One Word Suggestion: Sincerity

Along with patience and compassion, sincerity is one of those qualities we all probably wish we had more of — or at least wish other people had more of. And I think we all know insincerity when we see it, but what exactly does it mean to be sincere?

A short answer might be the absence of pretense, deceit, or hypocrisy combined with a mix of seriousness, honesty and just being straight up with people.

You can’t be sincere if you say you love Vegemite when you actually hate it. Or if you praise someone, but really you don’t like them or their work.

Learning to recognize – and be comfortable with your beliefs can help you become a more genuine person, which in turn can help you become more sincere in your dealings with others.

One of my favorite things about improv is that it creates a safe place where everyone can feel comfortable being themselves. And when people are behaving authentically, there’s no posers. And if people aren’t posing, they’re probably being sincere.

Most improv teacher’s I’ve worked with agree that it’s generally more important to be sincere on stage than it is to try and be funny. The comedy comes from authenticity and truth.

Now, I’m no Freud, but I have a theory that this is why we laugh at stand-up comics – because they give themselves permission to say things we ourselves have thought, or think, but would never say out loud. So we laugh with unconscious recognition. But I digress.

On stage, I think characters can be insincere, but players should never be. If you filter your decisions through your character’s truth and portray that, then that’s maybe the one time where I think insincerity is ok.

But a place where it’s never OK is in the real world, especially in business where you so often need to be able to understand another person’s point of view.

Improv training gives you the self-confidence to let go of ego and listen. You can “yes, and…” someone you disagree with without giving up your truth – or being insincere.

This type of soft skill is becoming crucial to effective leadership – especially in an age where we can so easily respond with a snarky comment or hastily typed out text message.

Like I said at the start, I think we all know insincerity when we see it, and most of us don’t like it. So if you want to work on becoming more sincere, improv training is a great place to start.

And I really mean that.