Act with Authenticity. As mentioned in my post 5 steps to Ignite Your SPARK, ‘A’ is for ‘Authenticity’. So why do I say “Act with Authenticity”, surely that is an oxymoron?
I have found that over the course of my life I have “acted” in a number of roles. The role of daughter, sister, friend, colleague, wife and mother of 3 to name a few. And in each of those roles I was a slightly different version of “me”, usually the version that I thought was needed by the other person. I never really gave much thought to who I was and who I needed to be in that interaction.
It was not long after I received the ‘universal slap’ that I was fortunate enough to attend a course at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was there that I learned what it meant to “Act with Authenticity”. As part of the course, a group of actors came in to ‘teach’ us how to be ourselves more – with skill. The premise was in order to increase our ‘executive presence’ we needed to find our authentic voice and learn how to use it and show up with more skill.
But that was just the start of the journey for me to find my “authentic voice”. As I previously posted, whilst I had started to Unleash my Spirit by working on my self-concept and self-esteem and had also been working to Power my Performance by focusing on the performance levers of clarity, energy, courage, productivity and influence; I now needed to define my values – the me I was going to be no matter what role I played.
Over time, I have gone through a few different ways to define my values; but the one that has resonated the most and stuck with me was when I learned about the Code of Honor through my mentor Blair Singer. The Code of Honor is the set of rules that you have for yourself (or team) that holds it together on mission/purpose no matter the situation or interaction.
Once you’ve established the mission/purpose, select the values that reflect you (or team) and are in alignment. Define those values and determine the rules that enable you to achieve them.
Of course when defining this for yourself it really is the values by which you want to live your life and interact with others irrespective of the “role” you are in. The rules you attach to these values then provide you with the guide for how to be the best authentic version of yourself at all times.
Your values are a reflection of who you want to be, the authentic you. The journey of discovery about your purpose in life and the values that align to this is one that I’ve found to be continuously evolving. But having a guide that you create and choose to assist you certainly makes it a lot easier!
And as noted by Simon Sinek recently “Authenticity is more than speaking. Authenticity is also about doing. Every decision we make says something about who we are.”
Take the High Performance Quiz to find out more and if you have any thoughts or input about this post be sure to like it and please leave your comments below. I’d love to connect with you about Igniting Your SPARK and your own journey.
Ignite Your SPARK – Step #1 Unleash Your Spirit
Ignite Your SPARK – Step #2 Power Your Performance
Ignite Your SPARK – Step #4 Rebound with Resilience
Ignite Your SPARK – Step #5 Hone Your Knowledge
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