#1 The inevitability of your humanity at work

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the bi-weekly Corporate Awakened LinkedIn Newsletter. Discover top stories and tips on enhancing humanity at work and future-proofing your career with a more generative and enjoyable approach to corporate success.

Today's inaugural edition also includes a fleshed out version of our mission statement!

It's time to make work better together.

What I've been up to

It’s been almost exactly one month since I left Salesforce based on a deeply felt knowing: I’m supposed to be teaching & coaching full time while leading a community movement. Saturday was also my birthday. I’m 45 years old! It’s time to get cooking with all of the messages, and posts, and ideas I’ve been storing up for months and months.

What’s The Point??{mission statement}

As AI advancements outpace new human skills and the mental health crisis marches forward, many of us feel helpless. Our default work norms have a lot to do with this.

Corporate culture has homogenized us: It's told us we need to speak and dress like our peers, and that it's okay to sideline your compassion in the name of progress. (Have you ever delivered difficult feedback with little regard for the person you're interacting with?)

Corporate culture has also prodded us to prove our worth by working past the point of comfort —?in some cases, to the point of disease — and kept us so busy that we forgot how powerful we are. I'm guilty of all of this.

And now, just as our human productivity reaches new heights, AI is usurping all the robotic, heartless tasks we've perfected for decades. (Not to mention: making scientific discoveries, animating objects, and creating fictional reality.)

What's left for us?

~ There's so much. Thank goodness. ~

• Our desire to lead with ethics and compassion
• Our capacity for real human connection and motivation
• Our ingenuity and free will to innovate
• Our ability to transcend perceived limitations

—?AI can't replicate any of this. It's the human currency of the future.

It's time for us to remember our true nature.

It's on each one of us to wake up and make different choices at work. I hear some of you inserting excuses right now —?saying "she doesn't get it." If you suspend disbelief for a moment, I promise your mind will open up to at least one possibility. [Side note: this is how coaching works.]

When you start to mold a world of work with the spaciousness to innovate, cultivate deeper connections, and care for your own needs as diligently as you care for others' — you're literally bushwhacking a new path for your peers to follow as well. Thankfully, you don't have to quit to do this.

Article: Throw off your Corporate Mask and Find Yourself

You’re wearing a corporate mask —?and it might be rendering you obsolete.

Cor·por·ate mask (noun)

1. A false persona embodied at work.
2. Speaking, acting, or relating in a way that's out of alignment with your true personality

"her corporate mask completely erased her usual sense of humor"

Read about the history and impending doom of corporate masks here.

What Experts are Saying This Week re: Authenticity

• Tanguy Leborgne, on moving away from the "ultra-confident yet distant [leadership] style" to sharing "relevant glimpses behind the curtain of his life." Also: maybe don't talk about your sex life at work.
• Dr. Natalia Wiechowski advises: take 10 minutes a day to get out of your head.
• “What’s your story? A question that opens the door to real connection with new people, per Hayriye Tekek.

And this gem:

"I always start by acknowledging my mistakes. It's important for my team to see that I am human and capable of errors. This vulnerability fosters an environment where they feel safe to admit their own mistakes and learn from them. By demonstrating that I am open to feedback and willing to improve, I encourage the same attitude in my team."

— a quote from Andrew Lewis within an upcoming book by Toby Larson EdD, MS

60 second brain break ??

Step 1: Stand up.

Step 2: Place your arms straight in front of you and clasp your hands.

Step 3: Keeping your hands clasped move your arms as far as you can to the right, then as far as you can to the left.

Step 4: Repeat this exercise standing on on your left leg.

Step 5: Repeat this exercise standing on your right leg.

How'd it go? Congratulations, you just gave your brain a rest and can return to work in a more productive state. [Credit: David Sladkey]

NEW: Exciting things coming soon

Buckle up for my new course and community, coming this Fall:

1. Human at Work Mini Course
2. Corporate Awakened Community.
3. Relaunch of my weekly email [SUBSCRIBE] w/ a free gift ??

The course will consist of at least 6+ LIVE workshops with me and a special offer to join The Corporate Awakened Community as a founding member for a special rate.

Expected: September 2024.

Subscribe to my email newsletter and be the first to learn more about this.?

About the author

Learn to bring more of you to all that you do —?including your corporate job with Carolyn Warsham, Founder of Carolyn Warsham Coaching and The Corporate Awakened Community, coming soon.?

As a team leader at the best companies in technology and media, including Google, Salesforce, and Vox Media, for the past ten years, Carolyn has consistently coached professionals to lean into their vulnerability and values at work in order to find their most authentic path to advancement. She also served as a certified coach and High Impact Teaming facilitator at Salesforce. In 2022, she created the Begin Again program, empowering female executives to find their voices and step into their inner authority.?In 2024, she'll launch The Corporate Awakened Community, accompanied by coursework to end Burnout, heal Imposter Syndrome, help you thrive at work, and evolve corporate for the good of everyone else —?all with the simple act of Being More of You.

Join the movement to awaken corporations from the inside out and Subscribe Today.?

Reach out

website: carolynwarsham.com

Email: [email protected]

*Above you can see me with my son James, visiting the Salesforce Tower as a guest last month. (Thank you Sarah Sung for the great shot.) James thought the view was “really beautiful” (not his usual potty talk!!) and refused to make a normal face for a picture. We drank too much hot chocolate + cherry chocolate chip cookies & blueberry bars from the talented culinary team (h/t Bill Corbett). At one point, I paused, looked around and said, “Wow this seems like a really nice place to work.” The irony? I found it challenging to enjoy this beautiful view while I was actually employed my Salesforce. This conflictual reality of "having a great job" and being low-key miserable (in a steady state of toxic overstimulation) is one of the main issues Corporate Awakened will take on. Buckle up.

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