Welcome to Week 19 of the Authenticity@Work Leadership Tool-kit! My intention for this series is to share a quick tool each week to help you lead with more authenticity, adaptability and inspiration so we can together create workplaces where we bring the best of ourselves and inspire others. So grab a journal and an accountability partner to make these practices even more powerful for you!
In last week’s post we discussed how to stay curious about others to be a truly influential leader. Have you taken note of ways in which you are already great at being curious?
I don’t know about you, but there’s a part of me that absolutely hates change. I would much rather create a map of how things work, set the rules, and then have everyone just follow the rules I set. Unfortunately this part of my plan for world domination just doesn’t seem to work out! The world just has a mind of its own and does not behave.
To feel safe in a world that is constantly changing, our mind loves making assumptions. Our decision-making brain wants to simplify and create shortcuts. That’s normal and useful when it comes to deciding what route you want to take to work everyday. Making too many decisions is over-whelming for the brain.
The trouble comes when we start believing these assumptions are correct and useful to predict the future. For example my assumption was that if I kept my diet and exercise routine the same, I wouldn’t gain weight. Twenty pounds later, it gradually dawned on me that my metabolism is actually changing and slowing down as I get older. Darn!
In the same way, the environmental context within which we do business is in constant flux. Whether it is in organizational restructuring, new competitors, or new market opportunities, a key to remaining adaptive is staying curious. We need to consciously assess the shortcuts we’ve created to see if, in a fast-changing world, these assumptions still hold true.
This Week’s Tool:
Questions to ask yourself:
- What keeps me from being curious?
- Where will bringing even more curiosity serve me most in my current situation?
- What assumptions am I making about the business, work, personal relationships? What may be shifting here that I need to pay more attention to?
Get the latest resources for Authenticity@Work (this tab will get updated with all kinds of cool resources). Curious to know more about the book? Read the reviews about Wired for Authenticity here.
