Bulletproof Blueprint for Career Success: Authentic Leadership
Some people look at the road they have or will travel to career success as daunting, unattainable, inaccessible, and every other negative word in the dictionary. However, they look to the person on their left and right and think “Wow! They are so lucky! I wish opportunities fell in my lap the way they fall into theirs.” Well, I’m here to let you in on a little secret. You may be absolutely right about the blessings that rain on others, but it is absolutely attainable for you!
There are 5 best kept secrets on how to get your career, product, goals, etc. to the next level and I call them the bulletproof blueprint for career success. The same way that law enforcement officers ensure that their bulletproof vests are secure and construction workers don’t break ground without their handy blueprint, is the same way that we all should be prepared to achieve the career success that we rightfully deserve.
Each step will be published on Sundays and Wednesdays at 3PM EST beginning November 28th, 2021 through December 12th, 2021. By the time you’re finished with these informative reads and apply this knowledge to your day-to-day life, you’re going to be an unstoppable powerhouse to be reckoned with in your profession.
If you haven’t check out Step 4: Strategic Networking yet, please do before reading this blog. I promise you won’t regret it!
Step 5: Authentic Leadership
After you’ve built trust through informal networking, sold your value(s) via storytelling, enlisted your sponsors, and built a strategic network of stakeholders, you will find that you now have a seat at the table. However, the question now is do you know how to keep your seat at the table whilst being an authentic leader? You may be surprised to hear that there are about 20,000 books on how to be more authentic on Amazon and about 4 million workshops on Google that teach people how to be a more authentic human being. Dr. Herminia Ibarra covers this and more in her TedxTalk, What Does It Really Mean for Leaders to Be Authentic? In her TedxTalk, she shares the following sentiments on authenticity:
I. What got you here, won’t get you there.– At some point you will get to a transitional point in your career, where you will find that the skills you used to get you here will not be able to get you to the next point of your career. Sometimes we feel that our old skills are a part of our identity and that not sticking by them will somehow make us unauthentic. However, to be an effective communicator you must tailor to your audience. This means that your skillset will need to be tailored to effectively communicate with the people that sit at the table alongside you. Perhaps, you’re a numbers gal, who has relied on spreadsheets for communicating your whole life, but the leaders that you are now presenting to are not understanding your message. Try using a PowerPoint with key numbers as your method of communication or inserting anecdotes that explain why you’ve chosen this method to communicate, and why the numbers you are showing are important.
II. Be true to yourself. – As you are being true to yourself, ask yourself which self are you being true to? Old you? new you? Or future you? Also, ask yourself if being authentic means that you are not allowed to evolve into someone greater.
III. Be Sincere. – For some people, being authentic means to say what you mean and mean what you say. However, also ask yourself what exactly are you being sincere to? Are you being sincere to the version of yourself that got you here or the version of yourself that you truly are at your core?
IV. Be true to your values. – Take time to meditate on what your values truly are. Are your values allowed to change as your role in your career changes? Are the changes you need to implement going to sacrifice your values and integrity?
V. Act your way into a new way of thinking about yourself. – You will not be able to simply think yourself into being an authentic leader. You will need to start acting like an authentic leader as soon as possible, so that you can mentally change into the leader you desire to be. Sometimes this means that you’ll have to start acting like a version of yourself others have never seen, but the version of yourself you have always truly been within. Perhaps you’re a professor and you’re having a hard time getting through to your students. Try sparking up a conversation with them, asking them what they did for the weekend, share your snacks with them, sit with them before/during/after class, ask them what they intend to get out of your class, etc. This may be totally out of the norm for you, but you may find that the energy of the class will shift to more of an exciting one and their grades may increase as a response to that. As a result, you have acted your way into being a new professor with, likely, a new perception of your profession.
Checkout these additional resources on authentic leadership:
Dr. Herminia Ibarra, a Charles Handy professor of Organizational behavior at London Business School, shares how to be an authentic leader in her book Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader.
Jane Hyun, author of Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling, discusses how to achieve your business goals by Becoming a Fluent Leader.
American Ferrera, Hollywood Actress and Director, discusses the importance of authenticity to steer her career in her TedxTalk, My Identity is A Superpower—Not an Obstacle.
Dr. Knatokie Ford, author and public speaker, teaches us how to defeat the inner imposter that keeps us from being successful in her TedxTalk.
