Life Lessons in Building an Authentic Career
Today I'm talking about authenticity at work because you can stop faking it and actually start making it to advance your career.
Too often, high-achieving professional women feel like they have to put on a persona—like they’ve got to be fake, phony, or be somebody that they are not—to actually make more money, have more impact, or accomplish truly meaningful things in their career. That's simply not true.
I will tell you, as a woman who is very authentic and who shows up as her full self in life and work, that you can do the same; you can show up as your whole self. You do not have to fake it till you make it. You don't have to be different from who you are. Your authentic self adds real value to the world of work. We’re going to cover four strategies that I use in my own life to show up fully and authentically at work, and how authenticity has actually helped me make more money and have more impact in my career.
Stand in the full confidence of your expertise.
A lot of women, Black women in particular, are taught to be fake; to be humble. We're taught to shrink and not to say too much about ourselves. We don't want them to think we’re hoity. We've always been taught to shrink. We were taught that again and again and again.
But a lot of you are absolute rock stars with the goods, the knowledge, the degree, and the skill set. If you have the experience and the insight but you're faking like a dummy at work, acting like things don't matter, that's actually hurting your career severely. The first step to being really authentic at work is to stop pretending and stand as your full, authentic self.
The number one way to begin this is to know what you're good at so you can stop being insecure. And if you're not sure what you're good at or if you struggle to articulate it, let me mentor you. I'm here to serve you and help you understand what all you can contribute and realize how valuable those contributions are in the marketplace.
Build meaningful relationships based on mutual respect.
A lot of professional women have gotten to the point in their careers where they feel like they don't need anybody. They think they don't need a mentor, or to build relationships with their bosses or coworkers. “I'm a do me. I'm gonna put my head down, do the work, grind it out, and everybody else better just deal with it.” Right?
But one of the things that I have learned is that you must build meaningful relationships based on mutual respect across your career to be successful in industry. It doesn't matter what industry you're in, who your coworkers are, or who your boss is. You need to be able to build meaningful relationships based on mutual respect.
Now let me be very clear because this is the biggest pushback I get about authenticity in building relationships at work. “I'm not going to follow the leader and just do what other people tell me to do.” This is not about that. It is critical to build these respectful, meaningful relationships to be successful in your career, even if you are an entrepreneur in business for yourself. If you have struggled with this in your career, it's time for mentorship.
Leverage your futuristic thinking skills to help move the organization forward.
A lot of you are working in broken organizations and you perpetuate that brokenness by staying there. You know stuff ain't working right. It's time to either get the help you need to become a boss in this organization and actually be the leader who can drive innovation and change, or you need to exit the organization. And again, either way, I'm here to mentor and support you in that. But you can't stay there. Not in this role, not at this level.
You need to be a futuristic thinker. You have great ideas. You want to drive innovation. You want to drive the organization forward. You have strategies to improve things but you won't see them realized if you stay stuck at your current pay level and in your current depressive state about your career. It's time to get mentorship so that you can move your career forward either up in this organization to drive change or out of this organization to drive change. But either way, we're driving change up or out, right?
Only work for organizations whose values align with your own.
I define personal values as what guides your decision making. They are the words, phrases, and approaches that when present, you're like, “Yeah, I'm about it. I'm excited about it.”
The way for you to actually be authentic and get what you want out of your career is to find a secure, new role that's going to value you for your expertise and pay you at the level that allows you to build wealth in the ways that you desire. No more faking it at work. We've got to stop that because you fake it like you’re okay with the salary range, and ignore your values to perpetuate in a place where you know you don't desire to be. And so if you know you're in a place where you're ready to stand boldly in your truth and be authentic at work, and you need more to advance your career, then I invite you for mentorship.
I'm accepting new mentees right now and you can take the first step in working with me by applying to the Mentor Me Accelerator.
Check back each week with the newest blog post from Mentor Me!