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I was at the Indeed Interactive conference for two days this week. I went to a couple of panels and mostly tried to schmooze and/or drink and eat my way through parts of Austin. I would say I was mostly successful, but probably could have been better on the schmoozing. We’ll get them next time, Tiger.
One panel I went to was with a professor at Columbia University who does a lot of research on “authenticity.” I imagine that’s actually a challenging job in The Era Of The Gram, where not a lot of people are truly authentic, even if they claim they are.
In this discussion, though, I kept thinking about what “authenticity” really even is. I guess it means … you are being your truly unique self most of the time, even if there’s some warts therein? That seems like a good definition. Now we come to a few issues, though.
Where do we spend a lot of our time?
Work.
What do executives claim about work?
That they want A-Player innovators with uniqueness and personality and those who “bring their authentic selves to work.” That’s in a lot of mission statement copy, I’d bet.
