Being Yourself For A Living
At Work

What is your reaction to the words “Being Yourself For A Living At Work”? Is it something you feel you are doing? Aspire to doing? Doubt? Envision for your organisation?

Is it something you feel you have to go out on your own to do? Or something everyone can do where they are and, thus, begin a journey of continually deepening their relationship with their work and improving their job performance and satisfaction? Do you think it is feasible, or idealistic? Do you know how to bring it about for yourself and others in your business?

In exploring answers to these questions, I will use this article to do three things:

1. demonstrate that it can be done where you arenow
2. present it as an integrated approach to strategic Human Resource management
3. give you pointers on doing both.
   

The Concept

Being yourself for a living can be thought of as a concept, but it is beyond that, it is a way of life. Its usefulness and benefits are immediate and sustainable, for the individual and the organisation. It begins where both are, and it will take both where they want to go. It is premised on three cornerstones, rather like a three-legged pot.

First, it is about you, doing what you are good at and enjoy, recognising and building on your successes, contributing and developing optimally, and self-actualising. The starting point is identifying what in your current job you want more of and emphasising it so that it grows.

Second, it needs to involve making a contribution to the world, through the immediacy of your job, in the context of your organisation and beyond. It needs to be for the betterment and growth of a worthy and fulfilling cause. It needs the meaning that comes with being of service.

Third, it must include generating money, for yourself and the business of which you are a part. It means adding your unique value, being enterprising, innovative and commercially astute. Being yourself for a living at work is no less than the combination of these three things.

As such, it integrates spirituality (living with purpose and meaning, growing as a person, and being of service) with business (operating in the commercial environment), equally for the benefit of the individual and the organisation. If any of these three factors, these legs, is missing, the pot falls over. If all three of these factors are present, you are being yourself for a living optimally.

We are all being ourselves for a living to some degree. Each individual and organisational story already contains the experience, plus the search for an increase in it, the results of which would be life-enhancing and business-boosting growth. The vision should be to be yourself for a living at work to the full.


Process

The process is three fold: first, to look at who you are, outside of your job and with in it; second to look at the trends, needs and gaps in your context, your organisation and broader environment; and third, to align the one with the other. This is done by setting out to fully realise your potential while taking personal responsibility for the implementation of the organisational vision.


Aligning who you are with what you do

This process is ongoing, a constant and evolving mix of self-discovery and development, strategic planning and implementation, and income generation. It is a simple idea that works for the management of individuals and collective human resources.


Scenarios

It is not an idealistic scenario, out where you would be if only you could escape where you are, but a realisation, followed by a decision, and then an ongoing approach to work and life. It is also a set of tools that you can adopt and begin to use right away.

Anyone can do it in whatever position or function in the organisation, and immediately and sustainably enjoy more drive, innovation, productivity and fulfilment. You can do it for yourself as an HR practitioner, and foster it in your internal clients throughout the organisation.

The organisational circumstances that lend themselves to it are numerous, as it works practically anywhere, any time, and, once implemented, keeps working and intensifying. The starting point or hook, or the times at which to implement it, are commonly the following:

• Organisational growth
• Restructuring and change
• Low productivity, morale and motivation.

The areas in which you can implement the methodology are:

• Training
• Leadership development
• Fast tracking
• Culture and change management.

Method

The suggested method of implementation is the following:

1. Bring in the right help
2. Do it yourself: Be yourself for a living at work, set an example, learn the method experientially
3. Teach others: Kick start people with a training programme that facilitates their finding direction, aligns their personal purpose and goals with organisational vision, and conveys sustainable competencies.
4. Provide support: Implement regular facilitated development groups for people whether they have had the training yet or not, which allows for the sharing of experiences, tracking of progress, mutual support, and acquisition of a new language and culture of rounded success.
5. Encourage people beyond their work: Nurture the achievement of personal dreams beyond job descriptions.

Challenges

The kinds of challenges that are normal when being yourself for a living at work, or incorporating it into Human Resource strategy, include:

• Keeping in touch with the new-found energy in an environment that may still be struggling with old ways (hence the value of ongoing development groups)
• Managing the calculated risks involved in allowing and encouraging people to blossom
• Staying strategic and guiding the growth and advancement of individuals and the organisation
• Being patient as the process unfolds.

Summary

Being yourself for a living at work is a process-based assimilation of the realisation of your personal potential with the realisation of the business vision. It is a twenty-first century solution, a strategy for managing yourself, a model for leading others, and an integrated language for adding sustained HR value.

I hope this article has gone some way to showing that it is not only possible, but profitable, the most fun you can have helping everyone be successful in the truest sense. More important, I hope it has encouraged you to make it happen.