Baby steps to authenticity
If you haven’t seen Pixar’s latest animated short Purl, stop reading this and watch it now. I’ll wait.
I love Pixar’s shorts, lately they’ve been tugging on my heart strings (did you guys see the Bao one, that made me feel all the feels). Purl was different though, yes I felt my heart strings tug when I saw Purl suffer from loneliness and isolation, but I was overcome with empathy as I watched her on her journey.
To give some context, I’ve been in traditionally male-dominated fields my whole adult life (engineering, management consulting, now startups), and Purl’s feelings are so very real for those of us in fields that typically don’t have people that look like us. Although this isn’t just a “woman entering a male dominated space” issue, I can only speak to my experiences here as a woman of color operating in traditionally white male dominated spaces.
I didn’t realize how much I changed myself to fit in until I left consulting and went to graduate school, and was surrounded by a group of supportive, intelligent, and ambitious women. I felt so welcomed by this community and realized I hadn’t felt like this in a long time, and that I had buried away this “female aspect” of mine so that I could be “one of the boys” and fit into the culture that I was a part of. I was accepted, but I wasn’t accepted for me but a facade that became second nature to me.
I’m taking baby steps on my path to being my most authentic self, but I’ve already seen differences in the way people connect with me. Although this might not be appreciated by all, I’m finding my interactions with people way more satisfying than before.
This topic of authenticity is coming up more and more these days (or maybe I’m just finally taking notice). During last year’s Women In Tech Summit in Austin, TX, Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette, President and CEO of Huston-Tillotson University, opened with the panel “Leading the Team: Being the Boss.” She brought up the topic of women transforming ourselves to be more like men in the workplace, and how this actually hampers women in the long run because being our authentic selves actually frees us to be more effective, innovative, and better leaders.
I’m not sure, but as the professional sphere becomes more diversified and global, it would be prudent for all of us to be more cognizant about inclusion in our teams to better equip our colleagues to be more “effective, innovative, and better leaders,” as Dr. Burnette puts it.
