Author: Autenticiti

How developing authenticity can improve leadership, health, happiness, results and the life of those around you?

Harvard has researched for more than 80 years on the key to have healthier and happier lives and they found it is good relations, in a deeper way “authentic relations”. But to have authentic relations we must be authentic, most of us think we are but let’s take a moment to reflect on the following questions:

• Are your public and private identities the same? Or do you self-control at home as you do at work?
• Are you aware of your emotions, feelings, thoughts and behaviors and aware of those of other’s?
• Once you understand the other’s world, do you feel the need to do something for them? To be compassionate?
• Do you know your purpose as a leader? What gives the highest meaning to your job and to your life?

I never asked those questions to myself but some years ago I discovered I was far from being authentic. Just to give an example, I developed a chronic back pain, I was not aware of my anxiety, it was very well hidden in my unconscious and it gradually affected my health, my happiness and even my capacity to lead people. 

But what could be the connection between unconscious anxiety and back pain? The answer is simple: I started a task and I could not stand up from my chair until I finished it, that locked me on that chair for hours until I was tired and 20 years later acting like that hurt my back in a way that I regret.

One day, I became aware that when I was a child I was forced to sit down and finish school assignments even if what I wanted to do was to go outside and play with my neighbours, I realized how I was causing my own pain due to an unconscious habit I learned in my childhood. That is what I called a blind spot.

I was not aware of my anxiety and I was in a way disconnected from the pain in my body until it became chronic.

I gradually started recognizing many other emotions, thoughts and feelings and how they impacted my behaviors, this truly changed my life because I was then able to change my habits and start a slow recovery process.

I also realized how other people were struggling with similar or even worse difficulties and I developed compassion, I found my life purpose, and now I help organizations and leaders develop authenticity at work.

The rewarding feeling of helping leaders become self-aware is a gift. When leaders discover blind spots, their inner world changes with it their behaviors, their relations and their health. They experience more happiness at work and in their personal lives. I am living the dream of helping others in a very special way and I am sure this way can be multiplied by hundreds, thousands and millions to build an authentic society.

Are you willing to develop your authenticity, your authentic leadership, your authentic relations, a healthier and a happier life for you and for those around you? Isn´t this the best way to pursue and improve organizational results?

I think there could not be a more noble invitation than that of developing our authenticity for our well-being and that of the coming generations.  

Anne is the leader of a multinational company who was not aware of the impact of her leadership style on others. 

As a highly result-oriented leader, she pursued her goals without considering the human side of her employees. She never thought she could become a source of stress and even less of fear to some of her coworkers. People who worked with her feared to express how they felt in her presence; a negative organizational climate was the result of Anne’s unconscious behaviors for many years. Some of her employees decided to leave their job to look for a different opportunity somewhere else without expressing the truth about their reasons to leave. She lost many talented people and the company had to pay for the impact of the turnover.

Through the ALD program Anne discovered she had anxiety to perform that caused her pain on her head and on her chest, in addition, she became aware that her action-oriented personality made her focus on different tasks that were not important for the result of the organization, making her feel exhausted when her journeys were over and leaving the most important projects surrender to the urgent tasks. She also realized that her nonverbal communication made her employees feel like incompetent workers who had to reprocess many times the assignments Anne gave them, losing valuable time and money for the organization. 

Personally speaking, with the ALD program Anne discovered she was behaving in a similar way at home, affecting her relations with her husband and her children. 

Finally, once Anne became aware of her unconscious attitudes and the impact she had on those around her, she improved her leadership not only at work but also at home, her pains stopped and she started developing authentic relations with those around her.

Unconscious habits control our life and usually drive us to a destiny we do not desire for our leadership. Anxiety, fears, limiting beliefs and many others block our performance at work and our personal life. Allow Autenticiti team to support you in discovering those habits and improve your leadership style.