Comments on: Authenticity

By: Make it Happen » Blog Archive » Where do you fit in the conversation?

Make it Happen » Blog Archive » Where do you fit in the conversation? — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:28:55 +0000

[...] When you write something, you should do it as if you were saying it to someone while chatting to them, the words should just roll off your tongue as you open up and tell people what you really want to tell them. Often what happens is though, when people (especially when in business mode) write in a way they would never talk. Rowan writes about this in this post on Authenticity. [...]

By: KateB

KateB — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:51:30 +0000

Totally agree.
But its not just customers that one needs to keep in mind.

This is doubly important when ‘speaking’ to your own people. All too often not enough of the right thought is put into the voice a business uses when speaking to itself. If anyone will know whether or not you’re ‘keeping it real’ it’ll be your own team.

And then … there’s recruitment advertising … good grief!
Anyone read most of the ads in the paper, on SEEK or any number of company websites these days?
They’re a wall of words and all spoken in a voice that I wouldn’t want to work with.
Engaging? I don’t think so.

C’mon NZ business.
Take a deep breath, ask yourselves who you really are, dig deep and don’t doubt your answer then use YOUR voice loud and clear.

People really do want the REAL you.

By: lance

lance — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:15:55 +0000

Nice observation.
Sadly the bigger the corporate the bigger the target and the higher the likelihood that communications are filtered through communications staff and lawyers. They, of course, are pretty far removed from being human :-).

This often also applies to internal communications, which is really sad.

BHPB uses CEO videos a bit, which are much more personal.

There seems to be a belief in some that corporate comms should be full of formal and stilted phrasing. Reading it out aloud as you suggest Rowan is an excellent cure.

By: geoff duncan

geoff duncan — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:55:05 +0000

excellent stuff. I can think of lots of companies who could benefit from this approach :)

I am often suprised when someone from a larger company acts/speaks like a real person, instead of a corporate drone. Its a shame it doesn’t happen more often.

cheers Rowan :)

By: I.T's Just Business

I.T's Just Business — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:28:16 +0000

A note on corporate image

Rowan has a post about authenticity. About small companies pretending to be big companies. Something I’ve been guilty of recently.
Over the last two weeks I’ve rebranded into Trineo and put up the new website. The website headings/categorie…

By: aaron stewart

aaron stewart — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:17:27 +0000

Another advantage of this is the relief from comes at actually being yourself, and not having to put up any false fronts.

It’s not something we give much thought to, but team and personal culture surely aren’t helped by a kind of systematic dissembling…

Being authentic feels so much cleaner – and encourages pride in what we actually are. All good stuff for a small business.