Who Do You Bring To Work?

Douglas O’Loughlin’s 12^th Strategy in his book, Facilitating Transformation asks some powerful, reflective questions. This book is written in a unique style, which facilitates the reader along. You can read it in any order, as there are twelve strategies for helping you rethink and review your facilitative style. If you can master one or two, you’d be off to a great start.

Douglas’s twelfth strategy is: Bring Your Whole Self to Work. He suggests that we are more than our work, and we are instruments.

Now, let’s transfer these orientations to you. Who are you when you are at work? How genuine are you? Peter Block suggested that we wear different masks at work. The Chinese believe in putting on different faces for various occasions: public, private, and expected.

When you lead, are you somebody else? Or, do you allow your intuition and instincts to lead you along? Surely, we have been taught to apply situational leadership to each opportunity and staff however, how clear are you when you shift and sift through all these roles and approaches?

Do you bring your personal values to work? Do you bring your sense of purpose? Do you bring with you your desire to change the world? How much of your leadership do you bring? Do you bring 100 percent of yourself to work? Do you work as if each day were your last day/session/conversation?

To reiterate: What do you bring to work? How whole are you when at work? How real are you when you lead your team?

Mahatma Gandhi said: ‘Live today as if it is your last day. Learn as if you are going to live forever.’