Authenticity In The Workplace
| May 29, 2012 | Posted by Roshawn Watson under Uncategorized |
By: Roshawn Watson
To your thyself be true. William Shakespeare
Knowing yourself can be tricky. It requires personal discovery and growth. To do so, you may answer questions such as: “Who am I?” “What am I all about?” “What do I want on my obituary?” I’m convinced that we have the most rewarding work (and lives) by making sure we have authentic fits. If you are blind to yourself, you may be too preoccupied doing things that are inconsistent with your values, passions, personality, and unique gifts and abilities. Moreover, it is hard to put your best foot forward if you are not sure what you even bring to the table. It was Leonardo da Vinci who said “Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art. Here are 3 reasons to be authentic with your chosen vocation.
Being Inauthentic Is Draining
Selecting a vocation that is an authentic fit may seem intuitive and perhaps even a bit trivial. However, you would be surprised by the number of people who are completely dissatisfied because their jobs drain their lives and extinguishes their passions. Working in an environment where your differences are hindrances and are resented, rather than celebrated assets, can be devastating. What sense does it make a very shy person who derives his energy from solitude and times of reflection to be a car salesman long-term? It would drain him on a daily basis. Likewise, if he is loquacious (has verbal diarrhea), then perhaps he shouldn’t work as a librarian. It is exhausting being someone that you are not equipped to be.
Be careful of trying to remake you just for a job. Don’t assume that your best financial opportunities are with work that forces you to be someone you are not.
Related Article: Goals Are Never Enough: 3 Reasons You Must Cultivate Your Desires
You Will Do Better at Something That is an Authentic Fit
Unfortunately, many of us major in generalities (jack of many but master of none). Somehow we have convinced ourselves that doing work that we love would require a decrease in income potential, but that is often not the case. Our competitive advantages in the marketplace rely on our being outstanding. This is exemplified by the self-made millionaires profiled in The Millionaire Mind. They did NOT score high enough on the standardized tests to be admitted into law, medical, and graduate school, nor were their GPAs high enough to be hired by major corporations. However, rather than being doomed to lives of mediocrity or failure for not being intellectual superstars, they developed strategies to ensure that they were economically productive. First, they hired themselves. Note, business owners are 5 times more likely to become millionaires than traditional employees. They also chose vocations where they could focus on their areas of core competencies, that they loved, and that had few competitors. After all, it is easier to love your work when you win most, if not all, of the time. As a result, they absolutely dominated financially. These millionaires had an average net worth of $9.2 million (median of $4,300,000) at a time when the average US household was worth around $93,100 (median of $448,200).
One helpful guideline by career expert Dan Miller is to spend 80% of your time you work focusing on your strengths, 15% of your time learning, and 5% of your time on your weaknesses.
Related Article: Setting The Course For The Impossible
Authenticity Breeds Passion, and Passion is an Advantage
What’s your calling? What activities absorb your attention to the point where time flies? What would you do if money was not an issue?
I’m convinced that within the answers to such questions lie the keys to your creative genius. This is not about your degrees, positions, or pedigrees. These questions reveal what you are PASSIONATE about, and passion can beat raw talent, technical skill and abilities, and even academic credentials.
“Only by loving what you do will you actually do more and do it better than the person sitting next to you.” – Larry Bossidy
Persistence is often not the product of energy but rather a representation of your passion. When you are passionate, you can endure all sorts of challenges and failures. It is because of Thomas Edison’s passion that he persisted through ~1000 failed experiments to discover the one that worked. When discussing his previous attempts, Edison framed his efforts not as someone who failed 1000 times but rather as someone who proved that those 1000 ways did not work. Likewise, passion enabled Roger Bannister to run a mile in less than 4 minutes at a time when doing so was considered unreachable and even dangerous by physiologists at the time. Passion will cause you to persist in worthy endeavors, even when the experts doom your efforts to failure.
Sometimes we fear bringing our real selves (authenticity) to the marketplace. After all, no one wants to be chastised for being honest. Being open makes us vulnerable. However, the real danger is when we don’t have a strong passion for our work according to Jerry Porras (Success Built to Last). This is because for every person who is pursuing something half-heartedly, there is someone else who loves what that other person is half-hearted about. The person who has passion will work harder and longer and will ultimately run circles around those lacking the same enthusiasm and dedication. Passion is a competitive imperative.
Closing Thoughts
You truly can do great things. If the trajectory of your life is off, there’s another act to your story. Your best opportunity to improve your financial potential through your work lies in your ability to leverage your talents, education, personality, passions, and values in a vocation that is uniquely suited to you. That, my friend, is the game changer. Ask yourself, “what couldn’t I do if I am being myself?”
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I am truly amazed when I ask young people in high school what they plan to do with their lives and get a blank stare in return. You are exactly right about passion. I recommend "Steve Jobs" by Isaacson and "Life" by Keith Richards for those interested in studying passion.
Thanks for the recommendations!
I do think one can learn so much by looking at the lives (ups and downs) of passionate people, such as Steve Jobs. I think young people are often caught off guard by life. It is easy to take time for granted when you are young. Then, before you know it, opportunities of a lifetime have come and gone, and you’re filled with regret.
Good points and very timely with the new college grads. A long time ago, I recall a colleague who had a MS in computer science from MIT and a engineering degree fron Stanford. He was working in in a computer services division of a Fortune 100 company with me. He wasn’t happy with his choice because it was his father’s choice. Obviously, he was smart, but in the wrong profession.
Unfortunately, I have seen this too. Sometimes, such people end up with depression or worse because they borrowed someone else's dreams rather than birthed their own. I think channeling focus to personally meaningful endeavors is a challenge for achievers who are talented in so many areas, like your friend.
Very powerful post. I think being authentic is really the only way to be. How can you know how things should turn out unless you give it your all and the real you. If you make decisions based on someone else's expectations or ways of doing things, you are never going to know how things would have been for YOU. I think we should be authentic in all areas of our life. It's the only way we can ever be truly content. Plus I like to remind people that if you don't be yourself, you are potentially selling yourself short and limiting your success. You might just be better than the next 'guy' so show it.
Thanks so much Miss T! It is a very difficult topic and not one that will garner much praise. However, I think it is pretty important.
Making decisions based on others expectations for you robs you… makes you less than… and can risk your happiness. I think people should hold others to high standards but not try to ruin their individuality and creativity. I agree you are likely limiting your success, or even if you are more successful following another person's script, you will still be less happy.
Being authentic about your work can lead to the greatest of virtues, pride.
Yes, pride is certainly a lost virtue. I also think authenticity brings peace: you know you are being true to yourself.
I love this quote. “A lot of people want a shortcut. I find the best shortcut is the long way, which is basically two words: work hard.” Randy Pausch
I love it. Hard work is vital for success. Thanks for the comment!
This is spot on Roshawn. I just read your awesome guest post on the Change Your Thoughts Blog and wanted to come over and check out your site
Thanks so much for commenting. I have been on your site a few times too because you have left comments on my Dumb Little Man and Pick the Brain posts before. I will make a point to visit more often. I really appreciate the feedback! Best Regards!
roshawn, where can we read more about you, seriously love your blog
You are too kind!!!! You brought up a very good point: my about page is no longer displayed since I moved from Blogger to WordPress. I'll have to get back to you on that 🙂 Thank so much though!
BTW, I enjoy your blog too!
I've never heard that Dan Miller bit, but it makes sense. We always have to be learning – sometimes you CAN learn to fall in love with a job/field that maybe didn't initially inflame your passions. Having worked in a job that I hated – that, as you said, drained the life blood out of me – I've realized that life is too short to spend it doing something you despise.
Elizabeth, I can totally concur with you. There's so many options now and some many applications of works, we can write our own tickets in many cases. That's tremendously empowering, and it is always great to hear from people who have taken the plunge!
I didn't believe in what I was doing at my last job, and I felt the best decision at that point in time was to let my boss know that my heart was no longer in it, and to pursue my own adventures. Haven't regretted it one bit. 😉
Yeah Kevin, I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to stay there for as long as you did. I am surprised that they didn't even want you guys to have outside gigs. I find that very short-sighted and unfortunate. To be that fearful of any competition probably has a lot to do with the state of the company when you left. I'm so happy your app got good reviews. You have a lot of irons in the fire now, but that should keep things interesting. I look forward to your books coming out in the future.
Awesome points as usual Roshawn! Loved your mismatched examples of car salesman and librarian. I've heard that Thomas Edison quote before, very inspirational and shows how things change by looking at things in a different light. Great point about a passionate person outperforming a half-hearted person. Do yourself a favor if you are half-hearted!
Buck, you are always so kind. Thank you. I had to be careful with the examples because sometimes you can speak in absolutes and be inaccurate with respect to career-personality matches because you are not accounting for minor variations in jobs (utilizing same skill set and knowledge base but in a different position or using a different application).
I love that TE quote. I know I used it a few months ago here, but I don't think I can exhaust how motivating it is.
If we're untrue to our passions, then what kind of lives will we lead? What meaning will we place on a "half-hearted" life?
This is an excellent read, Shawn.
Too often people don't pursue anything, much less their passion. Seth Godin writes extensively about this very topic.
But your post is as good as anything I have seen from Seth on the issue.
Thanks so much Thad!
Seth is such a powerful thinker, so to even be in the vicinity of him on this topic is a huge complement. Thanks, and I'm honored!
I think it will just depends on your career choice. If you choose a career that you love, your passion, surely all things will be easy on you.
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