Unrealistic?
A lot of people tell me that my attitude to work is not very realistic, a bit ‘Pollyanna positive’ even. After all, if you’re working in a serious business, something like manufacturing or finance, then running around talking about your “Joyful Genius” isn’t going to go down too well, is it?
It’s how you say it!
That’s probably true. Which is why, when I’m working with clients in those kinds of industries, I don’t put it that way. Over the years, I’ve consulted for a number of businesses in more serious sectors – health and safety, risk management, groundworks, property, even tax consultants. With them, I simply talk about the work that they love doing and are brilliant at.
But that doesn’t mean that I’m not taking my Joyful Genius into those assignments. I’m still following my Core Process, stepping into my genius, finding as many opportunities as I can to be “En-couraging Potential”. I’m just not stuffing it down people’s throats. I am simply being it.
No messing about
And I do it in a playful fashion too, another aspect of my Joyful Genius. That doesn’t mean I’m messing about when I’m helping portfolio landlords to structure their businesses to be more effective and pay less tax. It doesn’t mean I’m playing the fool when I’m explaining Talent Dynamics to the team working for a landscaping company to help them work better together. It just means I’m bringing in the playful side of my nature that helps people understand complex solutions in a fun way.
No need to hide
There’s a big temptation when you’re working in a so-called ‘serious’ business, to hide the softer parts of you. And there are two problems with that: you can end up pretending to be someone you’re not, and you can leave out the best bits of you.
If I pretended to be all serious and ‘financial’ with the landlords I work with, they’d hate working with me. In fact, they probably wouldn’t work with me at all – because they would sense that I wasn’t really who I was trying to convince them I was. In other words, they would sense the disconnect between the image and the reality, and they would stop trusting me. That’s what happens when you pretend.
And if I didn’t bring in the playful part of me when I’m talking to the groundworks team, I wouldn’t be making a pretty dry topic (interpersonal dynamics) fun enough for people to get their heads around more easily. As an aside, I also bring in the fun part when I’m talking to landlords about tax and business structures – and they seem to like it too!
Your whole self
The point is, in order to take all of you to work, you don’t have to make it an ‘in-your-face’ declaration of your Joyful Genius. I don’t have to tell my landlords I’m helping them have the courage to live up to the potential of their professional property business, nor do I have to explain to the team that I’m making it fun so they will remember it better. People don’t need (or usually want) you to tell them what you’re up to – just being it is enough.
So please, stop hiding the bits you fear people might not ‘get’, and start taking your whole self to work!
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Photo by Nathan Lemon on Unsplash
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