MY! American culture has built executive leaders into these superior and all-knowing beings. You see it in the movies. You see it on TV. You see it when you watch CNBC. But it's WRONG.

Great companies are built through conversations. Its the back and forth. It's the dialogue. It's the "I have no clue what we should do, what do you guys think?"

It's not me. It's us.

The team. I'm good at this. You're good at that. Together we can make something pretty special. Alone? Not so much.

When we are real, raw, and authentic - our employees see the humanity and they are attracted to it. And when we get real, they start to open up. They feel like they can finally talk. They can say what they mean. Because the drawbridge has been let down. Screw the drawbridge anyways, just break the walls of the castle.

The thing is we have to put ourselves out there. We have to be vulnerable when things go bad. When we mess up we have to face to fire. We have to stand tall and be real, and say "GUYS, I TOTALLY F*UCKED UP, AND I'M SORRY."

This is real. Because mistakes are real. Because screwing up is exceptionally real. And when your people hear you talk like this they will start to feel more comfortable doing the same. The more they hear this from you the more open they get. The more open they get the more comfortable they feel. And when they feel comfortable they do their best work.

You will never be able to build something great on your own. Just like it takes a village to raise a child it takes a village to build a company.

The best part of building a company or running an organization is doing it together. The relationships and the community built a long the way. Its always the small stuff. The conversations. The smiles. The laughter.

When your on your deathbed you will never remember the revenue or profit numbers, but you will remember the faces of the people that were in the trenches with you in those golden years.

This, is the magic.

So open up and let others in.

It's more fun when the walls of the castle are completely broken.