Bring yourself to work
I was recently working with a client on developing their “employee value proposition” or EVP to those in the know…. We talked in length about the attributes which made their company special but also about the aspirational stuff… again and again they talked about the need for people to bring their personalities to work, to be themselves and not get “infected” by the corporate DNA….. This was an all too familiar story for me…. Over the years I have joined organisations full of high hopes that I have found a place I can be me only to find that I have to change, tone down and play a game to fit in, do well and keep my job. How often have I sat in meetings where we are discussing the behaviours we want to encourage and see and I’m thinking – “yes that’s me” only to find such behaviour brings me nothing but trouble.
In one company I was part of a “movement” a seemingly really exciting group of people brought together to make things happen, change the culture virally…. There was no PMO, no plan, no gants and no agenda – just do it, we were given permission. Or so I thought until I actually put this into practice, working on a “leaders as communicators” progrmme for line managers in my business area I was told by the global head of L&D who ran the “movement” that I had overstepped the mark, gone into territory that wasn’t mine, I was put well and truly back in my box….
We have bring your daughter to work, bring your family to work, even bring your pets to work but how abut starting with us – bring ourselves to work? So I now work for myself, I think it was for the best really, I have the freedom to be me which liberating but a bit scary….. take this blog, I’m still worrying about what I can and can’t write, what I should and shouldn’t write…. So I’m making a stand here, to bring my whole self to work, to talk about whatever I want to talk about.. Mostly it’ll be employee engagement cos that’s what I do, but that’s not the whole story…. By bringing myself to work, expressing my personality, who I am, what I care about and what I want to talk about means that sometimes this blog will feature other stuff too… I have no idea if this will work or be a complete disaster but I’m up for it, I’m up for being me at work, are you?
