High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 613: How to Be an Authentic Leader

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

When we mindfully and purposefully practice authenticity, we invite peace, gratitude, and happiness into our lives, and this impacts our performance.  In this episode, Dr. Kamphoff shares 4 ways to be an authentic leader. To be successful in your career, you must be yourself. Power Phrase this Week: “The world needs me and my gifts. I will show my authentic self to the world through my leadership.” Quote of the Week: “Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.” —Brené Brown, researcher and author

Hi friends, my name is Dr. Sindra Kampoff, a national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. Every week I'm on the local radio sharing my top tips on exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best, so you can accomplish all your dreams. Get ready for a jammed, packed episode focused on practical tips to help you get after your goals and step out of your comfort zone. Let's go. It's time to check in with Cyndra Kampoff. And Cyndra, we're talking about how to be an

authentic leader today. Will you start us off with a quote? I love this quote by Brene Brown. She's a researcher and author. And she said, authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we're supposed to be and embracing who we are. So what exactly are we talking about today? Well, today we're talking about leadership and showing up as ourselves while we lead. And, you know, people who are listening might think, well, I'm not really a leader, but every person leads in some way.

You know, we lead our families, we lead our teams, we lead our colleagues, or maybe our teammates, but most importantly, we lead ourselves. And what we know about authenticity, which is the practice of showing up as yourself, it's the gold standard of leadership. Meaning it's a practice, it's not something we have or don't have, but we can consciously choose to show up as ourselves. And we can practice authenticity just by, you know, making the decision to be us instead of trying to be someone that we're not. So why are we striving to be an authentic leader? Well, there's three reasons why we should strive to be an authentic leader. First, it's, you know, authentic leadership has been connected to job performance and

performance in general. We're more likely to have trust and creativity when we show up as ourselves. But most importantly, I think it's the act of, you know, it's really freeing just to be yourself and creativity when we show up as ourselves. But most importantly, I think it's the act of, you know, it's really freeing just to be yourself and not hide yourself. And it's easy to compare yourself to other people. So, you know, being an authentic leader helps you show up as you. And I guess the third reason would be that people want to follow authentic leaders. They are remembered and they, you know, you're allowing other people to show up as themselves as well. As far as authentic leaders, you've got some good news for us. What is that?

Yeah, I would say the good news is that authentic leadership can be developed and you're not born with the characteristics of being yourself, right? And you don't have to be at the top of your organization or your business or your team to be an authentic leader. You can be that way anytime. And I love Brene Brown's book called The Gifts of Imperfection. And she talks about this idea of how we can practice authenticity every day. And, you know, she describes in her book that we can, when we let go of who we think we should be, right, and embrace who we really are, which was what I mentioned the quote at the beginning, is we can, really are, which was what I mentioned the quote at the beginning, is we can, you know, mindfully practice being ourselves. And when we do that, we're less

likely to experience anxiety or blame or resentment, you know, all emotions that underline or undermine performance. And so why is this topic so important? Well, Lisa, I would say that when we show up as ourselves, we also allow other people to show up as themselves. And so that could be, you know, if you are in your career, it could be your clients or your employees, but also your friends. And when we show up as ourselves, it's also connected to our confidence. And, you know, people who don't act authentically, they sometimes prioritize their ego. They might lie to others to kind of boost their own confidence and they can get defensive. So it's really important because it is the foundation of our performance.

And people can tell, you know, when we're phony, it's just the roadblock to connecting with others. Okay. Well, I love that you also focus on the how in these five-minute spots that we do. How can we be an authentic leader? Yeah, great question. So I'd say there's kind of four tools or tips I would give people. Number one is to be self-aware. And this just means, you know, continuing to understand yourself, which is really a lifelong journey. And just continuing to notice times where you do show up as yourself in time if you don't. Number two, be transparent. So the more you can openly share information or share how you're feeling or your thoughts in a respectful way, that's wonderful. Number three is just being honest and sincere with others. And sometimes it's hard to tell the hard truth. But I love this quote by Brene Brown

and she said that, you know, clear is kind, unclear is unkind. It's just the importance of being clear with others. And the last one is just to be honest with yourself and admit mistakes when you make them, right? This shows vulnerability and that's how you connect with others because no one's perfect.

Cinder, do you have a final point for us today? Yes, I do. I would say when we mindfully and purposefully practice authenticity, showing up as ourselves, we invite peace and gratitude and happiness into our own lives, and that only impacts positively performance, right? Only impacts performance in a positive way. And so to be successful in your career, you have to be yourself. And what is our power phrase this week? I love this one. It is, the world needs me and my gifts. I will show up as my authentic self today. All right. And how can people follow along with your work or find out what it is that you're doing or maybe listen to a podcast? Sure. You can head over to Dr. Sindra, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com.

And what I talked about today is from my book, Beyond Grit for Business. So you can check that out over there and purchase a copy if you'd like to. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and to join my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com.

See you next week.