Can you be your authentic self?

Dr Denise Taylor

27 November 2021

Share

Hi, it’s Denise. Not sure I’m looking at my best today, down the woods, as I tend to do, and it’s raining, but at least I’ve got my poncho. And it’s just stopped raining which is why I decided to start filming.

 

Transcript

And I’m interested in the question “who am I?” and “who is my authentic self?” Because there’s so many different roles that we play, and so many different personas. And I often think back to when I was an employee, highly ambitious when I was younger, and I was just trying to be everything that my organisation and my bosses wanted me to be. So, the real me got a bit subsumed within the image I wanted to play, and I played the game well, I wore the right clothes. I talked about the right things, I made the right contacts, and got promotions. But I wasn’t being me.

I was quite fortunate to start working with somebody and he was seen as a bit of a maverick, and suddenly I could be me and we were setting up a new section, new department, new small business unit actually within Royal Mail and we had coloured walls and we had coloured desks and floor cushions and we had bowls of sweets and things around the place.

And every person who came in said this is different. Well, we were the business change section for Royal Mail  we could get away with being different.

But the more we can be the authentic us. The easier is to get the work that you want. Now, what I’d like you to think about today is “are you being you at work, what part of you the real you can show up at work?”

And for some of the people that I work with, they’re not able to be them at work. And you end up with this dichotomy. You’ve got this, you know, this is who I am, but I can’t be that, so I’ve got to pretend to be another person. And you can only do it for so long because it’s tough.

And what I’d like you to do as we move to December is just take a little bit of time to reflect and think about who am I? What’s the real me? Who’s the me that I want to show up? If the real me could?

 And it’s quite a big one. And this is like why clients will often  book sessions to talk about this with me. And if that’s something you’d like to do, then then let me know of course you can go ahead.

But clearly, a lot of people watch my videos, read my blog posts, etc. And they’re not my clients and it’s absolutely fine. And it’s just about getting some messages out and talking to you. So, I’d like everybody to do is think about who am I? Who is the real me and who is the real me at this stage of my life and  is this something I want to be, or would I prefer to be different?

But I think the first is getting to know who you are. And you can do that with self-reflection. And you can do that with doing a personality assessment, such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. But for now, let’s just think about who am I and, on my blog, I’ll put a link to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, and I haven’t done an offer on that for a while, so I’ll work out a deal If it’s something that appeals to you. And I wish you well, and this is Denise Taylor, conversations in the woods. and until next time, bye bye. Use coupon mbti15 and get a 15% discount. Coupon expires on 4th December.

Image by ar130405 from Pixabay

Related career coaching blog articles

11 October 2024

Ageing Well Expert: When you become part of the story

26 August 2024

What We Get Wrong About Retirement and How to Make It a Happier One (Part 2)

22 August 2024

What We Get Wrong About Retirement and how to make it a happier one (Part 1)