My journey to authentic leadership

I am an unabashedly obsessed follower of all things Brené Brown. As I prepared for the next chapter of my career, I revisited her incredible work in Dare to Lead. In one of my first team meetings, I shared my core values with the group — both to set the foundation for who I am as a leader, and to empower them to bring their best, authentic selves to work.

Authenticity. Integrity. Courage. Grace. These are the values that guide me as a leader and as a person. Authenticity and integrity because I fought hard to become the woman I am today, and I am committed to show up as my true self in all contexts. Courage, because we are built to do hard things, and grace because we are all perfectly imperfect — worthy of grace as we make a mistake (or ten…) on the path to success.

I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my evolution as a leader. I can vividly remember the first round of upward feedback I received as a new manager. While the team valued my strategic vision and attention to detail, a consistent theme was that they wanted to know more of the “real” me. Without a better sense of connection to who I was as the person behind the work, they weren’t sure if they could fully trust and invest in my leadership.

Ouch.

As a first generation college student, and first in my family to enter the corporate world, I was raised to create a strong boundary between my “work self” and my “home self”. Professionalism meant getting straight to business — sticking to an agenda with no idle chit chat. That painful first round of upward feedback taught me that the tools which led to success in school and early on in my career were not enough to continue my trajectory as a leader.

I had to break down the wall.

This process took time. I had to unlearn a lot of cultural norms from my upbringing, and find the level of transparency and vulnerability that felt right to me. Over time, I learned how to bring more of my true self to work, and to find the sweet spot between personal and professional.

A funny thing happened along the way. The more I showed up as my true self, the more effective I became as a leader. The trust and connection that my first team found lacking became the foundation of my personal brand. The more I integrated my “work self” with my “home self”, the easier it became to curate connection and drive impact.

I learned that my secret sauce as a leader was in my ability to create a culture of belonging for my teams. According to the global think tank Coqual, a culture of belonging is one in which each member of the group feels seen, connected, supported, and proud to be a part of the organization. In The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown makes it even more personal:

True belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world. Our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.

As I learned to own my story, and get comfortable with the messiness of sharing my true self — my perfectly imperfect self — with my teams, I was finally able to unlock my potential as a leader.