Bring ALL of you to work

If there is one thing I truly enjoyed about how this lockdown has changed work life for me, it’s that I have a much better sense of who my colleagues and business acquaintances are as people, beyond what they do at work. Seeing them during video calls in their homes and gardens has helped me feel a more personal connection despite not spending time together face-to-face.

This made me think about today’s topic which is about bringing ALL of you to work, or as much of you as you’re comfortable with, rather than hiding who you truly are or the things you are genuinely interested in for fear of being judged, maybe even laughed at or that it may hold you back from progressing in your career.

Life is too short to do things half-hearted and it’s also too short to not be who you really are. Hiding behind a facade takes energy and that means you have less energy and enthusiasm left for doing your work and enjoying the challenges and opportunities that come with personal and professional growth.

So how can you bring all of you to work?

Some of us are very private and don’t want to share our personal interests with others and that is perfectly fine. I’m not suggesting you turn your work life into a Facebook newsfeed. It’s more about showing your personality, taking a stance and having an opinion, standing up for those things you believe in, even if that results in difficult conversations or even confrontations. It’s about feeling that if you want to share a personal story, an idea or a cake, you can do that comfortably.

Yes, it helps to have a supportive work environment and colleagues who are decent people. (If that isn’t the case and you have the option of leaving a destructive work culture, please do so for your own sake.)

I recently had a call with an agency to discuss some ideas and while we were waiting for the last person to join us, we started talking about how the morning had gone so far. I hadn’t met these people before, this was my first call with them, but I mentioned that I had just started making a fresh loaf of sourdough, so we got talking and while it may seem like a pretty random topic for a first conversation, we were all pretty relaxed by the time our call truly kicked off and one person commented that she enjoyed finding out these personal bits of information about me.

And that is the stuff I mean. Don’t share your innermost secrets, but feel free to show more of who you are. More of what makes you YOU. It doesn’t have to be a forced or scheduled part of a meeting where everyone reports how their weekend went. It could just be sprinkles of fun stories and questions along the way.

Isn’t it risky to open up?

Sure, you could say it’s risky. I’m pretty sure some people find it strange how openly I tend to talk about the things I do, and I notice it myself when I talk to others who don’t share as much, but with the right questions and a genuine interest, I usually manage to find out a bit more about them as well. Am I nosy for doing so? I wouldn’t say so. For me it’s not about juicy gossip, I really like understanding what makes people tick.

How much you share is up to you, but give it a try and see how people react. It can totally change the conversation from transactional work talk to creating a connection with another person on a level that injects more fun into your work day.

Who are you really?

You are more than simply a person filling a role at your organization. You bring ideas, knowledge, experience, your own style of work and way of doing things, skills and traditions shaped by your culture and upbringing. You contribute far more than the items listed in your job description. And it’s great to develop the courage to fully embrace that. It can be scary if you worry about people not agreeing with you, maybe arguing against you or even attacking you for what makes you YOU and what makes you unique. And such anti-social behavior needs to be addressed immediately and effectively, so that everyone feels safe to be themselves at work.

What an opportunity it is, though, to take everything that makes you YOU and apply that to your projects and tasks. It gives you a chance to find common interests with your colleagues and it helps you to apply particularly the soft skills you have to many different situations. It also creates a more diverse, safe and fun workplace.

?NOW is our opportunity

I won’t claim that COVID-19, keeping many of us in our home offices, has helped to make it easier and faster to create such an environment - in some cases, I’m sure the opposite has happened. What the pandemic has given us, however, is the urgency to find ways to communicate and work together effectively across geographical and technological boundaries, and with that came a glimpse into everyone’s personal life.

I do feel that I’ve come to know people better, especially considering the circumstances. How often would you talk to a complete stranger about their cat, their toddler or succulent collection upon first meeting them? My bet is that hardly ever happens. Thanks to video calls those topics now become easy icebreakers and the chance to start a meeting with a smile.

How can we keep this going once we return to our offices and workplaces? How can we bring more of our personality and uniqueness to our job and leverage them to become better at what we do?

I’d love to hear your comments below. My personal approach will be to share the results of the skills I acquired during lockdown: baking sourdough bread and perfecting a double-layer Biscoff gateaux...