Society Today needs You to be Authentic

(Washington Insider Magazine) –  Let me tell you a little about me. After college, when I first started out in the job market, I found myself a contractor working in Technology in the 1990s. While I was blessed to have the opportunity to be in many different environments, organizational structures, sectors of business, and across many different industries, it may surprise you, but at first, I didn’t do so well. When I started out, I was young and naïve. 

In each new environment, I tried to work to the job description and complete my tasks on time. I met my goals but never exceeded them and rarely did I get recruited to a permanent position.  I never even thought to think about my interactions with the people around me or what made me perform the way I did. 

Trial and Error became my mantra for those first couple of years. I was trying to succeed but it wasn’t happening naturally.  I’d come home feeling exhausted and that impacted my ability to perform on the job. It was a vicious circle, like those crane machines at the shore where time after time you try and try but no matter what position or angle you try, you just can’t seem to get the prize.

As time passed, I became more open and ready to change. I discovered the more well-rounded I was, the more resilient I became. That, combined with the ability of learning how to be authentically me, and learning how talk to people, understand what would help the relationship and the situation, doors began opening, and I began to advance and find joy in my jobs, in my life and was able to consistently give back to the company through productivity and earning revenue.  I didn’t have to just go through it, I grew through it!

If you are at the start of your career and want to progress upward in your career journey, you will benefit from my experiences. Today, I am going to share with each one of you how my path is still relevant and how it can help you.

I don’t want you to go through that same pain I felt as I tried to find the right fit throughout my early career. 

Today, we will learn about how you can align with your authentic self to thrive for your company and how Diversity and Inclusion awareness helps especially Women in Technology.

Who is excited to hear the answer to the question I asked you at the start of one of my recent talks? How can companies ensure they have Increased Productivity?

The answer is by having a Diverse Workforce.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & belonging is one of the most important things needed by companies today. They need this because coming out of the pandemic, people have different work ethics. This, combined with a younger generation with different mindsets and different demographics are impacting our professional world today.

We are seeing women leaders and more importantly women of different ethnicities as leaders.  Technology has changed.  AI is more popular than ever and such an important thing to embrace.  People’s views have changed, so companies will benefit from spending time and money investing in this important area to keep up with the economic change in that area.

Companies need to invest in their employees and one way they can begin is by embracing the idea of and educating their employees about the need for each of us to align with our authentic selves. This is an essential step toward thriving in any role, including technical one. As a young professional, I learned that there was one thing at the center of it all.  Authenticity.

So, how can you get there?  To do align with your authentic self, one must do 5 things.

5 Things to Align with your Authentic Self

1. Understand your core values and how they match up to your current role, the role you desire or the role you seek

Core values are the things that you learned when you were in your formative years perhaps, and things that you learned from important people in your life. You may not even be aware that they are at the core of why you do what you do.  Core beliefs are the fundamental beliefs and highest priorities that drive your behavior. Think of this as an internal compass of principles that drive your decisions.

1. Perhaps you had a parent who worked all the time – How did that affect you?

2. Or maybe you grew up wanting more out of life. 

3. Did you go through something like a trauma or emotional time in your life that frames up how you see things today?

Keep the 7 core values in mind as you look at your performance: Honesty, Boldness, Trust, Freedom, Fun, Modesty, and Team Spirit

Can you incorporate them in your current or future position?

Example: If you are great at coding, but don’t like to deal with the documenting or workflow management tools your company is using, consider if your authentic self might perform better in a different role. Consult a mentor or trusted advisor or work with your HR department for guidance.

2. Identify strengths and weaknesses and align them to both your current role and your next one

Let me tell you about Rama. Rama is a coworker of mine who immediately befriended me when I started at a new position. She had a Personality full of Strengths- She was Brave. I’ll never forget the feeling when I attended the first team meeting with her in our group.

As a new member of the team, I stayed quiet and observed. As one member spoke about a change they wanted, she quickly confidently spoke up and listed the reasons that would bring risk to the project.  Weeks later, she kept doing that same thing and her determination was what would earn her a senior role leading a team. 

She stuck to her ideals and humbly led the projects that year to completion.  One of the biggest things you can do when aligning with your strengths is to take a seat at the table and let your voice be heard when you have something to share.  You never know where it may lead.

Rama was not the only one I remember.  There were 7 people in my group.  Of those I remember most, I also remember Jay.  Jay and I were at the same level on my team. Jay however, was raised in a culture different than mine where men were respected more than women. 

As a result, Jay would have no issue talking to the Roy, our manager without talking to the female members of our team.  He not only didn’t communicate with us, but deliberately going over our heads caused rework and wasted time and money for our group. I recall he always wanted to complete more tasks than others. This one time he even stayed late to complete my testing.

He tried to pass it off as just having more time than I because he was single and knew I had a child at home.  As you can imagine, that created a gap between him, me and the other members on the team who had more insight into how to work better with others.  As you can tell, his weakness affected our group so keep in mind how your weakness can impact your teammates, and the organization.

Now that you have heard about Rama and Jay, consider if you have encountered people like that.

Consider if you have worked with people who are different than you.

Identifying our own strengths and weaknesses regarding our role on the job and within our teams can help us get along better with others and even rise up through the ranks.

Remember to think about soft skills, like knowing when is enough, for example, when designing your own targeted strategy to address your weaknesses. This can help you chart your personal and professional growth, improving your stance in your current role and next one. 

3. Continually set your own goals

In my early career story, I was busy trying to do the job according to the job description. I didn’t know to set goals beyond that.  Why is goal setting important?  Setting a goal lets you focus on the next step and helps you move in the direction you want. The body follows the mind, so we need to stay focused to not lose motivation.

Stay mindful of why you should take specific actions and where they will lead you.

Setting your own goals allows you to measure progress.

Example: If you can show your manager that you set goals and exceed them, you will show your transparency and clarity about accountability, as well as an understanding of how your personal and team goals align to the larger organizational goals.

Do you dread having to do a performance review?  Raise your hand if you wouldn’t know what to write if you had to create your own unique goals in a new role. 

Now, raise your hand if you ever had to adjust your plans to make your goals match someone else’s.  If you’ve been in a situation where you felt uncomfortable and had to change the way you performed. This could be in school, in a relationship or even at home. 

I’m going to let you in on another secret – Being open to change / flexible is the most valuable thing you can do in today’s world of technology. Be open in goal setting – Set and reset your goals as the situation calls for it to ensure you will keep moving forward.

4. Cultivate self-awareness

Harvard Business Review Research suggests that when we see ourselves clearly, we are more confident and more creative. We make sounder decisions, build stronger relationships, and communicate more effectively.

In an Emotional Intelligence study, they discovered there are two types of self-awareness: Internal and External awareness. Internal is tied to how clearly, we see our own values, passions, aspirations, fit with our environment, reactions (including thoughts, feelings, behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses), and impact on others. They found internal self-awareness is associated with higher job and relationship satisfaction, personal and social control, and happiness; and is negatively related to anxiety, stress, and depression.

External self-awareness means understanding how other people view us. Their research shows that people who know how others see them are more skilled at showing empathy and accepting others’ perspectives. For leaders who see themselves as their employees do, their employees tend to have a better relationship with them, feel more satisfied with them, and see them as more effective in general.

How can you ensure you work on both internal and external awareness? 

Having conversations with people at other levels, or who are different than you can help. 

Get feedback from people you trust without overreacting or overcorrecting and focusing on how you show up.

Now you will have gained an understanding that self-awareness is a delicate balance between the two distinct yet competing viewpoints.

TIP that has worked for clients – Remember to ask What you can do to improve your self-awareness not Why. What focused questions will help you stay objective and empowered and able to act on your new insights.

5. Practice self-care to ensure you at your best when the job calls for it

Let’s talk about a dirty word.  Burnout. 

Burnout is sneaky. Burnout is too common.

Have you have ever felt so engaged with your work that you thought “If I just put all my energy into this, I will be rewarded?”

Don’t be shy…if you stayed up late working on college papers to get better grades, foregoing sleep, healthy nutrition, or restful downtime, be honest. You may have felt burnout.

Now, raise your hand if you ever felt like you were doing a balancing act. If that stress has crept up on you and you felt exhausted emotionally, or even felt physical symptoms like headache or high blood pressure, fatigue, or poor immune system. 

Say yes if you have felt like you were on auto-pilot and like you were just going through your days.

Raise your hand if  if you are just so used to being tired all the time.

What about those of you who have been bored with school or a job? Maybe you have become bored with school or a job, felt reduced creativity, or were unable to complete tasks like you used to. 

Surprisingly, these are all stages of burnout that you can learn about.

1. 8 Causes of Burnout

a. A heavy workload always

b. No work/life balance

c. Stressful or distressing line of work

d. No recognition from management

e. No support from team or management

f. Misaligned values in the workplace

g. No autonomy or recognition

h. Discriminatory or toxic work environment

I am glad you are here because I am going to give you tools to help when these situations happen. Since women are usually the caretakers, the ones who make sure others needs are met, we may not be good at sustaining self-care. 

You deserve to be cared for. 

1. Now, I want you to raise your hand up and give yourself permission to start caring for yourself.

Why is this so important? 

Implementing self-care routines at home will help you keep balance and perform better when the need calls for it at work.

2. You can start small. Create a small routine by changing or adding just one thing per week. 

A powerful female who reinvented herself now starts with 1 athletic thing a day and 1 creative thing each day. I like to set time aside each morning to list my affirmations or list the good things at the end of that day that I imagine would have happened to help bring about personal motivation.

Try adding something like this as you move forward in your career.  Then, after a week, you can add things as you feel comfortable.

3. Keep in mind saying no is also an important form of self-care that will help you with authenticity. That is called boundary setting and I’ll let you in on a secret – it is Healthy.  

4. Making Lists is another way you can help yourself thrive in your role. Positions in technology often require you to be technical but the best people at their job are those who can provide solutions and be adaptable in all phases of the job.

Making lists are a great way to help you make time you need to do things that give back to yourself, and they help you stick to them.