Being authentic

The 13 Virtues are about being a professional worth hiring. They are also components of trustworthiness. Virtue #2 - Being Authentic - If you are not being authentic, your clients are almost certainly not going to trust you.

Why?

Because if you don’t know who you are, then they don’t know who you are. 

Are you being someone who is playing a role or part - as if to convince or trick them into working with you? Or are you really someone who can be counted on? When it comes to being counted on, can you be someone who does the right thing, especially when no one is looking?

As a professional, there are many times when you are faced with circumstances where no one will likely know which course you took. You learn some piece of information, and your clients will never know unless you tell them. Or at least it occurs that way in the moment. We all know that the truth eventually comes out - but that’s a different story.

Doing “the right thing” is not necessarily “being authentic” - but it is about being authentic if you have portrayed yourself as someone who does the right thing!

Which is why being authentic is about someone not playing a role or part. It’s not that all professionals need to be the same personality, but can they be authentic in their own expression of being a professional?

Every city or locale has different norms and nuances. How business gets conducted in San Francisco is almost certainly not the same as in Omaha. A professional in each of those locations is going to operate differently, but can still be authentic to his/her own internal values and the local practices.

Being authentic isn’t about being consistent across the country, because there can be different norms and practices. 

Having said that, what might be an exception to that statement? For example, many real estate agents, in most markets in the U.S., routinely go on listing appointments with little to no commitment from the potential seller. The real estate agent prepares for the appointment with market data and other pertinent information. The agent is investing a significant amount of time and effort, anywhere from 2 to 8 hours, depending on distance to the potential seller’s home, traffic conditions, and how long the appointment goes.

But what if a real estate agent decides that they are not going to participate in that type of activity? In other words, they don’t prepare detailed market analysis and marketing plans until after they have made an agreement to work together with the seller? Maybe they don’t even go to the appointment - they start with a phone or video consult?

This would be different from marketplace norms, but it is authentic to the real estate agent who has set high standards for whom they work with and how.

What would be inauthentic: if an agent institutes that kind of rigor with their time...sometimes. In other words, when it is convenient or easy. That might not mean a lot to the client - they will likely never know the difference, but the real estate agent will know. 

Being authentic starts with setting standards for yourself and sticking to them, even when you don’t feel like it. As stated in the very beginning, what is going to happen when you learn a piece of information that might change your client’s decision to continue moving forward? And you haven’t sold a home in a while, so you are highly motivated to get paid? What will you do?

That is why being authentic is important - it sets the tone up front with the client about what kind of person you are - someone that can be counted on to stay true to the standards and values you set for yourself. If you don’t set standards and values for yourself, that is still a standard and example you have set for your clients! They know you are being authentic to that kind of professional - one who will do whatever, whenever - someone who can be blown around in the wind. That, by the way, will limit the type of authentic trust you can have in the relationship. Most likely, you will be spending most of your time in cordial hypocrisy. Nothing wrong with that; it’s just what’s so.