Feelings at Work: Is Authenticity a Trend?

How many of us wish everyone would leave all their baggage, especially the bags overstuffed with feelings, at the door when they walk into work? We don’t have time to talk about your feelings, especially the ones about your life or even the ones you have about work. We need to produce, hit the numbers, run the report, make the meeting, get the contract. 

 

And feelings? Well, they get in the way. Sound familiar?

 

Or does our denial of all these feelings, that yes we are all feeling, mean they are really running the show? It’s that last one, my friends.

 

As a Licensed Professional Counselor, I have spent the last twenty years helping people to cope with their stress, communicate more effectively, and yes, correctly identify, talk about and through, and actually feel their feelings so they can live happier and healthier lives. And now through the Dare to Lead™ work, I get to teach this and more to leaders.

 

Because here’s the deal, conversations about hard things and feelings are never fun, and they are required for healthy work cultures. The kind of cultures where people feel safe enough to create and innovate and where people want to stay for a long time.

 

This isn’t a trend and isn’t going anywhere. Can you imagine a world where we feel seen and safe, where we can grow and feel like we have an impact?

 

Many of us spend more time awake at work than we do at home with the people who love us most. What if feeling seen at work meant more innovation and creativity? What if it meant happier and healthier people? Imagine the impact that has on the world, within and from your organization and the ripples our employees take home to their families.

 

Is it scary? Yes, that means you are doing it right. Because learning how to hold space, feel our feelings, and then talk about it all in a courageous way, requires vulnerability. And, most of us aren’t signing up for vulnerability. Because vulnerability isn’t comfortable.

 

The thing is though, if we want a courageous workplace where our employees feel safe enough to speak up when things don’t feel right, to innovate something that has never been done before, and to have the bandwidth to carry it out in a healthy and happy way, well then we need to walk into and embrace the discomfort and choose brave vulnerability.

 

The best part? Courage is a teachable skill.

 

We have over 400,000 pieces of data from the brilliant Brené Brown in the Dare to Lead™ curriculum I teach. To go beyond reading the leadership books and taking the classes that only change things for a little while and to learn how to make real and sustainable change in your daily life and therefore, your team.

 

Authenticity is more than a buzzword.

And healthy cultures where feelings are how we show up brave and not ways we armor up are not trends.

 

They are connection.

They are how we heal and how we grow.

They are the future of business.