Are You Faking It?

As we get more experienced in the workplace, do you find that we lose our authenticity, our curiosity, our soul, or our "who we areness"? Yes, I just made up that phrase! Do we fake it, do we hide, or do we become a wallflower even though you have a lot to say that can add value? Why does this happen?

Where is that little kid? You know the Curious Georges or Georgettes, the daring, assured, loving, respectful, humorous, inquisitive, aware, filter-less, cheerful, upbeat, uncontrollable excitability, fun-filled, genuine and the list goes on and on.  We know what those faces look like.

Why as we grow in our career do we work so hard to mask those tremendous underlying attributes? What happens when we become pubescent at work, and all those attributes change? When do we lose our curiosity, our identity, when do we forget to speak up to ask great questions, when do we lose our sense of being that kid -- trapped inside. When do we no longer want to be the kid that plays, has fun, discovers, figures out how to solve problems and continues to learn every day soaking it all up?

When do we learn to put on the proverbial mask? We become sterile in many ways and not in the way you are thinking. Now, I am not saying when we mature that does bring on some positive behaviors like temper tantrums…hopefully those go away with maturity ….unfortunately I have heard in some workplaces temper tantrums in adults still exist believe or not. Of course, a little maturity can go a long way in how we think or plan and do.

So I pose the question -- does our maturity of becoming a grown up in the workplace help or hurt our organizations grow, lead, learn and challenge us to be better than we are today? Maybe yes or maybe no. However, I see so many people even here on LinkendIn who are waiting to break out of faking it and who want to get unlocked and add value. What is preventing that from happening is a leadership question and leadership solution? It’s an employee question and employee resolution as well -- as employees are the canvas that enables the paint to dry.

The environment that is created fans the fire for good or bad for the passionate or apathetic to burn bright. 

Am I off base? Have you ever been in a meeting and people sit on their hands, motionless, emotionless and they go through the motions? When people do speak – all you hear is blah, blah, blah, blah and more blah, you hear no substance, no passion, and no dice.

You know those meetings where the lips are moving, but you can't hear the words because they are so disimpassioned, detached and unexcited as we work hard to say what we think people want to hear, instead of saying what needs to be said. You see people playing it safe even when they can add value to fix something that is broken or build something that needs a foundation -- at work or even in ourselves. 

I must ask myself am I faking it? You can ask yourself are you faking it? If indeed we are faking it or hiding from the authenticity to make our worlds alive -- we are wasting a very precious commodity, which is our life and the time we have to live it to be ourselves and make that impact we so want to make.

Next time you sit in a meeting that is meaningless and what needs to get addressed sits on the bench to make way for the blah, blah, blah, and blah. Take that moment – take that gift as a sign that it's your time – it's our time to lead regardless of your title or status -- it's time to be real, it's time to add your full value to life. To Life, To life Lechaymin -- Lechaymin Lechaymin To Life!  

Onward and Up until next time!

Greg