You are new to the organization. You are learning the ropes and trying to figure out the culture and the politics of the company you are now working for. You wonder how to fit in while standing out. You begin to find yourself in networking situations, company meetings and hallway conversations where it is important to be your authentic self while also demonstrating your professionalism.
Read MoreJack and Suzy Welch’s recent opinion piece in FORTUNE (April 9, 2012) shares three guidelines for how any leader can tap into and communicate their authentic self.
First, quoting the famous philosopher, Popeye, they site that you often hear authentic people give you some version of “I yam what I yam, and that’s all what I yam.” Authentic people are deeply comfortable with themselves. They acknowledge both their weakness and their strengths without apology.
Read MoreLast evening I ran into my neighbor, Dan, after we had both parked our cars in our respective garages and were making our way through our backyards to the house. Being the friendly neighbor that I aspire to be, I said to Dan, “Hey, how was your day?” He looked at me and said with a straight face, “Well, I’ve been on quite a transformative journey! I have shifted many of my paradigms, increased my intellectual bandwidth, clarified my understanding of our company’s vision and I’m fully engaged and on-board! After a second or two trying to determine if he was for real, we bought started to laugh.
Read More
