What Writing a Book Taught Me about Authenticity

While I had long been aware of authenticity as a leadership principle, I don’t think I truly embraced it personally until I started writing my book, The Savage Leader. For much of my professional career, I had focused on showing the world the “Smart Darren”, which meant the “Accenture Darren” and “Berkeley Haas MBA Darren.” Not the “real Darren”, whatever that meant.

The process of writing forced me to develop my own voice and writing style, which caused me to consider the style of writing to use in the book. In blogs and LinkedIn posts to date, I had largely used the “smart Darren” filter before pressing the “Post” button on each article.

As I started writing my book, people would ask me to compare the book I was writing to others in the space. “What authors inspire you?” or “What books is yours similar to?” were common questions I received during the long and arduous writing process. But rather than peruse the leadership aisle at the local Barnes & Noble or on Amazon to find “my style”, I did the opposite. I stopped reading leadership books during the early days of writing my book. I didn’t want to subconsciously “copy and paste” the style, format, and storytelling manner of successful authors. Following a tried-and-true method would have given me some level of air cover from the court of internet judgement and that of my colleagues and peers. But I wanted to write and publish a book that reflected who I am as a person (and writer) versus some cardboard cutout version of myself. I realized that could mean the book would be a colossal disaster, though I hoped that there was space for how I thought, wrote, and told stories.

As I got closer to the finish line, I started to gain confidence in what I would soon be putting out into the world. Simultaneously, I would have panic-infused thoughts such as “Is this good enough?” At that point it didn’t matter. I was committed both to use the book as a way to help more people AND as a personal challenge to myself to do something I didn’t think I could do before.

“ I wrote the book that I wanted to write, not the book that I thought I should write. ”

As I sit here today, it’s been six months since the book went live in the Amazon bookstore. While the data and personal anecdotes buoy my sense of confidence in the book, I am proud of what I wrote. I am proud because I was able to write the book in a way and manner that was authentic to me. I wrote the book that I wanted to write, not the book that I thought I should write. In being more authentic, something surprising happened – I gained a greater sense of confidence. Confidence in my ability to write and publish a book and to impact people that I have never met in person.

Authenticity in creating a book also prompted me to be more authentic in other areas of my life; my interactions with friends, my conversations with mentors, and even in my work with clients. It has also led me to live a more free and joyful life, which is what matters most, right?

Savage Leaders look within themselves to find out what matters and then express that through their work as well as in their leadership style and interactions with friends and colleagues.

If you are interested in becoming a better leader from the inside out, check out The Savage Leader on Amazon.

About The Savage Leader Journal

The Savage Leader Journal is a collection of my early morning/late at night/middle of the night musings, thoughts, insights, and stories that will act as a sand box to incubate, test, and refine new ideas and insights.

I’ll be using this space to go deeper with and expand upon The Savage Principles while spending intentional time to uncover, develop, and refine new ideas and concepts worth considering.

I Want to Hear from You

To help surface and develop the most useful ideas, I want to hear from you. Tell me where you want to go deeper (with existing Savage Principles or new ones that need testing), what stories you want to hear, and if you have any questions as you continue on your journey to become a Savage Leader. Send your thoughts, ideas, and questions to thesavageleader@groupsixty.com.