Welcome to Week 31 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 accepting your inner loser to better lead authentically. Did you interview your inner loser and choose to accept it as part of the cast of characters that make up The Whole of who you are?
Authenticity is about being truly fulfilled and alive. We can’t be wholly alive and wholly fulfilled until we integrate all the parts of ourselves into one whole being. Otherwise, we just feel a big hole that we try to fill with new shoes, a new fast car, a new relationship, a new job, a new (fill in the blank).
We cannot have peace within until we make peace with each part of ourselves.
We think we should be a certain way, but that certain way is simply not effective in all situations. This requires that we center ourselves and call upon a different part of ourselves that we may have ignored, underdeveloped, or written off by conforming to society’s expectations. The more we act from this choice of who we are going to be, from among the cast of characters we can be, the more we can be fully authentic.
Each part of us is part of the whole and ready to serve us, much in the same way each muscle in the body plays a role in keeping us alive and healthy.
This Week’s Tool:
Take a walk in nature. Be fully present to the experience. Take it in with all your senses. Notice the imperfections in nature (a broken branch, lack of symmetry). Notice the uniqueness in each part of nature and how the uniqueness serves the bigger whole. Start to notice how, despite the imperfections, everything seems to work well. What did you notice in your walk in nature that can be applied to your life and your leadership?
Where are you finding yourself ineffective in your leadership (when what you’ve tried doesn’t seem to work)?
What parts of yourself that you would otherwise not consider can you call upon to help you be effective in these situations?
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.
I am the CEO of Transformational Leadership Inc and the author of Wired for Authenticity. I am a leadership coach, global speaker, and often play junior philosopher on my Forbes and company blog. Join me to create a movement for greater authenticity in our workplaces. If you enjoyed my musings, please follow me on Twitter, Facebook or my blog.
