500 Words a Week - Authenticity, is it overrated?
When I started interning, I came across a range of coaching styles. One was what you would deem as an enforcer, tough on athletes.
This wore off on me, I saw the success this coach had gotten through their coaching style, and I thought I should emulate this. Fast forward a few weeks to when I get a job coaching young tennis players S&C, I tried to be this person. It probably took about a week before I realised this wasn’t the way forward. I wasn’t myself, it felt unnatural. Those I was trying to coach could see right through me, and they knew I was putting on a facade.
This was an important lesson for me, as I learned there are many ways to coach. You need to find one that is most true to yourself and that abides by your values.
It also solidified how important I thought authenticity was. It helped me clarify and refine my coaching style.
However, recently thinking more about authenticity and my thoughts around it, have I got it wrong?
Seth Godin discusses how he believes authenticity is overrated and selfish. Who wants to work with someone who’s constantly late because they are being their authentic selves? Who wants to work with someone were you are consistently not sure what mood they will be because they are being their authentic selves?
Seth discusses how authenticity is used for people to say whatever they want and if people don’t like it, “well I was just being authentic”. “It’s a ticket to self-absorbed inconsistency”.
Being consistent and dependable might be two vastly more important traits to embody than being authentic.
Seth says how the easiest way to be consistent is to do something that comes naturally to you. Trying to embody an enforcer style of coaching wasn’t natural to me, hence why I didn’t stick to it.
As with all things, it’s not either or. It’s not you value authenticity, or you don’t value it. We can sit in the middle. We can see the importance of remaining true to your values and allowing aspects of your personality to come through into what you do. However, we can also see that this can’t be made as an excuse to hide behind. We must be consistent, we must be dependable.
