Our thoughts

4 step process to help you to bring the real ‘You’ to work!

Do you live your personal values in the workplace? Do you bring your authentic self to work? What is my authentic self you ask? It is what makes you the person you are, when you are at your best and ‘in flow’. You are more than what other people see: I will borrow the infamous iceberg analogy to explain this.

Your observable behaviours stem from your unseen self but there is so much more to you than that which others see and is powered by your core-processing unit, your unconscious mind. You are made up of your:

Identity

At the very core of you is your ego: the, ‘I’- ‘who I am’, your qualities, beliefs, and expressions – made up from many different things like your social and cultural influences, your up-bringing.

Values

These are principles or standards of behaviour; your judgement of what is important in life.

Beliefs

A state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing.

Experiences

Made up from everything that has shaped the life you are living, everything from your baby-hood to adult-hood.

The Mission

From my own experience, I know that the ‘whole you’ may not always be presented in your day-to-day workplace life. The minute you step over the threshold of Corporate-dom, you bring the intellectual, technical, efficient, conscientious, focused etc. ’You’, but leave the fun, kind, compassionate, exciting, joyful, loving, vulnerable etc. ‘You’ at the door, bought out for weekends and holidays! Does this resonate?

If your authentic self is not fully expressed in your workplace life, I wonder if this leads to your disengagement, lack of motivation, low morale and ultimately poor performance?

Should you wish to accept it..

The unexpressed ‘You’ could generate emotions that help to release ‘happy hormones’ from your neurochemistry. These can help lead to feelings of satisfaction, balance and happiness as you get into ‘flow’, allowing you to be at your best. More importantly, this ‘You’ also represents a big part of who you are. So it is so vital to become aware of which bit of your authentic self you would like to express more. Here is a 4-point plan to make a start:

Identify

-Ask five friends/family to give you five words that they think describe you best and;

for comparison

-Ask five colleagues to give you five words that they think describe you.

Observe

From this exercise and your own observation, which ‘You’ is missing from your day-to-day life?

Test

Once you have identified this, then think about what small change could you make to help encourage this to be lived more? e.g. If you observe that kindness/respect/fun is missing, then perhaps you can:

  • think of ways in which you can be to be more open with colleagues about how they are feeling and how you can be of help?
  • really listen to people, be sincere. Think about how you want to be treated and then practice this with everyone around you no matter what level they are within the organisation.
  • think of how you can laugh more, you can have fun at work!

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Ensure that you inject these behaviours in everything you do, until they become just another part of who you are at work.

I really want to know how you get on so please do leave a comment below or if you need any help contact me by email hello@pipaltree.net