Want to Fit In more at Work? Be Fearlessly Authentic
Do some of your colleagues fit in at the workplace better than you? Are you curious why they seem to be better matched while you feel ill paired in the same exact setting? Could being fearlessly authentic be “the thing” that has true benefits? If so, what does it mean to be fearlessly authentic?
Fearless authenticity means that you risk being your “real, genuine and true self”. You put yourself out there.
Now, you may feel that you must be one “self” at work while another “self” outside of work. Doing that dance can take a lot of work and effort especially when you try to be someone that you are not.
We are all complex individuals with many different personas and ways of being. For example, you may work in a corporate work environment and be responsible for leading and conducting meetings in front of important stakeholders. You may be required to suit up for those occasions while on Saturdays you are lounging at home with your family sporting your comfy cargos and your oldest most favorite t-shirt.
Fearless authenticity at work is not about wearing that comfy Saturday outfit while facilitating a presentation; the areas of fearless authenticity are more about your ability to be and present your bona fide self.
Here are three unexpected truths that show how fearless authenticity will make you fit in better at work.
You bring yourself to the table.
When you know yourself, you bring that person forward. According to Faisal Hoque, “To be authentic one must be awake, meaning you have the ability to understand who you are, who you want to be, and how you want to fit into the world”.
Self-awareness is essential, valuable and can be used to your advantage.
If you are a strategic thinker who needs to plot and weigh your options before you execute a plan of action, doing so will allow you to operate at your optimal capacity. Making quick and impulsive decisions would boast poor results.
Your natural course of action will generate a level of confidence from yourself and others.
Your co-workers will embrace you, even your quirky parts.
When you know yourself and project it out there; you create an ease amongst those that you work with. The pretenses and facades vanish, and a level of trust gets emitted.
You know who you are, you embrace all the parts of you and you appreciate them.
Ultimately, those you work amongst will admire you for it. Even those quirky acts you deliver, like your rendition of “Fly Me to The Moon” that you whistle every day at 3pm.
Your acts of weirdness and quirkiness can be endearing and help enliven your workplace.
You will do your best work.
You may doubt yourself and worry that if you truly bring yourself to your workplace others may not like what they see. The opposite is true. You will probably bring and do your best work.
Another added benefit is that your boss will be happier with your work and according to Maggie Heath it “will make you more memorable”. You may not “Woo” everyone you meet however isn’t that true out in the larger world?
Being fearlessly authentic in the workplace does take some chutzpah. It requires vulnerability, risk and a self-assuredness that professes who you are is worthy to bring forward.
The payout is a sincere and open expression of your original self and as Oscar Wilde said “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”
