Wholehearted Work
I was asked a great question last week that made me think a lot about how I approach work, so I wrote down some thoughts I had while answering it. I hope it’s helpful. This was the question:
How do you approach work to make it feel like it has personality (and has your stamp on it), but still keeps it fresh and distinct from your past work?
What a great question. This actually came up in book club at For the People a few weeks back when we were watching Abstract: what is your ‘stamp’ on work? Should we even be leaving a ‘stamp?’ When I think about my work having personality, I actually don’t think about putting “my” stamp on it. That could be because I’m not a designer, but take it for what it’s worth.
Know thyself
Shakespeare said it best. What is the thing that lights your fire? For me, it’s authenticity. I want the real deal, in everything I do. I don’t want no scrubs. In relationships, how I show up for work, how I express myself. Which is probably why I’m drawn to helping brands and businesses align their operations and ambitions, authentically. It’s why I’m drawn to companies and people who are real, transparent, and open.
The way of the Creative is to win others’ hearts through following the truth within ourselves. — The I Ching
What is it that drives you?
Get hooked on a feeling
When I think about creating fresh work that’s new, different, and exciting. I find it helpful to look back on pieces of work I’m proud of and that were a joy to create. I’m a big believer in focusing on how I want to feel in a given experience. As a recovering perfectionist, it’s dangerous territory for me to attach too much significance to outcomes that I can’t control (winning an award, etc), and I find it especially detrimental to creative work. Instead, I focus on identifying what felt different about particular pieces of work.
Jo and I were talking recently about how good work ‘feels’ different. She quoted Michelangelo, who talked about how his role as a sculptor is to free the statue that he sees in a block of marble: to remove the bits that aren’t supposed to be there. When creativity takes on a life of its own, it’s our job to stoke the fire and get out of the way. And that feeling is intoxicating.
What’s the feeling you’re chasing?
Locate, and cultivate the conditions to access that feeling
Part of the fun, and challenge, of creative work is that things are always changing. But when I think about my ideal conditions for creating good work — a few things are constant: leaders who are committed to a big, shared vision, a diverse team of whip-smart people, a dash of over-sharing, a lot of open communication, and a dose of irreverence for the way “things are usually done.” I’m very fortunate to have found that at For the People, and I try to contribute to those conditions, and add to them when I feel I’ve uncovered something that will help others do their best work, too (Girl Scouts 101: leave a place better than you found it).
Based on past experience, what are the conditions that cultivate your best work, and how and where can you create or access those conditions?
Go somewhere where you can do you
I think less about whether my work has personality, and more about whether my personality is accepted at work. I think about whether I can show up fully to work — like, really let the freak flag fly — and where others can show up wholeheartedly, too. Because when that happens, it’s weird, and it’s magic. Go somewhere where you can do you, and where other people are free to do them. The stamp will come all on its own.
Where can you ‘do you’?
Wholehearted work shows when we show up as wholehearted people at work. That requires a little reflection, a lot of self discovery, (sometimes) a search for our tribe (or a new tribe), and a lot of bravery to show up fully in the context we’ve chosen. I’ve found it to be worth the journey — I hope you do, too!
