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Say Goodbye to Your Sham-Wow Self

Vince Shlomi is a tremendous communicator. His ability to motivate and move people to action is impressive to say the least. Vince is positive, oozes optimism, and always sees the best in things. Without question, at the age of 44, Mr. Shlomi is at the top of his game.

Now you may not know the name Vince Shlomi, but I’m certain you are aware of his work. Every day on late night cable television, Vince is showcasing one of the most revolutionary products known to man…The ShamWow. This super absorbent product can pick up any spill and give a butt kicking to wetness of any kind.

Vince is a master, and yet he has a huge problem. To be exact, he has a credibility problem. The gullible insomniac consumer eventually finds out after purchasing a ShamWow for $19.99 that the product is basically a glorified sponge. His sister product the Slap Chop doesn’t fair so well either. Vince paints a picture of reality that isn’t true and doesn’t exist.

If you’re like me, you may have the temptation to adopt a lot of Mr. ShamWow into your life and leadership. It is the temptation to overpromise, oversell, and be obsessed with showcasing the best part of you.

Too many people live their lives selling themselves like Vince sells a ShamWow. Vince never talks about the possibility of weakness, defects, or the fact that sometimes the ShamWow doesn’t live up to the hype.

But when we as leaders take this course of action, we set ourselves and organizations up to have a serious believability problem. All of a sudden, our character resembles that of a late night infomercial hawker rather than that of a genuine leader. Not only do we cash in our credibility with our audience, staff, and friends, we also rip them off. Our fake selves rob those we engage with of deep community and healthy relationship with us.

As I wrote in my book, Gracenomics: Unleash the Power of Second Chance Living, there is the need to embrace our entire story. We need to discover how to allow grace to reconcile our light and our shadow. It is critically important to embrace our entire story…even the parts that are less attractive or we find hard to talk about.

But taking on this holistic approach to our lives is especially significant when we are communicating the truths of the gospel. Even slipping into “pastor mode” can make us appear ShamWowish. Pastor mode can be defined as that fake person we become when we are on stage or around church members. We have the upbeat, perfect pastor, always-smiling persona, and then the real (or normal) persona. This dual life will lead us to an eventual meltdown. This infomercial version of ourselves eats away our souls and undermines our credibility as leaders.

Few would question the pure genius of billionaire Warren Buffett and his ability to make money. But Mr. Buffett also has an incredible skill to lead with transparency. In Joseph Hallinan’s brilliant book, Why We Make Mistakes, he describes Buffett’s biggest mistake ever.

Buffett bought the Dexter Shoe Company for $433 million in 1993, declaring it was “one of the best managed companies I have seen in my business lifetime.” But in only a few years, the purchase tanked, and Dexter Shoe Company went out of business. Buffett would have to eat his words and deal with a $433 million dollar black eye. Did he spin it? Did he blame someone else? Did he ignore it or fake his way out of it?

Buffett addressed his shareholders directly and owned his mistake. He embraced humanity and transparency and boldly said, “I’ll make more mistakes in the future…you can bet on that.” He didn’t conceal his mistakes…he revealed them.

Did Warren Buffett’s future as an investor go under after that? Nope. In choosing to be honest, Warren gave his funders an unusual gift: the opportunity to show him grace and the opportunity to build his credibility as a leader.

Vince Shlomi and Warren Buffett have very different leadership styles. It is my hope that we model truth, grace, and transparency and not let our lives and leadership resemble that of a ShamWow infomercial.