Exploring the Realities of Personal Authenticity in a Corporate Environment

Navigating the age-old conundrum of whether to bring your entire being into the workplace is like tiptoeing through a minefield of identity politics and professional decorum. We humans, bless our intricately woven souls, are kaleidoscopes of identities; we're not just cogs in the corporate machine but intricate tapestries of experiences, beliefs, and quirks. 

Culture, that invisible hand guiding our social dance, shapes how we approach our 9-to-5 grind. But here's the rub: while some argue for the liberation of bringing your whole self to the watercooler chats and boardroom powwows, there are valid reasons why you might not want to lay bare your soul amidst the Excel sheets and office banter. And let's face it, it's probably the last thing your boss wants too. After all, not every facet of your being is pertinent to the quarterly reports or client presentations. We all prefer the polished, Instagram-filtered version of ourselves in the workplace, where the rough edges are smoothed, and the highlights shine like a well-edited podcast episode.

𝙏𝙬𝙤 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙨 – 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝘾𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙨 is the world’s #1 show on the business of culture and the culture of business. Christian Höferle and Brett Parry ponder culture in short bursts and deep dives, featuring your questions and comments related to culture, business, and personal growth.

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The music on this episode is provided courtesy of Sepalot.
“Duum Diip” - Artist: Sepalot - Label: Eskapaden - Copyright control

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Imagine you're looking for your next job opportunity, for your next professional challenge and you wonder is this the place where I can be really expressing myself and my skills and my talents? It might even be a workplace that is advertising that you can bring your whole self. Well, how whole is yourself and how many of you are there? We are a multifaceted creature with different layers to our identities. Do we really want to bring the whole self, the whole nine yards, the whole box of toffees? Let's talk about that.

Speaker 2: 0:48

Welcome to Two Chaps. Many Cultures. In an increasingly globally connected world, it is vital to possess the essential skills of cultural intelligence.

Speaker 1: 1:00

Listen along as we present the topics, tips and strategies you can use to develop the power of cultural understanding in your personal and professional life.

Speaker 2: 1:10

Here are your hosts, christian Huffala and Brett Parry. Yes, two chaps. Many cultures where too much culture is barely enough. Yes, it's another episode of this crazy show, the number one show of culture all across the globe. Trust us, we tell ourselves that every day. Don't forget, just quickly, before we kick off things here, hit that button, get on the subscribe bandwagon, hit the bell. And, of course, don't forget our podcast. If you don't want to look at us, the podcast is live across all of the best platforms. If you don't want to look at us, the podcast is live across all of the best platforms. And yes, we say that too much culture is barely enough, but is too much of yourself, too much when you turn up for work? And, of course, some of the attitudes towards engagement, getting employees engaged, getting employees motivated to come and join an organization is this catchphrase of bringing your whole self to work? This is a safe space and you can do be in whatever you want to be here. Is that really effective, mate?

Speaker 1: 2:15

I used to think so and since we both work in the dei field as well, not just in the so-called cross-cultural field we work, our work touches diversity, equity, inclusion, because that's part of the culture work that we do, and in the DEI sphere this has been and still is a catchphrase Can you bring your whole self to work? Will you be accepted the way you are, and are the organizational structures and traditions and workplace behaviors inclusive to allow my whole self to be part of that? So I'm not trying to poo-poo on our own work. That's exactly not what we're here doing in this episode. And yet it begs the question what is the whole self? It is a great phrase to throw around and it is great for employer branding, as we're recruiting people and entering the battle for the best talent out there to present ourselves as a safe workplace where you can bring your whole self.

Speaker 1: 3:37

But I've recently read stuff about this and that got me thinking what is the whole self? This and that got me thinking what is the whole self? And then I looked at myself, not only in the mirror, but also inside this crazy stuff up here. There's stuff about me that I don't want to bring to work and I don't want to share with people at work and, quite frankly, I'm none of an employer's business to begin with. I mean, my identity is more than just the stuff that I bring to work.

Speaker 2: 4:09

I don't know about you, brett well, let me ask you a question. Not, this is an interview show, but I I would think that, uh, obviously we're culture people, so how much does culture influence that? Does your background? Do you feel that there's an aspect of your German background that might preclude you from keeping things to yourself? And we can ask that of all our clients, no matter where they come from in the world? Are there certain values and beliefs that are embedded in a society that do encourage the fact that you can actually separate parts of your life, parts of the information you share?

Speaker 1: 4:53

Probably my culture not probably. I know my culture determines the way I show up. I have very little impulse control over that. I have cognitive control over it. I can edit myself. And yet if I am under stress or if I feel certain workplace pressures, I notice how my German-ness flares up and do I feel that I can bring that to the workplace. Sometimes I can and I've noticed moments where that was not very good for the success of my mission. And I think the same is true for any culture or any cultural combination at work. So it's culture, it is personality, it is our value system, our religious views, our religious views, our political opinions, our sexual orientations, our age, how that affects the way we see the world. Can we always bring all of that to the workplace? I don't know.

Speaker 2: 5:59

Well, it brings in the question about corporate culture too. So, forgetting about the country culture, the regional culture, what about corporate culture and the advertised missions of a company and what they represent? Maybe it might be in the field that they represent, could be the, the things they make, but also the people inside it, um, and the way that people show up. So I'm interested in would, uh, would somebody who is in an organization who represents the average feel more or be able to express themselves in a more comfortable way? And therefore that kind of builds on? The thing that we talk about in DEI is to recognize, when you've got privilege, recognizing who you are and what you represent and who you love and how you pray may be the norm, and yet somebody else in that organisation may feel that they're kind of either undervalued, underheard, not appreciated because they may not represent that average. So that's an aspect to me, I mean, as a leader, I would be concerned about that.

Speaker 1: 7:06

And as an employee or a team member, I will be just as concerned about that. I think this is an operational excellence piece, right To have that every voice heard or every talent applied in the organization. That's why we hire the people to be a team right. That's the whole reason why we bring people into the organization. Now, does the employer or do my teammates really care, or does that really improve my performance or my fit into the organization if they know where I put the cross or the, the check mark on the, the voting ballot? Or does it really help my compatibility with teammates if they know what kind of chauvinist pig I am at home or what kind of racist prick I am towards my neighbors? Is that something? Not that I am? I think that was tongue in cheek.

Speaker 1: 8:07

But would it be okay to bring that part of myself to work? I doubt it. So bringing one's whole self is a lofty concept, but probably what the employer wants, or what the teammates would rather have, is your best elements or your best skills and talents that qualified you to be hired for that role, to bring that out, to bring that on a tray and say, hey, this is what I'm really, really good at and let's bring this to the conversation. Let's bring that to work. I have all this other stuff that's kind of personal and maybe I find people who like that, but I guess there's a whole lot of people here who don't like that part of me or may not connect to that very well. So what benefit is it to me if I'm able to bring that right? Not really, is it?

Speaker 2: 9:05

yeah, because you're second guessing, wouldn't you say? If you're, it's distracting from the actual passion that you're of the work that you're doing. I would find that if you feel that you somehow then, or even there might be even a peer pressure to represent or express yourself, um, over and above what you're comfortable in doing, and that becomes a distraction away from the actual work that you love to do and the reason why you actually join the organization in the first place. And as a leader I think in just getting back to that point I made before as a leader, you, the more you go up a corporate ladder, the more people, the more things you're responsible for and the more people that you are in charge of, nurturing the talents around your own biases, and realize that all of the talented people around you may not match your political determination or your sexual orientation or whatever that is, and your skill as a leader then becomes, the higher you go up in the ladder, the ability to actually motivate these people on an equal and equitable basis.

Speaker 1: 10:19

Which, to me, in my mind, where this is going is that all the power skills that Brett and I keep talking about the ability to learn and relearn, the ability to communicate efficiently and effectively, non-violently, the ability to recognize our own cultural presets and factory settings and those of others in order to work well together that also means that we apply them to ourselves right. So I'm not only recognizing behavioral preferences in others and ideally, adjust to them. I also recognize my behavioral preferences and when they are not adding value to my work, if I bring certain aspects of my identity to work and realize they're not making me more money, they're not making the company more efficient or making my teammates happier in collaborating with me, then it is also a power skill to recognize. Hey, shut that part of your identity up for a while, because here at work you don't need this. You can do that at home or whatever it is you do outside of work, in the gym or at your hobby or on the soccer pitch.

Speaker 1: 11:41

Hooray, hooray. That would be me. I would be very loud and outspoken and probably very crude in my choice of words. That wouldn't help me at work. Right, that's a part of my identity, a part of my whole self that I will willingly not bring to work and happily bring to activities where I find an environment in which that is a supportive behavior. So we're not amoebas, we're not simple creatures. We are complex individuals with multi-layered, multi-faceted identities. So we also have the ability to decide which of these parts do we bring into which environment and work environment is very often not the same as your social casual out of work environments.

Speaker 2: 12:35

And as a final note, I would just say it just came to my mind and it's no doubt true for you too as well, christian that all of the senior and most executive level leaders that we work with, one connecting thread always puts them together, and that is their ability to be curious and always questioning themselves and questioning the way that they are showing up for the people that they manage. That's, that's ubiquitous pretty much uh, you know, 95, I'd say, percent of the time. Um, is that? That's the reason that we get to work with them is because they want people around them to challenge them, question them and understand their own proclivities for certain things and how that may be damaged or inhibiting their ability to manage what they are responsible for, both the people side of it and also the operational side of it. And so that's another kind of reason at the end to think well, maybe perhaps we do need to practice a little bit of editing, self-editing, self-evaluation. As you said before, looking in the mirror, that's not always a pretty.

Speaker 1: 13:43

As you said before, looking in the mirror, that's not always a pretty thing for me, especially early in the morning, but that is what it is. Tell my wife about the self-editing. She will most likely confirm that, and vice versa. And what this brings up for me is when we talked about this in an early episode a couple of episodes ago, about whether culture fit is really something that we would hire for if we are an organization, or is that something we look for in teammates. Are they good culture fits? Right? If that were a thing, if we were still in agreement that we must hire for culture fit, go back in our archive, go back to that episode where we train people to fit into the roles that they are hired for, and we'll figure out how those personalities interact by upskilling them, by giving them more opportunities to, as Brett said, edit themselves or become smarter around culture and personalities and identity. So if culture fit were really the determining factor in putting together a good team, then bringing the whole self would lead to homogenous groups where everybody feels that they are confirmed or what's the word? That they are validated by one another. So we are very similar to each other, so we feel safe with each other.

Speaker 1: 15:36

That is not what a culturally intelligent organization is. A culturally intelligent organization makes it possible for people with the biggest variety of identities to work well together and to distill the very essence of what makes them talented for their jobs to fit well together, and still, in doing so, they don't have to hide who they are. They don't have to play a role. They are who they are, with everything of their identities. They simply don't showcase every element of their identity at work. So I think there is a thin line between being able to bring all of my identity, or whether I can bring who I am successfully at work, and also be something in addition to that outside of work, without those two worlds necessarily affecting one another and you know, groupthink is pretty much another term for intellectual laziness and a great term.

Speaker 2: 16:45

The other day, somebody said, if we're all thinking alike, then we're not thinking enough, and and that, of course, it inhibits all kinds of great outcomes when it comes to business and, I think, just in life in general. So what do you think? We'd love to hear your feedback. How do you show up at work? Do you bring your whole self, and what have you seen as being benefits or the lack of benefit for turning up and bringing your whole self at work? Again, this is Two Chaps, many Cultures, and you've come to the end of another episode. You've survived another one because we have to, and don't forget to subscribe again. We're just going to remind you of that. Then share this with your friends, share this with your colleagues, your friends, your family, get them on the two chaps train. Two chaps train. We don't think alike here. We we encourage everybody. Have a good week and all the best. Bye now.