How Authentic Are Your Decisions?
By Krystyna Weston
Important decisions require contemplation and consideration. Ensuring any decision is aligned to your values and those of the communities it impacts, is the step most missed in decision making frameworks.
Dr Kirstin Ferguson has called this period in time The Great Realignment. In a recent newsletter she describes this as
the phenomenon I believe we are seeing as people realign their values and sense of purpose with where and how they choose to work.
In her recent opinion piece in the Financial Review, Kirstin wrote
For modern leaders to successfully navigate the Great Realignment, they must be able to balance their ability to lead with their head and their heart.
I’m in complete agreement with this perspective. My reflection on what is missing in modern leadership, led me to develop the Heart Led Decisions Framework.
The last two years has resulted in people becoming consciously aware of their values. They now require the leaders within organisations to also have values and be true to them. Employees will then decide if there is alignment or not.
Organisations are made up of people. They are made up of people and leaders who make decisions — decisions which are Heart Led or heart less. If we are to prevent the Great Resignation and navigate our way through the Great Realignment, leaders need to make Heart Led Decisions.
In previous stories I discussed how to Humanise and Empathise a decision. In this story I focus on how you authenticate Heart Led Decisions.
When making Heart Led Decisions, authenticating a decision is the ‘A’ in the mnemonic H.E.A.R.T.
When you authenticate something, you check if it’s genuine, real, honest and trustworthy.
When authenticating a decision ask:
is this a true and reliable decision based on values and virtue or is it based on ego, self interest or profit motivation?
If you can answer this question honestly and with integrity, your answer will guide your course of action.
Decisions based on ego or false and manufactured justifications, have a habit of biting you in the proverbial. Sooner or later there will be a not so pleasant consequence for the decision maker.
In authenticating a decision it’s important not to confuse self interest with self reflection. This is not an opportunity to be a smart rat, cleverly concocting a rationale to justify the outcome you want. Politicians have made an art form of this! When you check in to validate a decision, be honest and ensure you are not manipulating this framework to justify what is in fact a heart less decision.
Decisions based on ego and greed have a habit of leading to detrimental outcomes for all the stakeholders. Whilst it’s packaged and marketed by leaders as a win-win at the time, it’s usually a very costly lose-lose in the end.
Authentication of a decision has two aspects:
SELF
- Is this decision true and right for me? Is this decision aligned to my values? Am I being authentic and loyal to myself and what is important to me? Is this decision aligned to personal values of virtue? In making this decision am I respecting my boundaries?
OTHERS
- Is this decision true and right for the organisation? Is this decision aligned to the values of the community I lead. Is this decision authentic and trust building?
Decisions which are not aligned to the broader values of the community become a cancer, eating away and undermining all that is good.
When decisions are aligned to values, there is congruence and authenticity. Where there is alignment there is trust.
How to authenticate a decision from a personal perspective
Authenticating a decision from a personal perspective calls you to look inward and spend time reflecting on the decision with intentionality.
Can you clearly articulate your values and the core foundations and principles which guide your life? People who have no clear values or who have a strong need to please, often find themselves at odds with decisions without being able to articulate why.
A decision which is out of alignment with an individual’s values can build resentment, anxiety and anger. Emotions which often find an external target if they have not been understood or processed internally.
Pay attention to your behaviour and the behaviour of your people. Consider what is at the heart of the upset? When there is discord and a lack of harmony, a great place to start is to consider what your values are. How is this decision eroding the core of your being or that of another? Is there a misalignment between personal values and the decision being made which is fuelling the inner or outer manifestation of the turmoil?
In truth there is freedom, inspiration and potential.
The challenge and skill is learning how to connect with your truth and then ensuring the decision you make honours that. Anything else is self sabotage.
How to authenticate a decision from an organisational perspective
Decisions in business should always be aligned with corporate values. If you do not have corporate values or if you created a set some time ago, ticked that off and tucked them into a bottom drawer, it’s time to revisit them.
This is not a trivial job or a ‘tick box’ task. This is a critical step in building a thriving culture with people who are committed, engaged and working with purpose.
As we reset the way we work and how we engage our people, being true to our values, has never been more important.
Challenges in organisations occur when:
- there are no articulated values
- there is no adherence to published values
- there is a misalignment between an individual’s values and the behaviours and decisions of leaders in an organisation.
Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index speaks of what has been dubbed the “Great Resignation” with over 40 percent of the global workforce considering leaving their employer this year. It cites ‘leaders are out of touch with employees’ and in need of a real shake up.
Section 6 of the report discusses authenticity as key to supporting productivity and wellbeing.
“Before the pandemic, we encouraged people to ‘bring their whole self to work,’ but it was tough to truly empower them to do that. The shared vulnerability of this time has given us a huge opportunity to bring real authenticity to company culture and transform work for the better.”
Jared Spataro, CVP at Microsoft 365
There is certainly an opportunity to bring real authenticity to company culture. In order for this to happen, people need to feel safe to bring all of who they are to work. They will only do that if their values are respected and aligned to the values of the organisation. Leaders who embrace Heart Led Decisions over heart less decisions are best placed to achieve authenticity in their culture.
In order to authenticate a decision, many leaders will need up-skilling in intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. People need to know who they are and be deeply connected with self before they can competently lead others. It is not possible to authenticate a decision if you have not built the foundation blocks to facilitate this or if you have underdeveloped skills to complete the task.
Heart Led Leaders are courageous, vulnerable and values driven. They have developed skills to access and interpret their emotions and the emotions of others. They make their best decisions by engaging more than their brain.
I invite courageous leaders to embrace Heart Led Decisions over heart less decisions and create harmonious and congruent environments, communities and businesses. If you would like to make more Heart Led Decisions in your organisation, I would love to share how!
Heart Led Decisions Framework has the following steps:
H — Humanise
E — Empathise
A — Authenticate
R — Rationale
T — Tangibilise
Heart Led Decisions © 2021
