I have encountered this issue of authenticity recently in a handful of situations and it has captured my attention.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why \u2013 Gen Y is all about authenticity.\u00a0 As a Gen Xer, I would argue that it is high on our list also.\u00a0 Yet, some Baby Boomers have a different approach to authenticity and it stems from one key approach \u2013 they believe they have to have the answer to every question.<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019m not talking about aerospace-grade questions, but questions regarding their field of expertise.\u00a0 Recently I witnessed 3 different situations where different Baby Boomer-aged experts encountered a difficult question.\u00a0 The question was clearly beyond what they knew yet all of them attempted to answer it as an expert.\u00a0 Unfortunately for them, the people asking the questions did not seem to believe the Baby Boomer answers.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t believe them either.<\/p>\n
The after effect of the interactions was simple \u2013 I no longer trusted their expertise.\u00a0 The irony of it is in the fact that some of the questions were not even in their area of expertise.\u00a0 The Baby Boomers did not have to provide an answer as they could have easily deferred the question.\u00a0 Instead in each situation they attempted to spout some rather odd sounding answer that came across as just that\u2026odd.<\/p>\n
One of the most powerful communication tools is to simply state, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d\u00a0 If that is too direct you can use, \u201cI\u2019m not sure.\u201d\u00a0 In a strange way, I find it edifying of the person\u2019s expertise \u2013 they answer questions that they know and they legitimately answer with an I don\u2019t know if it is outside of their knowledge base.<\/p>\n
It is disarming, real and authentic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"