Newsletter #75 : Authenticity

So many bloggers out there with so many underwhelming blogs that we believe that it’s our job to cut through the noise and guide you towards some of the better written and more relevant articles of interest.

We do this by recommending articles we’ve read ourselves, from people who have something to say …

Gilad Horev fits that category as VP of Product at Eventbrite and one of the few people seemingly left in San Francisco.

He leads product development and strategy for event creator products, growth, global payments and before Eventbrite he was managing the Latin American fraud analysis and prevention at PayPal.

He therefore knows a thing or two and this week our eye was caught by a blog he wrote, ¨Coaching Managers : Authenticity over Cheap Publicity” …

We’ll let Gilad explain more … 

“Cheap popularity may have an immediate positive payoff—the team feels soothed by commiseration, or safe in the promise that they don’t have to deliver a complete solution. But this is no way to lead for the long term. Managers may not even realise they’re setting their teams up to be distracted, uncertain, or under-performing when they’re sending these cues. That’s why it’s so important to give it a name and teach managers well”

Continuing with an important theme … this HBR article looks at the balancing act in how authentic you can be as a manager or a leader, and how much of yourself you can actually show.

Be Yourself, But Carefully looks at the managers who by giving too much of themselves in the work environment can actually receive negative results …

“But the honest sharing of thoughts, feelings, and experiences at work is a double-edged sword: Despite its potential benefits, self-disclosure can backfire if it’s hastily conceived, poorly timed, or inconsistent with cultural or organizational norms—hurting your reputation, alienating employees, fostering distrust, and hindering teamwork. Getting it right takes a deft touch, for leaders at any stage of their careers”