Not Toxic Doesn’t Mean Safe. Professional Doesn’t Mean Real.

How BuildU is clarifying the optimal conditions for growth.

Editor’s note: This is the second in our series about our integral learning model, Build U. Read the first here.

If someone asked you to think about one of the best managers or relationships you’ve ever had at work, who comes to mind? How would you describe that relationship?

“It transcended work, I’ll be friends with them for life. It was full of support and very challenging for me; I grew a lot because of them.” ~ Slalom Leader

Real relationships, of course, take work. But many work relationships aren’t necessarily real. They’re cooperative, coerced and transactional. Which is why so many don’t stand a chance against the great resignation/re-evaluation.

If it’s not REAL, why do we pretend it is?

When a relationship isn’t real, we don’t feel safe to be ourselves, to be fully us in many ways. We’ve learned that we’re often not allowed to do so at work. Authenticity can be risky, so we publicly withhold. At work, we don’t take the boss up on their stated, open-door policy. We publicly…