Authenticity

For Kim, Authenticity isn’t about making a statement. It’s about being real in ways that help people feel comfortable.

As an only child of a single mom, Kim learned early on to be herself. Her mother role-modeled Authenticity by being unafraid to speak up and advocate for herself and her young child.

To her, Authenticity also includes vulnerability, which can be uncomfortable at times. She explained: If you manage or are part of a team, at any given time, there may be members who are frustrated with your decisions, which can be unnerving. At times like this, Kim finds it best to be authentic, have sincere, direct conversations, and uncover the source of the issue. Throughout her career, she says that many of these conversations not only turned the issue around but also sparked the formation of deeper, meaningful relationships.

Pairing her strengths can have a compounding effect. For example, when Kim pairs her Authenticity strength with her Time Optimizer strength, it creates clarity and efficiency. She observes that when people are open and direct, decisions happen faster, problems surface sooner, and teams can spend more time moving forward instead of reading between the lines.

Lastly, she finds Authenticity means inviting honesty and flexibility. In her first week at her current company, teams were struggling with a deliverable requested by senior leadership. Instead of pushing harder, her boss said, “We need to reframe what good looks like.” Coming from a past company culture where that kind of honesty (nor flexibility) was not common, the moment stuck. Years later, this phrase sits on a Post-it at her desk and continues to shape how she leads today.

Kim believes that people want to help, but they can only do that when they understand what matters to you. So, her advice is simple: Say what you’re doing and why. Name your intentions. Share what you’re working through.

“Authenticity gives other people permission to be themselves—and that changes everything.”

- Kim