Manufacturing Excellence - Inspire, Lead, and Succeed with AUTHENTICITY!

"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are."
~ Carl Gustav Jung

This week I had the pleasure of meeting with the CFO of a large car manufacturing company.

I felt an immediate connection and our conversation was very enjoyable. After I left, I thought about what it was that gave me the feeling that everything about this lady was just about right.

I saw her values, her principles, and her commitment to her team, and I have to admit that this isn’t something that I see too often these days.

After thinking about this meeting for a while, I found my answer. She was just so real and this made me think about how I can help leaders to tap into their authenticity because some of them may have forgotten what it means to be real and to stand by your values and aspirations. It is one thing to hear people talk about what should be done, but it’s quite a different story if people actually live it.

Just recently I read a comment in one of the discussions on LinkedIn that I really liked and that’s why I want to share it here.

“Somewhere along the way somebody coined the phrase “politically correct”. Unfortunately, over the past 20 to 30 years, we have forgotten how to be correct and ended up with just being political.”

Well, this statement should certainly make us think. If this is true, does this mean that we would do just about anything in order to adapt the means to an end?

Authenticity refers to the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity, devotion, and intentions. What do you think, how much of that can actually be found in our organizations today?

I have no doubt that we could find authentic leaders in the corporate world if we were actually out looking for them. The question is……. Do we want authentic leaders in our corporations or would we rather deal with fake people who like to follow directions and understand to play the corporate game?

Is this the price we have to pay? Being a corporate puppet who does everything others tell them to do without questioning their actions to keep it real? I highly encourage you to avoid working in an environment that goes against your values and believes. Love it, change it, or leave it!

Regardless of others' perspectives on authenticity, it's important for true leaders to live and work as authentically as possible - a goal that is usually often difficult to achieve, particularly in large organizations but there is no question, it can be done.