Fake it till you make it

Faking it till you make it, as the saying goes, is powerful; it enables us to take action before developing the necessary mindset for such circumstances. But it comes with a trap.

Often, we need to step into a role we are not yet familiar with, compelling us to act beyond what we think we're capable of.

Faking it till you make it, as the saying goes, is powerful; it enables us to take action before developing the necessary mindset for such circumstances.

We build our confidence by acting beyond our current confidence level.

It might be stepping up in front of a crowd to deliver a presentation, taking the lead role on a project with high impact, or leading a conversation that has the potential to change the course of an industry.

And yet, faking it till we make it becomes a trap when it's confused with projecting perfection.

Acting like we have all the answers and everything under control leads to decision-making in a vacuum.

As our society becomes more polarized, it's easy to fall into the trap that perfection is necessary for acceptance. According to Audrey Gelman, that might be even more true for women, people of colour, and marginalized groups.

We need to remember that humans are more tolerant than we give them credit for. Building toward more transparency alleviates the need for perfection, leads toward more authentic leadership and creates more engagement.

More engagement leads to more conversation, and in turn, we get better-decision making and the opportunity to tackle the more significant systemic problems.

The reality before us is that while we strive to project that we have our shit together and everything figured out, all we’re doing is ignoring the voices around us trying to tell us how we can do better; we miss out on the most valuable skills of all, vulnerability, active listening and collaboration.

Let's do better!

Miguel,
Sparknotion – Think Differently.