Authenticity, survival and living a lie at work

Gina Battye, author of  ’The Authentic Organization’, outlines how to create a psychologically safe working environment

 

Leaders and managers often start discussions about authenticity with the bold assertion, ’Being your Authentic Self at work means being vulnerable.’

 

It is crucial to confront this issue directly, as truly understanding and embracing your Authentic Self is the cornerstone of establishing a psychologically safe workplace. In fact, psychological safety, a vital element of a healthy work culture, begins with intrapersonal awareness, making it a critical concept to understand.

 

What Is psychological safety?

Psychological safety is an individual’s subjective experience of safety, comfort and confidence within a specific context. It refers to how safe and at ease you feel in different settings, whether it is a physical space, an environment, a situation or when interacting with people.

 

It incorporates many cognitive-emotional-behavioural aspects, such as emotional and mental well-being, mental processes, emotional responses and behaviours.

 

Psychological safety hinges on five critical elements: intrapersonal awareness, interpersonal skills, team dynamics, collaboration and organisational factors. Among these, intrapersonal awareness is the bedrock upon which everything else is built.

 

Intrapersonal awareness: catalyst for authenticity

Awareness of your thoughts, emotions and behaviours is crucial because intrapersonal insights profoundly impact your performance and behaviour in the workplace. This intrapersonal awareness not only serves as a catalyst for bringing your Authentic Self to work, but also acts as a driving force in enhancing and refining communication, team dynamics and collaboration.

 

Right now, you are presenting a carefully curated and censored version of yourself - one honed over years to fit in and be accepted. You censor your appearance, behaviours, body language, mannerisms, what you say, do and how you communicate. Think of it like configuring privacy settings on your laptop. For one user, you’ll let them see X. For a different user, you’ll let them see X and Y. You wear different “masks” for different scenarios, extending beyond your personal and social life to the version you present at work.

 

Bringing your authentic self to work

To understand what it means to bring your Authentic Self to work, let’s go back to the beginning. Picture yourself at birth - the authentic, real you. When you entered this world, you were a blank slate: innocent, unburdened and unfiltered. Imagine yourself as a brand-new device with factory settings. This is your Authentic Self.

 

As you grew up, you reached a point in your development where you became more conscious and started to question the world around you. Internal dialogues formed and you started asking questions such as: Why does my brother get more of my parents’ attention than I do? Am I not loved? Am I not good enough? Why am I not as slim/tall/clever as everyone else in my class?

 

These internal dialogues started the process of internalising the answers, marking the transition from a pristine device to a system laden with bugs and glitches.

 

The accumulation of layers

Each thought, experience, belief, interaction and piece of feedback you received added a “layer” that distanced you from your Authentic Self. Imagine this process like layers of an onion building up over time, moving you further away from your true essence, your Authentic Self.

 

These layers are like threads woven into a complex tapestry, bearing the impressions of what shaped you. They include social conditioning, early beliefs, stories you created about specific moments, labels you collected to describe yourself, family expectations, societal norms and personal insecurities. The comments you heard as a child, both encouraging and critical, left their mark. You carry with you the experiences that left you joyful, hurt or angry.

 

As the layers built up, you started navigating life through them rather than from your Authentic Self. Fear of judgement, pursuit of validation and the desire to fit in reinforced the façade that concealed your Authentic Self. You crafted different “masks” for different situations to protect yourself from vulnerability, rejection and judgement. These masks gradually evolved into defence mechanisms, worn out of fear - fear of not being good enough, of being an impostor, of being different. Now, you wear these masks to fit into the expectations that society or the workplace has of you, to gain acceptance and to avoid conflict.

 

Over time, these accumulating layers reshape your Authentic Self into a complex, multifaceted identity. Your Authentic Self lies at the core, but what your colleagues perceive and experience of you is primarily influenced by the outer layer, which represents your visible identity.

 

Authentic Self vs. identity

What happened to your Authentic Self? The layers that have been protecting you inadvertently distanced you from your Authentic Self. What began as a coping strategy evolved into a habitual pattern. Currently, you live your life on the surface of all these layers, operating from your identity, and not from your Authentic Self.

 

Identity is how other people perceive you and the way you define yourself, based on your life experiences.  It is a perception of who you are. It’s a curated version of who you are, often presented as a ’professional mask’ at work.

 

Authentic Self, on the other hand, is your truest, most genuine nature and essence. It is who you really are. Your Authentic Self lies beneath the accumulated layers.

 

What your colleagues see of you in the workplace is your Identity, not your Authentic Self.

 

Bringing your Authentic Self to work means presenting your Authentic Self, rather than your identity.

 

Linking authenticity and psychological safety

If you don’t feel safe to be your Authentic Self at work, it’s a clear indicator that your workplace lacks psychological safety.

 

Psychological safety cultivates high performance, trust, creativity and innovation, empowering individuals to thrive in the workplace. It starts with intrapersonal awareness and the courage to bring your Authentic Self to work.

 

To bring your Authentic Self to work, start by peeling back the layers that have accumulated over time. This involves targeted self-reflection, releasing anything that negatively impacts your performance and behaviour in the workplace, having the courage to present your Authentic Self and practising consistency in being your Authentic Self across different contexts and situations.

 

By cultivating an environment where authenticity is valued and encouraged, you not only enhance your own well-being and performance but also contribute to a more dynamic, innovative and collaborative workplace. This creates a healthy environment where everyone can thrive.

 

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This is an edited extract from The Authentic Organization: How to Create a Psychologically Safe Workplace, by Gina Battye - published by Wiley, June 2024, and available wherever books and eBooks are sold

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and Delmaine Donson