BUILDING AUTHENTICITY

BLOG 4: BUILDING AUTHENTICITY

I watched Pather Panchali, the only Indian film to ever win a Best Human Document award at the Cannes film festival when I was in seventh standard sitting next to my mother, who sobbed throughout the movie and gave her review in just one word” Authentic”. The “authentic” word may cross different barriers and reach from text books and films to our day to day life, revealing so much in such a short time. Authenticity is binary or spectrum?-my one fellow classmate from Odisha quipped the question in class. The answer is debatable. I personally believe the answer is binary and so does our teacher. We can either choose to become authentic or not, there is no way round. We tend to become unauthentic in the fear of shame and our inability to become vulnerable. In this context, our teacher showed us the Ted Talk by Brene Brown: The power of vulnerability. Dr. Brown questioned “Is vulnerability the same as weakness?” and then gave the answer that we associate vulnerability with emotions we want to avoid such as fear, shame and uncertainty. Yet we too often lose sight of the fact that vulnerability is also the birthplace of joy, belonging, creativity, authenticity, and love. Thus we need to embrace vulnerability.  We need the courage to be imperfect and compassionate at the same time. Self awareness is one more important tool required to be authentic leaders. In this context, the article “Authentic Leadership” by Bill George was discussed where he gave powerful call for genuine and ethical business leadership. We also need to update our own mental models and give the other person their due. In the class, our teacher showed us a short story based case study where we had to judge characters in the decreasing order of their authenticity. It was interesting as we all got different answers and couldn’t settle for one single character for sure. Thus perception of authenticity varies from people to people. In today’s corporate world, it is very important for such authentic leaders who will move the world forward with their positive and honest views.