Strategies for authentic leadership in mixed-gender teams

Your team doesn't need a perfect leader They need an authentic leader. Research from MIT shows that 53% of first-time leaders experience self-doubt. Yet most of us hide it. We smile through uncertainty. We nod when confused. We project confidence while questioning everything. This gap between who we are and who we pretend to be? It has a name: Emotional labor. And it's exhausting us. I remember coaching a senior executive who built her entire leadership identity on "having all the answers." Her team was disengaged. Innovation had stalled. When I asked her team what they needed, their answer surprised her: "We don't need her to be perfect. We need her to be real." Research consistently shows that teams with authentic leaders report higher psychological safety – the #1 predictor of team performance. When leaders pretend: → Psychological safety plummets → Creative thinking shuts down → Trust erodes, silently When leaders practice authenticity: → Teams feel permission to bring their whole selves → Innovation thrives in the space of safety → Problems surface before becoming crises I've coached hundreds of leaders who believed leadership meant performing perfection. They were burning out trying to be someone they weren't. The breakthrough always came when they realized: Leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about asking better questions. It's not about being fearless. It's about being brave enough to acknowledge fear. 3 conscious shifts to move from performing to presence: 1/ Practice Conscious Vulnerability ↳ Not "I'm a mess" but "I'm working through this challenge" ↳ Not oversharing, but strategic authenticity ↳ Ask: "What truth, if shared, would help my team right now?" 2/ Replace Certainty with Curiosity ↳ Shift from "I know the answer" to "Let's explore this together" ↳ Model how to navigate uncertainty with confidence ↳ Remember: Questions create more safety than declarations 3/ Create Authenticity Anchors ↳ Identify when you feel most "yourself" at work ↳ Build more of those moments into your day ↳ Start meetings with genuine check-ins, not just agendas The most powerful leadership tool isn't your expertise or your authority. It's your humanity. When you lead from who you truly are, you give others permission to do the same. And that's when real transformation begins. What's one mask you're ready to take off as a leader? 📚 Explore conscious leadership in my book - The Conscious Choice 🔔 Follow Bhavna Toor for more insights on build authenticity without sacrificing authority

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽? "Leaders must have all the answers." I recently coached a brilliant C-suite executive who spent 70% of her energy hiding what she didn't know. As a queer woman in leadership, she felt crushing pressure to be twice as perfect. Her breakthrough came from a simple truth: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻'𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁. Here's the leadership paradox that's killing innovation: 📌 The more flawless you appear, the less connected you become 📌 The more infallible you seem, the less trust you build 📌 The more superhuman you act, the less human you feel to others Harvard's research is clear: Psychological safety — the #1 predictor of team performance — dies in cultures of perfectionism. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗼𝗻𝗲. 4 practical ways to trade perfectionism for presence: 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘃𝘂𝗹𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 ↳ Start meetings with "Here's what I'm still figuring out..." ↳ Share your learning journey, not just your victories 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲 ↳ Ask "What did we learn?" before "How do we fix it?" ↳ Celebrate the courage to try, not just successful outcomes 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 ↳ Replace "Any questions?" with "What am I missing?" ↳ Thank people publicly for challenging your thinking 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 ↳ Normalize reflection with "Let me think about that" ↳ Show that leadership includes listening The results I've seen when leaders embrace this approach: • 2-3x increase in team innovation • Dramatically higher psychological safety • More diverse voices in decision-making • Authentic connections that drive performance 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵? Your team already knows you're not perfect. They're waiting to see if you're present. 🔥 Question for leaders: What might become possible if you stopped trying to be flawless and started being real? Share your experience below 👇 P.S. For more on building psychological safety through radical kindness, check out my Field Notes newsletter (LINK IN BIO)

I used to struggle to share my ideas in meetings bustling with dominant voices. Not because I was scared, but because I never felt comfortable. Ouch. My seniors and peers often told me: "Speak up, have a presence, be bold!" Well-intentioned advice. But the brutal truth was that I didn’t feel psychologically safe. So when I took on the role of a people manager, I became the leader I needed. I took on a mission to create a safe space where every team member could share their brilliance, their quirks, their questions, their doubts and feel heard. Here are 3 rarely-used strategies I adopted: ✅ Silent brainstorming: I replaced vocal discussions with written ideas; preventing the loudest voice from dominating. We'd share our thoughts by ideating in silence and voting together.🚀 The best part? No one knew whose idea was winning, leveling the playing field for diverse perspectives. ✅One-pagers for every meeting: People process information differently. To include everyone, I ensured every meeting had a one-pager for context and a list of attendees. This way, team members could prepare in their own way, and those who felt their presence wasn't essential could choose to opt-out. ✅ Mini Workshops > Meetings: These mini workshops were designed to encourage deep thinking, collaborative brainstorming, and silent reflection. Everyone had their moment to shine. We always left with 1-3 actionable takeaways — co-created and ready for implementation. 🚀 In the end, it wasn't about changing my personality; it was about embracing it and finding innovative ways to lead effectively. 💪 By creating a safe space for my team, I not only unlocked their potential but also learned the true power of silence in a world that often favors the loudest voices. What do you think about this leadership style? #leadership #product #teammanagement #womenintech #productmanagement #productmanager