Being Authentic

What Separates the Strong Business Development Director From the BD-Wannabe?  One of six skills/attributes identified.

Gain An Edge:  Being Authentic -- You must be genuine, to yourself, to your colleagues and to your clients.  Imitating someone else is weak and apparent.  You cannot remember someone else’s behavior and get it right every time.

Why try to be someone else?  Perhaps you think you can perform better by imitating someone else’s actions.  Perhaps you are wary where your own skills can take you.  Perhaps you feel others would like you better if you behaved differently.  Perhaps you have seen others perform better than you believe you can perform, thus imitating someone else’s actions appears preferable.

No doubt adapting to your environment can be beneficial but changing who you are or pretending to be someone else is problematic.  While studios provide for scripted conversations and interviews, this is not the case in the real world.  You don’t have the time or the skills to remember each time what someone else would say or do.

You’ve seen it time and again.  You say to yourself, “Just who is this person?  What is he trying to prove?  Get him away.”  It’s a put-off.  You’re uncomfortable being around this person.  That’s just what it is like being around someone that isn’t being authentic – who they really are.   Now imagine that is how someone would feel about you should you not be your true self?

Focus instead on your own skills, characteristics and strengths.  Focus on honing and strengthening these attributes.  Each of us is different, vying for one of the many paths to success.  With time and patience, you can excel at putting forth the right attributes for the right situation, all the time being yourself.

Grow into who you are.  Sure, learn from others how to be successful, how to work with and engage clients.  But do it in a manner in which you are comfortable, where you can be yourself.   Have the courage; take the courage to follow your instincts and intuition.  Nothing can be better than to be yourself.

Ultimately people are attracted to those that make them feel comfortable and respected, those that are authentic.