This is for those of you who take great pride in expressing your thoughts and opinions freely with others. Have you ever been so blunt that the person you’re talking to stares back at you in uncomfortable silence? Or perhaps you value “telling it like it is” but then you edge on being offensive at times? If you’ve ever felt compelled to follow-up your authentic behavioral expression with, “What?! I’m just being authentic!” then please keep reading this. It’s time to stop an

“Some things are better left unsaid.” “The truth will set you free.” When you think about your approach to authentic voice and mindful leadership, which of these quotes resonates with you with most? If you find yourself wavering, or in the middle, that may be because there is an element of truth in both of these statements. However, striking a balance between voice and truth is no easy feat, and often we have an inclination to withhold or liberate our truth more than the desi

In your daily life, do you: Sense that you could be happier? Regularly complain? Feel exhausted or overtaken with busyness or stress? Feel like you’re not in charge of yourself? Feel like you’d rather be doing something else? If you said “yes” to two or more of the above questions, then it’s time for a change. You’re probably not living in a way that honors your core values. In the book Start with Why, Simon Sinek encourages business people to think with their gut, to use the

When we prioritize other people’s wellbeing above our own, we teach them how to treat others. According to Brené Brown, author and researcher on shame and vulnerability, a boundary is simply “what’s okay and what’s not okay” when it comes to the way we allow ourselves to be treated. When we fear that if we disagree with another person, we may lose our safety within that relationship (they’ll be mad at us, disown us, say hurtful things), we teach them that we’ll always agree,

Managing multiple social media profiles is like a complicated one-person show with thousands of actively engaged spectators. They snap, follow, like, re-Vine and share the dots plotted along your life’s literal and metaphorical timelines. The lived social media experience is like an asynchronous flash mob in which you portray multiple roles in various scenes. However, successfully conquering your cyber schizophrenia is a great exercise in increasing self-awareness and develo

Being authentic while leading others is difficult work. Part of the challenge can be attributed to popular misunderstandings about the actual meaning of “authenticity.” Below I present and debunk three common myths about authenticity in leadership. Myth #1: Authenticity is about speaking your mind. No, anybody can do this. While authenticity is indeed about having the courage and ability to speak your mind in times of trial, it is most definitely not always about speaking you

Growing up I learned that part of being a “good girl” was to be super nice, overly agreeable and say "yes" when I really meant "no." I never learned how to say “no” in fear of hurting someone’s feelings. These passive, autopilot moments of saying what the other person wanted to hear became more important than speaking my truth. Flash forward to today through several years of introspection, personal development work and gaining clarity on my core values; I’ve learned that spea

There seems to be a big difference between the way you behave at work on Monday compared to your behavior when you attended happy hour with your colleagues the Friday before. At happy hour, you found yourself telling shocking autobiographical stories, cracking jokes, and venting about work policies that seem frivolous. Would you behave similarly once you return to work on Monday morning? It’s easy to say that being your casual, non-work self in your work environment would lik

Every day we have opportunities to practice authenticity, whether we notice them or not. They sometimes appear as intense moments of internal crisis, and other times they remain hidden, lurking in the shadows of our experience. On some occasions we throw ourselves head-first into confrontation, and on other occasions we count our losses and run away. Throughout our lives, we develop behavioral patterns for how the authentic self shows up or hides. Think about your communicati

I spent most of my youth learning and adapting to a level that I would dare to call “masterful.” I was a chameleon of sorts who could sense my environment and the people in it down to the pace of the rising and falling of their chest with each breath. This was a mechanism that kept me safe my whole life. Within the last two years, I have discovered that the subliminal intention behind surveying every room was to source proof from outside myself that I was “okay.” This held tr