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To Be Authentic, Know Thyself

Those of us in communications--marketers, writers, communicators, authors, and so on-- are taught and  told to find our writing and speaking voice. The reasons are because truth comes from our hearts as much as our minds, and unless we speak and write to those truths, audiences will perceive that we are inauthentic, leading them to distrust our messages. But to speak to our truths, we must first know who we are. And to do that, we must look deep inside ourselves and ask the tough questions.

That fellow with the hair on the right is me. Believe it or not, that was the shortest my hair had been in more than 25 years. Why is that significant? Because, as psychologists tell us, men's hairstyles and facial hair say a lot about who we are. My point is not to suggest that you or I can reach into the depths of my soul based on this picture. But it is a clue to discovering my authenticity.

When we look back over the years, we can find lots of behavioral, psychological and emotional clues about who we are. When we spend time analyzing our pasts and searching deep within ourselves to understand the motivations and inspirations that make up that past, we can discover our authentic selves. To use a popular descriptive word, our past actions are the baggage that we bring to every job and every relationship. Depending on how that baggage works for us, we might choose to use it as a device to understand who we are, or we may work to conceal our authentic selves from others and ourselves. I believe that if we are communicators, hiding from ourselves is a huge mistake.

Again, speaking and writing to our truths and being authentic and honest with our audiences develop trust and credibility. And that is a key in building relationships in life and in business. Some will love our authentic selves, some will be ambivalent about us and some will hate us. In business, that means some will never be our customers or clients. That's okay. For it is more important to reach out to those who relate to our authentic selves, our brand, because they represent our ideal clients and customers. They are who we should pay the most attention to and they in turn will become loyal to us.

Assuming the above it accurate and true, it then follows that if marketing and communications had but one objective, it would be to know who our ideal clients and customers are and what they look like, and then communicate to them in an authentic voice.

What Kind of Society Do We Want?

I've been around for a while, and no one ever accused me of being naive, but I am still astounded by  businesses and individuals that are willing, eager even, to manipulate systems and us for what they perceive as a leg up.

When we do something that is unethical by popular standards, do we really win? Do our businesses or personal brands walk away unscathed? Let me give you a few examples:

• Cheating on pay per clicks.
• Manipulating book sales to get on lists.
• Voting for our blogs or other work to get high numbers.
• Saying we have thousands of readers instead of 100.
• Taking freebies, writing about them but never acknowledging we received the item as a gift.

Why do we think doing such things is either right or a good idea? First, don't we have enough confidence in ourselves and our work to achieve our goals honestly? And second, do we not understand that our brands are based on perception, which is created through credibility, trustworthiness and honesty?

Help me understand why we cheat, mislead and manipulate because I don't get it. And, finally, if you are on the wrong side of the right/wrong scale do us all a favor, look deep inside yourself, and ask why.

For a specific example that affects most of us directly, check out Jill Konrath's post, Revenge of the Customer?

Are They Real or Fake?

Valeria at Conversation Agent has a post entitled What's Your Competitive Advantage?, that I encourage you to read.

After reading the post, I commented that "Authenticity in everything we do is that starting place for our advantage, don't you think? Fake is never as good as the real thing." To which she responded: "Lewis, how do we know when something is faked vs. authentic?"

As is my usual behavior, I automatically responded: "Those of us representing the brand are the only ones who need to ensure authenticity. We will know the difference, and I believe customers recognize authenticity when they hear or see it. Fake is pretty obvious as the words don't match the actions."

Then, I thought longer about the question and my answer. While I believe in authenticity and require it of all who report to me or work with me, and conduct workshops for clients to ensure everyone understands the value of authenticity, I wonder about the second part of my answer: Is fake always obvious?

To me, authenticity means knowing who you are and what your values are, being true to your passion and values, doing everything you say you will do and always being honest with yourself, your employees and your customers. But are there other ways to look at it? What do others think about authenticity? What is it? Does it matter? Does it make a difference?

Makes one think, doesn't it?

PS For a take on an example of a lack of authenticity, check out Seth's Blog.