In this episode of the Art of Authenticity, I had a deep conversation with Jonathan Raymond about authority and leadership, along with his new book, Good Authority.

Jonathan is the author of the upcoming book Good Authority and the owner of Refound, an advisory firm that offers accountability skills training programs for owners, executives, and managers. He is the former CEO and Chief Brand Officer of EMyth, where he led the transformation of a global coaching brand and has worked in tech, clean tech, and the nonprofit world after graduating law school in 1998. After twenty years of not being able to decide whether he was a business development guy or a personal growth teacher, Jonathan stopped trying to figure it out.

When it comes to authenticity, leadership, and authority, there’s probably no one better to speak to than Jonathan Raymond. In our personal and professional lives, the challenge of leading people while empowering them instead of disempowering them is more important than ever. And authenticity is the key to unlocking good leadership — or as Jonathan calls it in his new book, good authority.I think you’ll enjoy this episode if you have trouble being your authentic self while in a leadership role of any kind — I know I got a lot out of this conversation. Thanks for listening.

Thanks for Listening

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Show Notes

  • Why Jonathan stopped trying to figure out if he was a business development guy or personal growth teacher [02:15]

  • Refactoring how people can translate over the lessons learned from ancient introspective practices into their daily roles [04:37]

  • Some of the interesting events in Jonathans life that lead to the creation of his book [06:08]

  • How Jonathan was disempowering employees through his initial leadership style [08:29]

  • Feedback that is both personal and professional at the same time [10:30]

  • Helping people grow by increasing the ability to see how their behavior affects other people [13:12]

  • The economic cost of overanalyzing habits of employees [15:57]

  • Jonathans secret tactic: “Reset the table” by explaining that something has been on your mind and you waited to long to say it you can open up communication [17:45]

  • Jonathan provides an example of “Owning the context” [19:14]

  • Emotional transparency: saying what you are feeling so you don’t act it out [20:14]

  • Discussing the meaning behind the title “More Yoda. Less Superman”. – “Feeling a sense of I got this, the teams got this, and we can deal with anything that comes” [22:27]

  • On placing the quote, “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are,” at the beginning of the book and thoughts on being authentic [26:23]

  • What does and authentic life mean to Jonathan? No regrets on making choices and taking risks [28:27]

  • Walking trails help in times of stress and struggle [29:29]

  • Jonathan discusses how he works on actively asking for and offering people for help [30:40]

Episode Resources

Jonathan’s book, Good Authority (also found at Refound)Download the TranscriptDownload the MP3