Cultivating Your Authentic Professional Self

If you’re tapped into the flow of corporate culture buzzwords, you’ve likely heard the phrase “authentic self” in abundance over the past few years. The concept of showing up as your whole, true self in the workplace is largely encouraged and promoted to increase your happiness and belonging, as well as support the organization’s mobilization of diversity to foster innovation. It’s a powerful concept but the execution can be tricky. Have you ever arrived at work in your knock ‘em dead outfit only to be pulled aside and told it’s not work appropriate? Have you been encouraged to be more professional in how you speak in meetings? Even called out for not speaking at all? How about being coached on how you handled the realization of your yogurt being stolen from the breakroom fridge? In each case, you likely showed up or responded as your whole self. For reasons like these, I believe that to simply encourage you to bring your whole self to work is an incomplete concept. What can be more reasonable and effective is bringing your authentic professional self to work. So, what’s the difference? Let’s explore it.

Authenticity

According to Psychology Today, authenticity is comprised of four key factors:

·        Self-awareness: Knowledge of and trust in one's own motives, emotions, preferences, and abilities.

·        Unbiased processing: Clarity in evaluating your strengths and your weaknesses without denial or blame.

·        Relational orientation: Close relationships, which inherently require openness and honesty.

·        Behavior: Acting in ways congruent with your own values and needs, even at the risk of criticism or rejection.

What’s typical of the corporate environment is the inability to display unbridled openness and honesty. We’re conditioned to operate at surface level to avoid offense, skirt conflict and preserve happy feelings. Honesty is welcomed when it supports popular ideas but can become dangerous when it challenges authority or the status quo. Possibly the most discouraging obstacle with authenticity in the workplace is that when your values misalign with the company culture, your authenticity can be perceived as unprofessional. Showing up too authentic can get you shut out.

Professionalism

Professionalism can be described as the conduct, behavior, and attitude of someone in a work or business environment. Typically, the leader of the organization (e.g. – CEO, President, etc.) sets the bar for what professionalism looks like. Even down to the recommended attire, the leader demonstrates the standards and the often-unspoken expectations of cultural norms. It’s important to note that in the corporate war of aggression, passive usually dominates overt. In other words, there’s a higher probability that you’ll encounter passive aggressive behavior than the threat of physical violence, so you can leave the prison shank at home. If your environment requires you to be shank-ready, you should probably find a new job.

The Happy Marriage

Now that we’ve clarified both concepts, we can begin the process of merging the two. Ideally, this starts before you enter the door. Do your homework on the org to get a sense of the company culture before you apply for a role. Resources like GlassDoor, LinkedIn, and Fairygodboss can provide insight to help you gauge your potential new environment. Asking questions about the culture of the company, the department, and the team during the job interview is also a great method to learn more.

Once you’ve secured the role, it’s time to go into observation mode. Observe the culture for yourself. How do people show up? How formal is the environment? How are they dressed? How do they communicate and what do they communicate about? What do they acknowledge and celebrate? Pay attention to all the cultural cues to help you begin to understand how to effectively navigate the landscape. This is the time to look, listen and learn. It IS NOT time to announce to the company that you’ve arrived. A proven approach is to understand how, where, and why the lines are drawn before you attempt to color outside of them.

From here, you can begin to bring your individual style into how you show up. It can be expressed in many areas such as your appearance, speech, and general engagement. Ask yourself what personal elements are important for you to incorporate into your professional brand. If your org has demonstrated genuine inclusiveness and embraces difference, rock that rainbow hair. Show off your tattooed sleeves. Do what makes you feel most authentic within the parameters of the culture. The collateral benefit of your boldness is that you can become instrumental in continuing to move the culture forward.