I need to be myself, I can't be no one else...

Taking on a new job requires a lot of soul searching - will I fit in, will they like me, am I the person they are looking for etc etc. And LinkedIn is awash with (often spurious) advice on how to adapt to 'fit in' but is it needed, and do we all spend enough time thinking 'I'm actually pretty ok, will they suit me?’?

I was invited to a lovely lunch by Joe Glover and the The Marketing Meetup where Joe very kindly said I didn't strike him as the corporate finance type (which is one of the nicest things someone has said to me in a long time!). And despite the fact I do indeed work in corporate finance it's not the first time I've heard it, I’d had a good friend question the same just the day before and, if you know me IRL, the clues are there.?

But I am unashamedly a big ol’ corporate whore (there’s another clue). Despite the tedium of corporate politics and cock waving I love building big, high performing teams, landing big ideas that need big budgets and a wide selection of lunch options so corporate life suits me.??

Having a different set of behaviours to people around me hasn’t always been easy and E.E.Cummings puts it much more eloquently than I ever could;

The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.

Luckily, I had help early in my career when I was lucky enough to work with the very brilliant David Preston, Chartered Marketer, FCIM, CMRS who gave me some of the best feedback I've ever received. We were working on a crisis recall together and at the end of the project he said to me 'I really love the way you can energise the team, but just know when you've energised people enough'.?

Full disclosure we'd been locked in a war room together for the best part of 3 weeks so he may well have meant 'for the love of god woman, will you shut up' but it was the first time I'd had feedback that started by recognising my strengths - prior to that (and let's be honest, many times subsequently) I'd been told I needed to be 'less' and if I was going to dare to be 'more' it should be more quiet, more considered, more mature - ironically given where my career has taken me, probably more corporate finance!

What David taught me, and what I hope I've passed on since, is to celebrate your natural strengths because you, being you, is incredibly powerful. You don’t need to change, you just need to be respectful and considerate of others, the impact you have on them and think about how you get the best from them. It sounds simple, but the simple is often the most powerful.?

And it came full circle for me this week when the fabulous Hannah Stapley-Parker sound the LinkedIn Humble Brag Klaxon crafted me a very special LinkedIn review;?

From day one she has been joyfully herself. Which creates a space where others can be themselves too. Often just injecting a bit of fun and light-heartedness into each day. I think that’s lovely.

Mr Cummings is not wrong, it might feel easier to be what people expect, but it won’t be satisfying, it won't be sustainable, and it won't create a space where people around you can be themselves. As a leader, if you can give people the courage to be themselves it will always be worth it. And if you can’t do that at work it’s not you, it’s very much them. Find a place that fits you.?

Be brave, be fearless, be unashamedly you.?