Hello, and thank you for joining us for Leading as a True U, an AAOE monthly webinar. A few housekeeping things to get us started today. First, all attendees are in listen-only mode. We're going to be using the Q&A function today to gather questions for the speaker, so if you have any questions throughout the presentation, please utilize that option on your Zoom panel. We will not be using the raise hand function, so again, please submit questions through the Q&A, and you can feel free to interact with other attendees by posting comments to the chat. When using the chat function, just be sure to select all panelists and attendees from the dropdown above the message box before submitting your chat so that everyone can see it. This webinar is being recorded, so please know that we'll be sending all registrants the webinar recording and PowerPoint slides via email in the next couple of days. So today, I would like to welcome our speaker, Dr. Matthew Slater, who is the Administrative Director of Orthopedic Surgery with UC San Diego Health System. So I will be pulling up his presentation, and we'll be welcoming Matthew to introduce himself. Okay, Dr. Slater. Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today and be on this networking call. I'm excited to share my presentation with you about authentic leadership, and in the spirit of authenticity, I wanted to also thank you all for understanding last week when I had a last-minute late cancel. My son had come home from school and was complaining of right lower abdominal pain with a fever and nausea, and I, you know, the nurse in me said, this isn't good, and so we went to the emergency room, and he had appendicitis. I was right, which was great. I trusted my intuition as a parent and a nurse, and he's all taken care of and set now. So thank you so much for, you know, changing your schedules to join me today. One little note, I just want to make sure if you're able to, to have a pen and paper nearby. There will be a little activity we do, so if you have that, it doesn't have to be a huge one. And then just a second to, you know, kind of relieve yourself from distractions, cell phones, email, etc., to allow yourself to really kind of take in what we're going to discuss today. With that said, we've got an agenda for the day. We have a lot to cover, but I'm also going to leave plenty of time for discussion and questions, because I think that's really where we grow from. You're going to hear a lot of repetition today, and it's not by accident. It's really designed to help hit home kind of the key points that I want to help stress throughout this, and that will be ultimately critical to your success with our time together today. I'll go a little bit over who I am, some of the what is authentic leadership, what are some of the benefits, really focusing on what that transformative journey looks like, and some strategies. One of the biggest sections we're going to talk about is overcoming your fear of judgment and tackling imposter syndrome. Definitely have experienced that myself and still do, and then really building some meaningful connections, and how does that really foster an inclusive work environment, empowerment, and motivation, and then kind of a fun little, you know, authenticity is your superpower. So excited to go through this. All right, so this is a little about who I am professionally. As mentioned in the introduction, I oversee the orthopedic surgery service line at UC San Diego Health. I'm a nurse, and I have a master's and doctorate in healthcare administration, and I have no disclosures to disclose today, and then we'll move on to kind of a little bit more about my background that I think tells you a little bit more. So this isn't about being perfect and polished, which is, you know, maybe not always what we see when we look at a leader, we expect a leader, or even as a presentation, but it's really about being real, and so I'm asking for your permission today to be real together, and to be vulnerable, right? So I'm sitting here and talking about authenticity to you, so I need the permission to also be vulnerable and have those conversations with you. If I can't be that way, then why would I sit here and, you know, tell you to be that way? It doesn't make sense. So just a little bit about my background, so you know who I am and why I'm here. So I'm a nurse, and I spent a lot of my life saying I wouldn't be a nurse. I didn't want to go into healthcare. When I was 10 years old, my older sister had a motor vehicle accident. She was in a coma for months and months. She was 17 at the time of her accident, and 18 at the time that she passed away. My mom was a phenomenal nurse, and brought my sister home and set up around-the-clock, you know, home care with a variety of nurses, visiting physicians, and really enabled me to watch how you care for someone that you love so much, and then allow that kind of depth with dignity and respect, and because of that, you know, I had a passion to take care of others, but I also saw what my mom went through as a nurse herself, and then eventually as a nurse executive, and thought there's no way I want to do that. It's not what I want. It's just not me, you know, kind of came up with a million reasons why I wasn't going to become a nurse. Cut to the chase. I became a nurse after trying a variety of other careers, first realizing maybe I want something a little more realistic, and so I became a nurse. The story about my sister kind of came full circle when this last April, my mom had late-stage Parkinson's, and I got to spend a week caring for her as she passed away, and, you know, it really kind of touched me in the sense that, you know, I was able to come full circle and do what she did for my sister in that time, then to do that for my mom, and so I have a true connection and passion to really what we do in health care, and I don't think that just because we're leaders doesn't mean that we're detached from that, right? So it's really important for me that we all understand kind of our purpose and why we're here, and that we're here to be leaders. We're here to learn about authenticity, but we're here because we have a deep connection and a passion about caring for other people. As I started my leadership journey, I had a CAO that I worked with who was really hard on me, and she was just a really challenging boss and, quite honestly, a challenging person. The best word to describe her, I would say, is a bully, and I was young in my career, and I didn't know how to handle that, and I was not authentic in myself. I was always trying to be something I thought I was supposed to be, as I'm sure many of us do in our early in our leadership career, and probably continuing on, and I'll never forget one day I was in the kind of executive suite area, and it was just she and I, and I was standing there getting ready to walk out the door, and I was wearing my favorite tie. It was a tie that my husband gave me. It was pink. It had the, it was a designer tie. I don't know how much money has been on it, but it's beautiful. I had these like purple daisies on it. It was just so pretty, and I loved it, and I just, every time I wore it, I got all these compliments on it, and this woman walked up to me, and she grabbed me around. She grabbed my tie and like pulled me into her, and she told me, you know what my grandfather used to say, and I was already kind of caught off guard, right? I'm not used to someone being in that kind of space with me, and she said, pink is for sissies. Remember that, and she like pushed me on the chest, and I walked out the door, and I sat there, and I just didn't know what to do because I didn't know how to be authentic. I didn't know how to be myself. I didn't know how to stand up for myself, and I didn't know how to break down some of those barriers, and so again today, I want to get across to all of us that this is really important. It's important for not only how others look at us as a leader, but it's important for ourself. My proudest moment of being an authentic leader, and kind of well after this fact, was I had a team member who was always positive, and effervescent, and lively, and just a fun person to be around, and I noticed that he started to have a shift, and so I'd bring him into my office, and I'm like, hey, what's going on? Are you doing all right? Like you just kind of seem like a change, and I'd always get the typical, yeah, everything's fine, and I didn't push it, and I kind of just watched him, and I just kind of kept noticing this decline in like who he was. His light was dimming, so to say, and so I one day like was really like he just wasn't at all himself, and I brought him in, and I said, is everything okay? And he's like, no, but you've showed me you actually care, and so I'm going to talk to you, and so he shared with me that he had recently come out to his family. His dad was abusive and was kicking him out, and he didn't know what he was going to do, and his he was helping raise his brothers and sisters at home, and he was very worried about them, and he had all this stress in life, and then he said, and he confirmed to me that he had a plan and an intent to end his life on the way home from work, and so I asked him to trust me, and he said he did, and so I took him, and we walked down to the emergency room, and he ended up being admitted on a 5150 hold, and then was later admitted into the psychiatric unit for care about, you know, deep depression. He was out of work for about six weeks, and I came back. I knew he was coming back, and I came into my office that morning, opened my door, and there was three dozen red roses sitting on my desk, like the most beautiful arrangement I've ever seen, and then on the bottom of it, there was just a note, and it said, thank you for saving my life, and as a leader, I thought, oh my gosh, this is it, right? I was able to connect to someone because I was open about who I am, and it allowed me to legitimately save somebody's life, and so I want to get through that during this conversation, this is what we're talking about. We're not talking about, you know, this perfectly polished, well-spoken, amazing leader. Those are great, too, right? Those are phenomenal. However, we're talking about, you know, being real with each other, and how do we be real with our teams, and how do we lead authentically, so I want everyone to just take a quick step back, and I want you to think about someone who is so amazingly authentic in your life that you instantly felt comfortable, you know, that kind of, just, I can tell you anything, like, it's great, and I want you to then kind of answer this poll as we're going through it, you know, how do you, do you feel that you're most authentic self currently as a leader, and there's no right answer here. This is, you know, we're going to kind of answer, we're going to do the same poll at the end, and have that discussion again. All right, thank you for doing that. Looks like we got good answers here, so a lot of us say yes, we feel like we are, some no, and some not sure, and that's just fine, so I'm hoping at the end, we feel, like, much more prepared to be kind of authentic in our leadership. All righty, so what is authentic leadership? So if we look at the dictionary definition of authentic, it's of undisputed origin, or genuine, right, and so as leaders, we often find ourselves having to juggle various roles, responsibilities, but it's essential to remember, kind of, that our kind of, that our embracing our true selves is the foundation of impactful leadership. So throughout today, we're going to explore how authenticity and leadership not only benefits individuals, but it also creates that positive ripple effect within our teams and organizations, and so it's, if you imagine that, that pond with perfectly still water, and you're taking you through the stone in the middle of it, and you see the ripples going out from that stone, and I want you guys at the end of this to feel comfortable being that stone, and I want your teams to feel like they're feeling those kind of small waves, those ripples of your authenticity, and who you really are. So we're going to go into the transformative journey of authentic leadership, and discover that there's a lot of power in being genuine, and being honest, and transparent in our roles, and so authentic leadership goes well beyond the conventional notion of authority versus control, right, so there's authority as an authoritative figure, and then there's someone who's controlling, and I would liken that CAO I talked about as the kind of controlling type, and then somebody with authority has kind of that respect, right, they have respect as a leader. It's really aligning your actions and your decisions with your core beliefs, and your values, and your personality traits, so when you lead authentically, you actually get to let your true self shine through, right, we're not asking you to be someone else, we want you to be you, and you're cultivating an environment of openness, and trust, and what that approach does is it encourages our honest communication, and vulnerability is viewed as a strength rather than a weakness, and I want you to sit in that for a sec, so vulnerability is viewed as a strength rather than a weakness, which is awesome, right, because it gives us that chance to learn, and it gives us that chance to develop, and be who we are, and we look at those situations, and we try to figure out what can we glean from them, right, and kind of seeing it as like, oh my goodness, that person had to ask about how do I do this in a computer, well they must not be, no, we're going to reward that, we want to reward those questions, we want to get to the bottom of that, and so I'm going to go into kind of our next quote here is, authenticity isn't about being perfect, it's about being real, and again, you might have heard me say this already, and you're going to hear me say it a lot more, so it's going to be a repeated theme as we talk today, and I want you to set your intentions around this. As leaders, we strive so hard to be perfect, I'm so guilty of it myself, but have you ever told a child, a friend, a loved one, an employee, or colleague, it's okay to not be perfect, right, or perfection isn't attainable? I tell my kids this all the time, right, they come home with homework, I just don't understand this math homework, and honestly, I don't understand some of their homework either, they've changed math so much, but do you tell them, you know, oh no, you have to get it right, you have to be just right, it has to be perfect, no, I doubt you do, if someone's struggling to reach a goal, do you tell them, like, well, unless you get the goal, like, you're nothing, no, I would venture that none of you would say that, so do you hold yourself to the same standard, are you giving yourself the same respect to say, it's okay if I'm not perfect today, it's okay to not be okay, and it's okay to kind of keep it real, if you're not, then I'm hoping after today, you feel more comfortable doing so. So many benefits of leading authentically, right, we're fostering trust, we're enhancing team dynamics, we're inspirational to others, we're reducing our own stress, we're building resilience, we're strengthening relationships, we're encouraging openness, as we talked about before, and we're setting an example, so authentic leaders become sources of inspiration to others, right, they're motivating others around them to tap into their potential and contribute their best selves to the collective goals of their organization, right, it's that ripple effect, it's helping everybody, it's not just us, some of the ones that stand out to me are really fostering trust, inspiring others, promoting innovation, cultivating inclusivity, reducing our stress, and enhancing our overall well-being. I think everyone would want to have like a magic trick, right, that we could say, look at all these wonderful things, and it happens, well, I wish I had that for you, but I don't sell snake oil, authenticity isn't a magic pill, and there's no like magic thing I can give you today, because it takes work, and it takes allowing your guard to be let down, that's not easy for us as leaders, right, we're very used to kind of putting up our walls, and so it's hard to kind of take out some of those building blocks in our walls, letting our guard down a bit. Of course, you have to understand your audience, right, you have to read the room, so to say, when is it right to be that buttoned up, polished, consummate professional, perhaps in certain meetings you have, perhaps with investors, perhaps with other things that you're doing, those are the times we have to present that perfectly polished individual, but when's it okay to be casual, when's it okay to really let your true self shine through, you know, I use a lot of humor in my leadership, I love laughter, I think it's great, and so I have had to learn personally, like when's it okay to really add in the humor that I use, and when's it not, and you know, for the most part, I'd say 99% of the time, you know, I'm the one cracking jokes, and having fun, and then there's the one person at a time where I have to be much more straight-laced, depending on the topic, so you're leading authentically, you're fostering a culture of trust, your team members are feeling more comfortable expressing their thoughts and ideas, and it's leading to enhanced collaboration, and improved team dynamics. So, we're going to embrace an authentic and a transformative journey, what does it require on your part, right, it requires a self-awareness, requires your willingness to grow, to realize, okay, I've got some things to do, it involves continuous self-discovery, self-acceptance, and ongoing self-improvement. As you navigate the journey, right, you're going to be you're going to be finding that being your true self not only elevates your leadership, and how people look at you, but has a positive impact on your relationships, and your personal well-being, right, we're not trying to hide, we're not trying to pretend we're something we're not, we're really allowing ourselves to shine through, we're going home at the end of the day, and we're feeling proud of who we are, and what we've done. Have you ever worked in the past, kind of, either for a degree, a professional license, a relationship, a promotion, was it easy? Guessing you're probably going to say no, right, but did you allow yourself to learn more about yourself in those moments? Were you accepting of the times where maybe you kind of missed the mark, and did you allow yourself to move on, are you still stuck in that place? Guessing, because you're here, you allowed yourself to move on. Did you engage in ongoing improvement, right, did you think back through, okay, I missed this, and now I'm going to try this? These are things that we do in life all the time, right, our leadership journey has to be no different, we must always be learning, we must always be willing to grow, we really have to accept our own failures, but we have to be able to move on, and then we embrace those failures, and look at them as opportunities to change, look at them as your opportunities to grow, we have pearls of wisdom that come just from those times that we make a misstep, just those times where you think, oh, I shouldn't have sent that email, I should have changed the way I said that, somebody didn't get my message quite right. All of this is only going to help you as a leader to grow, to earn those promotions you want, to improve your relationships, and when work life is good, we bring home that positivity, and we spread that joy in our personal life. So, we're going to delve into some strategies here for authentic leadership, and so, you know, embracing vulnerability, and acknowledging your limitations, and seeking help when needed. Ask yourself, kind of like, how hard is it to ask for help? I will be perfectly transparent, I struggled for so long to realize that asking for help was a sign of growth, and it was a commitment to whoever I was asking, that I want to learn something, I want to improve, was never looked at as a sign of weakness, except for by myself, like I was the one kind of beating myself up, and so, acknowledging kind of where your limitations are, and seeking that help when needed is super important. Identify and amplify your strengths, your unique qualities that set you apart as a leader, right? You bring things to the table that nobody else can. So, identify those things, and then really put, you know, a microphone on them, and stand up, and share those things, amplify those things that you bring to the table. Also, where's your growth areas? You know, you have to adopt that growth mindset. Even if you're the CEO of your organization, you still have things that you can learn, and bring to the table later on. Otherwise, again, you wouldn't be at this talk, you wouldn't be going to conferences, you wouldn't be trying to further yourself, you would be kind of the know-it-all of everything, but I don't think anybody's at that point in their career. We all have to continue learning, continue learning. You have to demonstrate your commitment to continuous improvement, right? And authentic leaders actively listen, they're showing empathy, and they remain open to different perspectives. So, how many times have you listened to someone speaking, and you in your mind were thinking, how am I going to respond to this? I'm way guilty here, right? That's what we do as humans, we're always kind of like, all right, they're saying yada, yada, yada. I know that this is my response. And so I ask you, did you miss anything that they were saying to you? And I would guess probably yes. So here's where we're going to grab that piece of paper and a pen. If you have it, if you don't, that's fine. I want you to listen to the directions before you get started. So I want you to write your name on the paper on the top right corner. And then I want you to draw a quick stick figure of a person. It can be whatever stick figure you want. Next to that, I want you to write your favorite color and your dream vacation. So two kind of favorites in one spot. All right. So is everybody kind of with me here? Now you don't have to say any of this right out loud, but how many of you have writing on your paper at all? So if you do, you weren't actively listening because the first direction I gave you was to listen to the directions before you get started. This is a really good thing to do with your teams because a lot of times, and you'll see that a lot of people will kind of move forward, right? They're making notes. I got to put my name here. I got to put the stick figure here. I got to do whatever. Or they're actually following through the directions, but it really gives us that chance to say, stop and listen, listen to what everything says. Just a little activity, a little brawl you can take home with you. So we're going to focus here a little bit on overcoming our fear of judgment. So again, here we are again, this isn't about perfection, about being real. And it's important to recognize that authenticity, again, is not being about perfect. It's about being real. You have to embrace those imperfections and recognize that authenticity connects you to others on a much deeper level. So have you ever been out doing something or wherever? I can think of many times, especially in college, where I was lost. I was looking for a new building where a new class was, started the semester, maybe a meeting room. When I used to work at UCLA, it's just such a giant organization. And they have this huge building that was built, I believe, back in the 60s. And the rumor is, and I don't know if it's true, but the building has more miles of hallways than the Pentagon. It's just like, and there's so many places that go nowhere. And like, you can be on the B level, and you're walking down a hallway, and then somehow you're on the C level next. And so I was always lost in that building. So have you ever done that? And then you happen to run into somebody else looking for the same thing? And if so, did you kind of band together and go on your mission? It's in that moment that you're letting them know, kind of, hey, I'm not perfect. I need help. You need help? Great. And you're kind of making that connection and walking together. And so again, when we let down that guard, and we allow ourselves to connect in a deeper level and say, hey, I don't know where I'm going. I don't know what I'm doing. You kind of get to build that relationship, even if it's just finding a new classroom. So letting go of that fear of judgment, oh, that person is going to look at me like I don't know where I'm going, and I'm lost. Well, yeah, they're feeling the same thing. And you're creating an environment where that authenticity flourishes. And so full disclosure, my favorite TV character is Judge Judy. And so I definitely wanted to put Judge Judy's picture here. But I decided on just a regular Cavill. But Judge Judy is my hero, and I would probably be her if I could be anybody. All right. So this is where we're going to get a little deeper here. So I want you to understand, you belong in every single room you're in. So what is imposter syndrome? Imposter syndrome is feeling of self-doubt despite your own evident success. You can be the CEO of an organization, walk into a room where you're maybe meeting with investors, or you're meeting with somebody else, and you're still doubting what you do. No, you have success. You're a CEO. You worked hard to get to where you are. You're smart. You've been educated. You've gone through the school of life, and there you are. You do not need to doubt what you're doing. And the root cause of imposter syndrome is really kind of that fear of, oh, I'm going to be exposed as a fraud. Someone's going to find out I don't know something. Well, now let's go back to what we were thinking. It's okay to not know. It's okay to ask questions. It's okay to say, I'll get that for you later. I'm not sure. How do we kind of overcome imposter syndrome? And that's really acknowledging your feelings. So accepting that you're experiencing imposter syndrome, don't deny it, don't suppress it, but allow yourself to know that. And then be kind to yourself and avoid self-criticism. I know we're all, again, speaking for myself, I certainly self-destruct, and I'm like, oh, man, you shouldn't have done that, or you shouldn't have done that, or said this. And it's taken me a long time to realize that kindness is a way of life, and it's really important that we practice it to ourselves as well. Seek feedback from others. So if you have mentors, if you have peers, reach out to them. If you have a supervisor, reach out to them, and ask them for constructive feedback, and take that in knowing that this is something you're seeking that's going to make you better. Now, have open conversations with the people you trust, and gain different perspectives on your situation. Being mindful, it's kind of one of our buzzwords in today's society, but really being mindfulness, and kind of meditating, and engage in that mindful practice, helping you to stay grounded, and reduce anxiety. Breathing exercises are incredibly powerful, and I know I was one that definitely denied it at first, and I was like, I really take a deep breath, okay, come on. But you can use breathing exercises simply to kind of like manage your stress, calm your mind, you know, take those deep breaths, relax, focus on something, kind of gazing out, and really allowing yourself to kind of be present in that moment. You know, I do breathing exercises probably, you know, once a month with my team, and we'll go through, and we'll just do, you know, some breath work, and we'll work on, you know, how do we stay grounded, and every time everyone feels like, oh my gosh, I was able to kind of really help me, and reduce my anxiety about whatever it might have been going on. Developing your growth mindset, right, so, you know, adopt an attitude that's about learning, right, and view challenges as opportunities for growth. Failure, as talked about, is what? A learning experience. So failures as a part of the process, as a part of your learning process, and not an indication of your inability, or your incapacity to do something. Document your achievements, writing down, and journaling is so important, and so powerful too. Create an achievement journal, maintain a little journal, or a note, you know, or a notepad in your phone, or whatever it may be, however you'd like to write, but write down and record your achievements, big and small. I connected with a staff member today that I haven't been able to connect with in a year, that was great, you know, I landed a great deal, I got a promotion, I was able to, you know, book x amount of surgery, whatever it may be, but really get yourself, you know, tagged in celebrating those achievements, big and small. These are positive affirmations, like I'm doing great, I'm going to get through this, this is awesome, you know, things are going well. Focus on enhancing your skills and your competencies, attend workshops like you're doing today, further your knowledge in your field, self-care, this is so important. So physical, take care of your physical health through regular exercise and a balanced diet, really making sure that you're carving out time to care for you. Mental health, seek therapy and counseling if you find it difficult to manage, you know, your feelings that you're dealing with, whatever it may be, whether it's imposter syndrome, or whether it's something at work, or whether it's something in your personal life. You know, I saw a recent kind of quote, or I think it was a meme, or something along those lines, but it was talking about, you know, that we don't acknowledge our mental health enough, and it was saying kind of like, not acknowledging or giving time for your mental health, it's kind of like going on a road trip and never getting gas, right? So we get stuck and we stop, and so figuring out ways to support your own mental health is really important. Set yourself smart goals, right? So we all know smart goals, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant in time, and so set smart goals that you can actually reach and measure, and then make incremental goals. So break down these big goals into small goals that are manageable, and you know, you don't feel as overwhelmed. I go back to kind of that old joke, how do you eat an elephant? Well, one bite at a time, and again, we have to have those small, small steps, baby steps. You know, consider joining support groups or online communities, reconnect with others that are feeling similar experiences, sharing your story can help you bring relief, or help bring relief to you, and then develop your own coping mechanisms, whether again, that's, you know, going to the gym, that's taking a walk, that's doing breath exercise, but when you're feeling that kind of feeling of like, oh, hey, I don't deserve this, right? I'm not good enough to be in this room, or whatever it may be, you know, use some of these techniques, and trust yourself and your abilities, because you can overcome it, it's a gradual process, it's okay to have ups and downs, we're not going to be perfect all the time, but your consistent effort and your awareness of yourself in this process is going to help you manage and kind of overcome your imposter syndrome as you go through it. So believe in your journey, value your growth, and lead with confidence. And we're going to pause here for just a sec, just to see if there's any questions that we have. I know there's a lot of information right now, we're also going to have questions at the end. So if you're not ready yet, you want to hear the rest of it, by all means, we can do that. But certainly for now, we're going to pause if you have something you want to share, Jessica is going to be kind of monitoring the chat or the Q&A. All right, I'm not seeing anything come through yet, but feel free to drop them in throughout the remainder of the presentation. And we can have question and answer time at the end as well. Awesome, thank you. I guess I'm doing a really great job because no one has questions. So we can stop now. No, I'm kidding. Alrighty, so how are we going to build meaningful connections? Because it's so important, right? So it fosters trust and mutual respect, it promotes effective collaboration, enhances engagement and creates a sense of belonging. So authentic leadership is kind of a conduit, right, for building these meaningful connections with your team. You know, there's genuine interactions, fostering trust, mutual respect, paving your way for effective collaboration. And when team members see that their leader is authentic, they're much more likely to engage, they're more likely to contribute, and they're more likely to feel a sense of belonging. You know, in the conference last year, and ongoing in talking with peers, we've all had and we're continually having issues with turnover, recruiting good people, hiring and retaining staff members. So it's only gotten harder with the pandemic, and I know was really a hot topic that we talked about last year, or earlier this year, I should say. So as the leader, being authentic and creating an environment where there is collaboration, belonging, innovation, fun, are all ways that you're going to help build some of those teams. And when people come and they see that they experienced that, it makes them want to stay there, and it makes them more engaged. Have you ever been just kind of thinking through, have you ever been yourself in an interview, or a meeting or a room where you thought, wow, I'm not sure how I feel about this place, or this person, or the environment I'm in? Our teams feel that too, and so do our candidates. And so they're interviewing us as much as we're interviewing them. And they have many choices these days, right? It's hard to find good team members, because they have so many options. So you as a leader are really responsible for creating, again, that ripple effect, and creating that environment. But it has to kind of start with you. You're the stone that drops in the water that creates the ripples. And you're the one kind of, you know, really setting the tone and charting the course for your team. Promoting inclusivity is a really big thing these days as well, right? So leading authentically kind of contributes to our inclusive work environment. And diverse perspectives are valued and very, very important. It's important to allow diversity in your teams. It's important to show diversity in your teams, and to allow others to see that, because it's going to help you, you know, build stronger teams. Authentic leaders are champions for diversity and equity, right? We're promoting an atmosphere of acceptance and understanding, regardless of who someone is. And we're celebrating individual differences. So you're creating that space where everyone feels heard. They feel respected. It's okay to make those mistakes. It's okay to voice their opinions. It's okay to share information. And they can do so really feeling comfortable that, you know, we're going to learn from them. They're going to teach us something. We're going to teach them something. And as a team, we're going to overcome things in a stronger fashion. And so making sure that we're touching on that inclusivity is really important to our overall team success. You also are going to be inspiration to others, right? So sharing your personal experiences and challenges. You know, I started the conversation today sharing some very personal experiences of mine, because I wanted to connect with you on a deeper level. I wanted you to understand who I am, and that I'm not just somebody here who's a nurse, and who has a doctorate, and who has this, and, you know, is leading this organization, because then I'm kind of a square. I'm just, you know, a little bit of a peg that you put into a hole, right? I'm just just a leader. But I'm hopeful that in sharing those, you understand kind of where my background is, and we're able to connect in a different way. So sharing your personal experiences and challenges kind of demonstrates the, you know, our success, and the hard work, and being authenticity. Your story becomes a source of motivation for your team, and encourages them to embrace their own uniqueness, and pursue their goals fearlessly, which is fantastic. And it allows them to have, again, that connection to you, or connection to one another that they may not have had otherwise. It gives them that opportunity to share personal stories, and find where there may be a connection through, you know, someone's interests, their hobbies, a loss they've experienced, something that they're celebrating, a degree they have that someone else may have. And it allows you to build that stronger network, and that stronger team, again, where people are going to feel more comfortable, and they're going to want to stay, because they're working with a team they enjoy. So again, we're back to this, right? It's your personal growth, and your transformation, and the ripple effect through authentic leadership. So we've talked a lot about the benefits of embracing authenticity. We've talked about your personal growth, and your transformation, and it's really your self-awareness, and your confidence. We've talked about how you're going to inspire others, and people are going to also kind of go on that self-discovery journey, who are around you, and who are with you. And we, you know, repeated this theme of the ripple effect, because it's not just your own personal growth, it's not just your own personal fulfillment, but it's enhancing everyone else's overall happiness around you. And really, I love this, is authentic leadership is a catalyst for comprehensive growth, and fulfillment, and happiness. And so really allowing ourselves to be with ourselves, to allow ourselves to grow, to allow ourselves to make those mistakes, to acknowledge those as those pearls, right? And find the right way to grow and learn from each of those is going to be critically important. And then our ongoing journey, right? So embracing your authenticity leads to a personal growth and transformation. You're going to become more self-aware, you're going to become more confident, and you're going to inspire those around you to kind of embark on their own journeys. And so kind of looking into where are we going on our journey, right? So what are our requirements? It's introspection, understanding yourself before you try to reach out to others. The courage, such a big deal, right? We're having to brave challenges, and we're having to understand and have the courage to make mistakes. You know, I've heard some leaders I work with say something along the lines of, fail forward fastly. And so we're moving forward and we're making mistakes, but we're learning from them and we're continuing to grow. And then our commitment to our growth, right? So continually striving to be better at what you do. We've talked a lot about the benefits, your thriving workplace, encouraging individual growth, deepening connections, the genuine impact you have, defining success by the real positive influence you're having on people, maybe not always just by your revenue, your profits, your numbers. And then really my call to action for you is to really embrace authenticity, leveraging your true self, fire others, and really being that transformative leader that people want to be around, that they want to follow. And they're really following because you're a leader, you're not the boss. And inspiring a new era, right? Advocating for leadership that's compassionate and truly authentic. We're not in the days of, you know, the past where the boss was the boss and you never questioned it and this is what you do and this is how it works. We as a society have made change and we look at leaders very differently now. And so partially it's on us to transform and to allow ourselves to grow into those leaders. But it's also important to do that for those around us and to help people understand. So really this is the dawn of kind of a new era of authentic leadership. And so in a world that often emphasizes conformity, authenticity stands out as a superpower. When you lead authentically, you cultivate an environment where individuals feel safe to express themselves and it fosters innovation, creativity, and a strong sense of community. Remember that your authenticity is not a limitation but a driving force behind your success. I share a final kind of story about my uncle who was working in cancer research. And he was dealing with some sort of experiment and I don't know exactly what it was. But he was able to do this experiment and he did it and he was trying out these new drugs and at the end of the the trial he had made a very large mistake and it cost the organization in the millions of dollars. He got called into his boss's office and he was convinced he was getting let go. I really messed this up. I screwed up. Interestingly enough when he got called in his boss's office, his boss said to him, I just spent millions of dollars training you. Why would I let you go? And it's so true, right? So we're cultivating an environment where our individuals feel safe to express themselves and that's what drives innovation. They're not afraid to share their ideas because they're going to get shot down. They're going to come up with the things that help us to be better. And remember if you ever think you're too small to make change or you're not enough or your team members aren't enough, share the story of the mosquito. And so if you've ever gone camping or been around where there's mosquitoes, which I'm assuming all of us have, and you've tried to go to sleep and there's one mosquito in the tent, that mosquito can make change, right? Because that mosquito is making a grown human bat it away, try to get away, use bug spray, listen to it buzzing in your ear, and so that tiny, tiny little mosquito is making you change your behavior. And so remember that we're never too small to start to make those changes. And so the last poll I see went up. It looks like we have people who feel better prepared to be an authentic leader moving forward, which is awesome. And I just want to say thank you so much for spending this time with me to talk about a topic that I'm passionate about, but I know that we can make change together and give you an opportunity if you have questions or any comments that you wanted to share. We'll give it just a couple more seconds. If anyone has questions, feel free to drop them in the Q&A box or in the chat. I'm monitoring both while we are waiting to see if there are any questions to finalize. I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to Dr. Slater for your presentation today. I personally found it really meaningful and insightful and appreciate your time and taking to put this together. And I also wanted to share that following this call there is going to be a networking opportunity, so if you have time and would like to stay on and have that discussion, then you'll have an opportunity to do that. There is to stay on the poll or the webinar, and I'll allow you to talk. You'll be able to join in conversation. So before we wrap, just giving one more opportunity. Oh, you know what? It looks like we have some questions here or at least some comments. Great. So folks saying thank you and that it was great, very helpful, and exactly what they needed today. So just echoing that, thank you so much, Dr. Slater. Yeah, truly my pleasure. And just as an aside as well, this recording is going to be sent out after the fact, so if you would like to re-watch it or share this with anyone else on your team, you'll have an opportunity to do that. All right, I'm going to go ahead and end. Thank you again, Dr. Slater, really appreciate it. Have a good one. You too, thanks.

Dr. Matthew Slater

Authentic Leadership

Vulnerability

Imposter Syndrome

Inclusive Work Environments

Meaningful Connections

Trust

Self-awareness