Being Yourself At Work

Posted on July 31, 2008
Filed Under Chief Blogging Officer

Throughout our lives we find ourselves being asked to act in a particular manner in order to conform to some sort of preconceived notions of what constitutes “correct” behavior. When we are young, our families sometimes demand things of us that we may not necessarily agree with. When we get to school there are many rules, dress codes, schedules, deadlines and behavioral parameters. Even recreational activities like sports and clubs have a lot of rules and hierarchical structures associated with them. To succeed, for the most part, you have to conform.

“Success, recognition, and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It may just be a coincidence, but learning to conform with rules that you may not agree with while suppressing your own individuality prepares you for what is required at many jobs. Progressive companies like Fit Fuel encourage individuality, but traditionally, many companies tend to either explicitly or tacitly require conformity to a particular rather narrow set of possibilities.

I am not saying that families, schools, teams, clubs, and jobs should have no structure at all. I just think that they all go past the practical necessities of order, planning, instruction and coordination toward a shared goal and wind up intruding into the ability of people to truly be themselves.

It can sometimes be hard to even know who you are., and I know that saying that sounds like psychobabble, but I say it because we are forced to conform on so many levels from such an early age that many of us become sort of an amalgam of all of these things that have been expected of us rather than a truly unique individual.

It’s interesting because if you were to start a company, you may be tempted to hire people that you perceive as being a lot like you. But I think that true synergy requires people of various backgrounds and personalities who bring different strengths to the table finding a collective resonance that is held in place by a shared value of respect for people’s personal differences coupled with a mutuality of intent.

It seems logical to me that many if not most of the “best and brightest” would be nonconformists by nature because their creativity and intelligence is squashed when they try to fit it into a tiny box of conformity. And the people who wind up being their supervisors got to that level by being good at conforming to whatever they are told. To get ahead, their primary asset was a total lack of any courage, creativity or intellectual curiosity. They asked no questions and never challenged their superiors intellectually, so they were never seen as a threat by those who were above them. That is how you get ahead in most companies that I have been involved with.

The progressive employer should encourage their leadership to welcome and respect those employees who challenge the status quo and present ideas that may be able to improve the company. The type of person who can accept this type of “challenge” is truly qualified to be a leader because he or she is not personally threatened when somebody has a good idea that they didn’t think of. If your culture is built on the suppression of individuality, intellectual curiosity, and creative thinking, what kind of staff will you build as you look for candidates that are a “culture fit?”

If you look for people who have a good work ethic, allowing them the freedom to be an individual will result in maximum retention and productivity beyond the wildest dreams of these old guard companies staffed by a group of stale yes-men and women who have “risen to their level of incompetence.”