How to cultivate your personal WYSIWYG style

I don’t do politics, but Israel-Gaza opens up an entrepreneurial opportunity that is worth exploring and considering.

WYSIWYG translates to what you see is what you get.  It is a software program created at Xerox PARC in 1974.  Welcome to point and click.

In behavior, it expresses itself as “I am who I am, I’m Popeye the sailor man.”  It is often associated with authenticity.  If you don’t like it, go suck a lemon.  Leadership style can vary, but at its core, the basics of that model are immutable.

Within that consistency, relationships can form.  Getting to know someone really matters.  It is the lubrication that allows for deals.  It makes it easier to quickly understand the parameters of any deal.  

It is what allowed President Trump to bring everyone to the table and craft a peace deal.  Whether you like him or not, he built relationships, and his WYSIWYG style allowed all the players to trust enough to sign on. So far.

However, leading a technology startup is not the same as international politics.  Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, organizational psychologist, has written a book, “Don’t Be Yourself: Why Authenticity is Overrated.”  

Many leadership seminars tell us to trust ourselves, follow our heart and be true to our values.  He says that kind of authentic behavior supports improved personal self-esteem, a positive mood, and a higher personal opinion of well-being.  In other words, just let it fly and if you don’t like it pal, too bad, take a hike – I am just being me. 

Authenticity.  We follow our own star, we do what we want, we say what we think, unfiltered, and we feel good about ourselves.  But true corporate leadership is not about you, it is about everyone else.  

Chamorro-Premuzic says, “Feeling that you are being authentic does not equate to being perceived as talented or competent by others.”  What is required is “impression management.”  That is a fancy sociological phrase that translates simply to the need to understand how others perceive you.  Buy a mirror.

To be successful at this founder/leadership game, you need to learn to project and manage a theatrical performance to your employees and investors.  Perception trumps reality.  Even if your personal authenticity feels great, you will be a more effective leader if you learn to meld your behavior to the situation and develop the chameleon in you.

This does not mean if you have to give up on your core values, rather it means you have to learn to modulate or even censor your “whole authentic self.”  Surprise, it is not only about you.

When you understand impression management, you are not being a fake, rather you are listening carefully to the situation and the needs of the moment. The tension is between “subjective authenticity” (take it or leave it) and “reputational reality” which presents you as diplomatic, understanding and mature.  The paradox is between feeling good about yourself and being valued by others. 

“Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote.  Leaders need to be willing to tack in a completely new direction when the wind shifts.  

My little AI company is plagued at the moment with too many nice guys and too little working software.  It is time for drama. Our co-CEO is about to go full ballistic.  That is not his true / authentic nature.  But in this situation, he is an actor on a stage.  The moment demands a rage-against-the-machine performance, complete with fireworks and exploding laptops.  

He is not a raw, unfiltered maniac.  Quite the opposite.  But a good leader balances between authenticity, diplomacy and appropriate fury.  Chamorro-Premuzic says, “Skilled self-awareness and sensitivity to how others see you will enable you to seem genuine, rather than fake.”  Your relationship to the team ebbs and flows all the time.  It is a dance.  Listen to the music.  Time to tango.

At the margin, this discussion is a bit orthogonal.  By learning to modulate your personal WYSIWYG, you begin to develop even more authentic instincts that are appropriate to various situations.  Your chameleon skills allow you to integrate a more effective situational behavior, and in this way, your true self becomes closer to the reputational reality you desire. So what they see is what you want.

This is why psychoanalysts still have a place in the startup world.

Rule No. 804:  Mirror mirror on the wall.

Senturia is a serial entrepreneur who invests in startups. Please email ideas to neil@askturing.ai