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Featured Elsewhere , Lifestyle , Strategy , The Keyser Culture , Uncategorized

4 Ways To Stop Being Faux-Thentic

By Jonathan Keyser
October 15, 2019

Wall
 
The business community throws the word “authenticity” around with the same frequency that some people use “literally.” The more that we hear each term, the more punch those words loose.

That’s because most businesses leaders say one thing and do another. They preach authenticity and market it to nines. But when the gloss finally wears off, their true colors (and those of their company) show.

That isn’t to say that entrepreneurial authenticity is a lost cause, though. It still draws a direct path to gaining the faith of a customer base, but it should not be some shiny and empty gesture whose sole purpose is to sell an image. That’s “faux-thenticity,” something good leaders should keep far away from their companies.

Be Truly Authentic

A fish rots from the head. Put a little less graphically, leaders who fake their way through authenticity cultivate a toxic environment that leaves employees feeling disconnected and unimportant.

The pursuit of authenticity for authenticity’s sake is pointless and even damaging. Drop the act and start being real with your team — and your clients. Begin with these four strategies:

Don’t Preach “Principles” That You’re Not Ready to Embody

A company’s values are its North Star. Too many leaders relegate those principles to “About” page window dressings that are a non-factor in their day-to-day behaviors and attitudes.

To kick-start shifts in authenticity, leaders need to practice what they preach. Get out of the marketing mindset, take a hard look at your behavior, and make a genuine attempt to fix moments of inauthenticity. Confront long-engrained habits (e.g., know-it-all-ism, shunning vulnerability, etc.) to free employees from this unhealthy pressure.

Drop The “Brave” Face

At my company, we talk about our 15 principles every time we meet as a team. We discuss our recent decisions and the way our operations are living up to these tenets. This ensures that our principles knit us together as a team and guide our approach.

You can’t be authentic without being vulnerable. There isn’t a leader in the world who isn’t flawed — to pretend like you always know what’s right is actively deceptive and will put pressure on employees to hide their shortcomings.

As public speaker and psychologist Brené Brown says, vulnerability is a sign of courage rather than weakness. That’s why I reward my team for showing vulnerability with something I call the “Courage to Disagree” award. If anyone spots a disconnect between the way leadership acts and our core values, they’re encouraged and incentivized to call us out on it. This policy encourages radical honesty and levels the playing field between leadership and employees.

Don’t Run from your mistakes

As a leader, I want to make sure that employees feel comfortable telling me when they screwed up. If errors get swept under the rug, they become so much harder to fix.

I lead by example by immediately — and loudly — fessing up whenever I make a mistake. It helps me to put the error in context and think through a solution. Most importantly, it gives others the green light to speak their truths. When employees admit their mistakes, they’re also going to be more likely to share dissatisfactions.

Exorcize the bad juju

A fish rots from the head, but the result will be the same if there’s something rotten in the belly — toxicity that limits our success and our connection to customers. When misalignment happens further down the food chain, the effect can be even more destructive; issues can go unnoticed for a long time and eat away at good culture from the inside out.

Learn to spot people early on who are not culturally aligned with your organization. Beware of people who look down on vulnerability, who are eager to hide mistakes, or who condemn the mistakes of others. These people may be talented, but if they’re undermining your authenticity, they’ve got to go.

Don’t be one of the companies paying lip service to authenticity. Anyone can look great on LinkedIn, but your work will be shallow and ineffective unless you’re living honestly and striving together within your team for a common purpose.

We live in a time where there’s a real gap between what people say and what they do. This isn’t because we’re all terrible people; it’s due to a mistaken belief that success requires you to be inauthentic and ruthless. This is a big old societal lie — it’s time we leaders started spreading truth and getting real.

As Featured On CEOWorld Magazine

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Jonathan Keyser

Jonathan Keyser is the Founder and Managing Partner of Keyser Commercial Real Estate(http://www.keyser.com/), which has become the largest commercial real estate firm of its kind in Arizona. Jonathan is also a Founding Partner of Exis Global, which today has over 580 people worldwide representing exclusively occupiers of commercial real estate. He is also the founder of a small investment fund that invests in emerging technology companies within Arizona, to support and help grow the startup ecosystem in the state. Jonathan was recently named "The Commercial Real Estate Disruptor" by USA Today and he is a #1 Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author, for his Best Selling Book, “You Don’t Have to be Ruthless to Win”. He has also been named a "Top Social Capital CEO" by the International Business Times, is a highly sought after keynote speaker, is widely recognized as a thought leader featured in hundreds of articles, publications, and podcasts, and has been named a "Top 20 Virtual Keynote Speaker" nationally. As an entrepreneur, Jonathan has built KEYSER into an eight-figure firm named recently as one of the Top 50 Most Trustworthy Companies in America by The Silicon Review. Jonathan is also one of the most connected business leaders in Arizona. He is an active member of Greater Phoenix Leadership (consisting of the region’s leading CEO’s), and he is also a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO), Chief Executive Organization (ceo), and the Million Dollar Speaking Group (MDSG) within the National Speakers Association. With almost 30 years of experience in the Commercial Real Estate Industry, Jonathan’s firm represents occupiers of space exclusively, both domestically and internationally across a broad range of industries. Jonathan is sought out by companies around the world for his real estate expertise and business acumen. He is particularly good at identifying creative strategies to align real estate with business requirements, designing and implementing unique solutions to complex real estate challenges, and solving Landlord / Tenant conflicts where negotiations have deteriorated in the face of rising hostilities. Jonathan is happily married to his wife Susanna, and has 5 kids with one on the way. His mission is to change the business community through selfless service, and his entire firm is built upon this philosophy. Jonathan is known throughout the business community as someone who loves to help others, and who goes out of his way to be of service to people across the community.

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