6 Ways to Use Authenticity as your New Career Strategy

Why authenticity is so much more than "being yourself", and how you can use it as your new career playbook.

It was a teeny bit embarrassing. I had just kicked off one of the most important negotiations of my career. I was brand new in the COO role for my company, and one of my first assignments was a contract negotiation that pretty much could make-or-break the company.

And I had no clue what to do.

I remember sitting down with the senior executive from the other company. He was a very nice gentleman, but clearly someone that had decades more experience than I had.

Without much thought, I blurted out, "So, what's important to you in this negotiation?"

Surprisingly (probably to both of us), he kind of spilled his guts and let me quickly know where his main pressure-point was. And then he turned the question back to me.

"What's most important to you in all this?"

When out of my mouth poured (in probably one big run-on sentence), "Well