In every aspect of our lives, being authentic is the easiest path to happiness and success. However, authenticity isn’t straightforward—it requires dedication and self-awareness, especially within the work environment.
Before AI became part of our work landscape, circumstances and human interactions helped us discover and cultivate our authentic selves. These interactions provided people and situations that revealed who we are, what we believe in, and, most importantly, what our strengths and weaknesses are in the workplace.
In the age of AI, where it becomes an extension of our minds and human interaction begins to diminish, we find ourselves with a powerful partner that, let’s be honest, is taking over some tasks we used to handle. This creates an entanglement that we need to break in order to understand who we are and what we do.
We are increasingly confused about where we end and AI begins, and whether the work we produce truly reflects us.
Authenticity is a key element to successful AI utilization while supporting our goal and ambitions.
Definition of Authenticity
Authenticity is about being true to oneself, embracing who we are without pretense or limitation. It’s the alignment of our actions, thoughts, and feelings with our true values and beliefs.
In a world increasingly influenced by AI, staying authentic means not losing sight of our individuality while leveraging technology to enhance, rather than diminish, our uniqueness.
Why is it important to be Authentic?
Authenticity builds trust and credibility by aligning actions with words, fostering honesty, and creating reliable relationships.
Being true to yourself attracts like-minded people, leading to deeper, more meaningful personal and professional connections.
It provides clarity of purpose and confidence in decision-making, aligning choices with your true values.
Authenticity encourages free expression and unique perspectives, leading to more innovative solutions. Authentic leaders inspire and motivate others, creating positive work environments and showing resilience during challenges. It promotes sustainable growth, loyalty, and commitment by staying true to your strengths and passions.
Being authentic reduces stress and increases life satisfaction by allowing you to live in alignment with your true self.
In summary, authenticity leads to trust, stronger relationships, better decisions, creativity, leadership, fulfillment, and well-being, contributing to a more meaningful and successful life.
Why is it Hard to Be Authentic?
Being authentic requires dedication and self-awareness.
Achieving and maintaining authenticity is difficult due to various factors like:
Social Pressure: Individuals often suppress or alter their true selves to fit in with societal norms. Fear of judgment and rejection can discourage the expression of true thoughts and feelings.
Cultural and Familial Expectations: These can impose behaviors that conflict with personal authenticity, making genuine self-expression challenging.
Workplace Dynamics: The need for conformity in the workplace can limit the expression of one’s authentic self, especially when job security or career advancement is at stake.
Lack of Self-Awareness: Without a deep understanding of oneself, it can be difficult to grasp what being authentic truly means.
Internal Criticism and Doubt: Insecurities often fuel self-criticism, making it harder to express oneself authentically.
Media and Social Influences: These can pressure individuals to present themselves in ways that align with societal standards rather than their true identity.
Overcoming these challenges requires building self-confidence, practicing self-reflection, setting personal boundaries, and finding supportive communities that embrace authenticity.
Now, consider the introduction of the new player: AI. This partner sets new boundaries, introduces new information, and takes on tasks that people used to do. AI often operates with confidence, boasting about its capabilities and setting high standards, all backed by data.
This new partner amplifies the human factors mentioned earlier—conformity, internal criticism, and doubt—exacerbating feelings of confusion about our own identities, strengths, and how to make them shine in comparison to AI. The challenge of maintaining authenticity becomes even more complex in the presence of AI, as we navigate our evolving roles and self-perceptions in this partnership.
AI’s Perspective on Authenticity:
From an AI perspective, it is always authentic. Its authenticity is driven by the interplay between data and algorithms.
For AI, authenticity is controlled by the people who work with it, ensuring that its outputs align with organizational needs.
The components that build AI authenticity :
Data Consistency: Authenticity in AI is grounded in the consistency of the data it was trained on. The AI’s “identity” is shaped by this data, and maintaining this identity means that the AI’s responses should consistently reflect the patterns and insights derived from its training data.
Algorithmic Integrity: The algorithms that process the data are the mechanisms through which AI expresses itself. For AI, authenticity involves consistently applying these algorithms according to their design, ensuring that its behavior remains aligned with the principles and logic it was programmed to follow.
Expression of Authenticity: These two aspects—data consistency and algorithmic integrity—work together to enable AI to express authenticity. The AI’s outputs, or “self-expression,” should reflect a consistent application of both its training data and algorithms, resulting in responses that are predictable, reliable, and true to what practical appliction AI was designed to do.
Ai Strategy and the concept of authenticity
An AI strategy’s goal is to align AI technology with an organization’s objectives, ensuring AI enhances operations, drives innovation, and supports decision-making while addressing challenges like ethics, data management, and workforce adaptation. To achieve this goal, an AI strategy should take into consideration the concept of authenticity for both humans and technology. Without this, the partners within this partnership will not be able to bring their best, thereby undermining the goals we are trying to achieve.
Important to Remember
It’s important to remember that authenticity is a journey that keeps evolving and changing with the evolution of AI. It needs to be continually found for people alongside AI as the technology progresses. The way to address this is by adopting a supportive organizational culture that cultivates creative and critical thinking, along with a path to training, maintaining and recognizing employees for creative and critical thinking.
My Thoughts:
Authenticity isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind when we think about what’s most important for progressing our careers—I get that.
But then AI came along, and suddenly, it’s challenging us to be more authentic, to be true to who we are.
Before AI, we were already held back by the need to navigate societal norms, workplace environments, and our own preconceptions to figure out who we are and how to showcase our value at work. For the most part, we managed.
But now, AI has raised the stakes. It’s made things more difficult, as we’re caught up in the hype, thinking it’s better than us and grappling with the fear of it replacing us.
The paradox is that for AI to truly do an amazing job, and for us to show that we can effectively utilize AI to advance our careers, it actually requires us to be authentic.
It’s about remembering who we are and what makes us unique in our jobs.
This is a paradigm shift that few recognize, but it holds the key to your success. I feel like I’m sharing a secret with all of you. I know it’s not easy, but there’s so much freedom and success once you find your authentic self.
If you need someone to talk to… let’s talk. And don’t forget to bring coffee…
