How to Be an Authentic Speaker, Part 1

According to research by Quantified Communications, “80% of the top 25 engaging speakers also scored in the top quartile in terms of perceived authenticity.” Which means we are drawn to speakers who are authentic. But what is authenticity and how do you measure it?

Researchers Michael Kernis and Brian Goldman are experts on authenticity. And here’s how they define it. They say authenticity is  “the unobstructed operation of one’s true- or core‐self in one’s daily enterprise. However, instead of viewing authenticity as a single unitary process, we suggest that authenticity can be broken down into four separate, but interrelated, components.” They identified the four components of authenticity as: awareness, unbiased processing, behavior, and relational orientation.

Their research is good stuff. Really good stuff. But it’s a bit much to process in just one blog. So today we’ll look at Kernis and Goldman’s first two components which can help us become more authentic speakers. Then on Wednesday, we’ll cover the final two.

Awareness

More commonly referred to as self-awareness, this first component asks the question: how well do you know yourself? Kernis and Goldman said, “it involves being motivated to learn about such things as one’s strengths and weaknesses, goals and aspirations, dispositional characteristics, and emotional states.” Quite simply, if you don’t know who you are, you can’t really be your true, authentic self. And you won’t be able to speak with the confidence that comes from being self-aware and self-assured.

That’s why personality tests like the Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram are so popular. However, if you are looking for a way to learn more about yourself as a public speaker, try our Badge Assessment to discover your presentation persona. And as it turns out, greater self-awareness and self-knowledge lead to stronger belief systems, confidence, and self-acceptance—all things that are important for public speaking.

Unbiased Processing

This second component builds on the first one. Kernis and Goldman say that unbiased processing “involves objectivity with respect to one’s positive and negative self‐aspects, emotions, and other internal experiences, information, and private knowledge.” In other words, authentic speakers are able to take the information they’ve learned about themselves and process it objectively and accurately. They can step outside of themselves to get a better view of themselves. This isn’t easy.

In his famous commencement speech “This is Water” delivered to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College, David Foster Wallace said that education is the hard work of “getting free of [our] natural, hardwired default setting, which is to be deeply and literally self-centered, and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self.” So the most authentic speakers are able to see themselves the way others, their audience members, see them. This keeps them from, as my Mississippi relatives would put it, being too big for their britches. (Translation: authentic speakers stay humble).

These first two components of authenticity are important challenges for speakers. To be authentic, we have to be engaged in the continual process of learning about ourselves. But we also have to practice humility. We have to remember that when we communicate, it’s not just about us. It’s about the people who are listening, too. The people who are forming opinions about who we are as we speak. The ones trying to decide if we are authentic or not.

On Wednesday, we’ll look at the last two components of authenticity. We’ll see how our behavior and relational capacity can help us be more authentic speakers. In the meantime, don’t forget to check out Badge to start the process of learning more about yourself as a speaker.

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