Stereotypes exist across different professions for a reason. There are ‘ideal’ characteristics associated with different job roles and they’re considered ideal because they help us overcome the core challenges faced within our work. For many of us, introducing the parts of ourselves which don’t sit exactly in alignment with those stereotypes feels like it will hinder our ability to succeed and ‘fit-in’ in the workplace.

Working with young people, the education sector has historically been filled with stereotypes of rigid teachers, their core focus being to deliver the curriculum and ensure students learn it well enough to succeed academically. When I first stood at the front of a classroom, I felt a sweat break across my forehead at the pressure to fit into the teacher-character box of knowing all the answers.

I now know, it’s the teachers who bring their humor, humanness, empathy, and failures into the classroom that not only get the most success out of their students, they also find the most fulfillment in their work. It’s being able to laugh at myself along with my students when I get tongue-tied, being honest when I don’t get their cultural references, and thanking them for pointing out a grammar error or typo in my worksheets that see us finding deeper connections and enjoying the learning space together.

We’re living in a world of astronomical change, and the world of work is one key area where those changes are having the most impact on many of us. The workplace desperately needs more diversity, more vibrancy, and more authentic people showcasing that the ‘old ways’ of being no longer apply — for the best of reasons.

Bringing your authentic self to the office might seem uncomfortable at first, especially if you’re used to partitioning yourself in certain ways. Here are a few ways I learned to relax and redefine how I show up in the workplace:

1. Reform How You Think About Work

Throughout my entire twenties, I believed that to be successful in my work I had to aim for management positions. My notions of proving I was good at my job would be redeemed only when I secured promotions and pay rises. So I worked 70–80 hours a week either in the office, on freelance projects, or studying, hoping it would elevate me into being what I thought I needed to be in order to work up the ranks.

And it paid off. In my late twenties, I stepped into management roles. I took home the higher salaries. While I enjoyed my new titles, something was missing. I’d hit the point I was always aiming for — now what came next? Being in management meant less time in the classroom or working with people one-to-one in the ways I was used to. Both things I started to miss a lot.

Over time I realized all the things I did working to be one of the best at my profession were the things I really loved doing and using my knowledge to help others is what fulfilled me at work. The management titles were nice but they weren’t what I was really in the field for.

Often at work, our ideas of success are based on external tick boxes that tell the rest of the world we’ve ‘made it’. Actually thinking about what you love about work and what makes you feel successful are key for being authentic and fulfilled in the workplace.

2. Learn How To Improvise

In Improv Comedy, you have to learn to go with whatever your partner or troupe say and act like it’s the most natural thing in the world. To be really good at improv, you have to go with the flow without skipping a beat and give yourself over to whatever the outcome might be.

You have to be fearless.

Redefining my career required a heavy dose of being fearless when I was faced with the fact that the time I was dedicating to a particular company was no longer meeting my professional needs or the values I held about my work. On the side, I was doing okay with my freelance career but not enough to quit — the catch-22 being if I quit I’d have more time to commit to freelance and potentially earn more.

My logical brain was screaming at me that I couldn’t possibly quit. I had always worked the 9–5, I had always worked in an office, I had always done this job. Freelancing was so … unstable! What if I failed? What if I couldn't find another job after I failed? So many unanswerable what-ifs.

So, no. I didn’t quit.

But I did go part-time. Which freed me up to pursue bigger freelance projects and find another job which was more aligned with my professional values. I was offered the new job full-time but after a little thought, I negotiated part-time. Because the new format I’d improvised for myself? Actually worked incredibly well for me, personally, professionally, and financially.

Redefining your career requires a good dose of being fearless when it’s called for, and on more than a few occasions, quite a bit of improv. But just like in comedy, when improv works, it’s magic.

3. Re-Write The Script

In the teaching profession, there are ‘right’ ways of doing things and (apparently) not ‘right’ ways of doing things. It’s one of those industries where we’ve just been doing the ‘right’ way for so long, we’ve forgotten that there are so many other ways to do things and that isn’t necessarily wrong.

A huge part of my role is supporting students to gain work experience, internships, or voluntary experience in their chosen career destinations. Historically, we’ve always done it like this:

• I spend weeks calling around various companies and partnerships to try and find suitable opportunities.
• I match a student to the opportunity I find.
• Do a whole bunch of excessive paperwork
• To be told on the first day the student is supposed to start that they’re not actually keen to learn about the company they’ve been matched with.

Brilliant.

Not all of them do this of course, but quite a few do.

At one of my companies, we decided to do things differently. We decided that teaching students how to find their own placements is valuable because:

1. It meant they only approached companies they were genuinely interested in.
2. We taught them valuable skills about job searching they would use for the rest of their lives.

In every single job I’ve had since I take this ethos with me. In every single job, I get push back and doubts from my colleagues. And in every single job, the students thrive on the opportunity to test their skills, build their confidence, and have me there to support them every step of the way. It is incredibly rewarding for me to see how excited my students get when they get a ‘yes’ from the desired employer for work experience, and I know it’s even more rewarding for them to prove they can do it.

There are certain ways we do things at work because we’ve always done them. If you know there’s a way to do things differently that adds value, makes your work better, and supports those around you in positive ways — rewrite that script.

4. Listen To Your Breakdowns

Because they’re secret breakthroughs.

As happens for many of us who have clung tightly to the notion that our work defines us, we eventually hit burnout and suffer from breakdowns.

It sometimes feels like burnout has become so prevalent in our work cultures, that it’s no longer given as much attention as it should be. I know I’ve definitely had my own feelings of burnout dismissed in the workplace.

It was going through this experience, of being dismissed — not just for burnout — that led me to one of the biggest breakdowns I’ve had about work. I was working in a simply toxic environment, with one of the worst examples of management I’ve ever experienced when I hit that bottom. My knees would tremble as I took the elevator up to my office floor, I’d get palpations and break-out in a sweat when I saw my manager's name ping into my inbox or vibrate on my phone, and I spent too many nights crying myself to sleep. I was in a worse state than my worst break-up.

Why? Because I was so fearful of being a failure. I was only a few weeks into the role and quitting felt like a mark against me, for my inability to suck it up. I actually began to believe that the real issue was me and my incompetence rather than the person who was saying those things to me.

I kept quiet about the whole sorry affair for two months until a friend said I seemed down and I off-loaded on her about everything. She told me something that always stays with me:

“Normal people don’t go around destroying other people.”

It’s extremely obvious when you think about but when you’re in a toxic spin you think you can’t get out of, it’s really difficult to hold onto logic. After my pep talk from my friend, I handed in my notice and found a new job within a month. Now, the toxic job isn’t even on my resume history. It had and has had zero impact on me being able to have the successful career I want.

We shouldn’t wait until we reach a breakdown to rediscover who we are and how we can forge forward, but if you do hit that point see it as the breakthrough opportunity it really is and redefine how you approach work from it.

5. Listen To How Others Describe You

Back when I first started out in the workforce, I — like many early twenty-somethings — thought I knew everything I needed to know about myself and others.

I’ve always got on well with other people I work with, and some of my strongest and longest friendships have been forged in the staff break-room, but for a while, I wrongly assumed there wasn’t anything I could learn about myself from the people I shared office space with.

What this led to was an annoying work-a-holic trait combined with an ‘I can do everything myself’ ego. Not cool.

I can’t pinpoint any one particular incident that turned this around for me, but with maturity, getting it wrong, and a lot of honest conversations, I’ve learned that I am not the best person for every job. I am not going to always be right or have the best ideas in the room. But when I sit and listen, make my offerings, seek and give feedback to others — we all end up thriving. We all get the chance to bring our best selves to the table and work in ways that lead to amazing results for the people we support.

Through listening to others I learned that my colleagues love my organization, my outside-box-ideas, my logical, solution-focused approach to challenges, and my speed to pull things together at a pinch. But I don’t always have the coolest head in the room when things get tense and my good ideas are made great when I’m a bit more flexible and allow others to have input too.

Redefining my career and how I show up authentically has been made possible by listening to those around me, leaning into my strengths, and confessing up to my weaknesses.

Lead The Way

We’re all seeking more connection, it drives every single human experience, and defines what makes things meaningful for us, inside and outside of work.

Bringing my authentic self to the workplace has resulted in so many benefits already, and I know I’m only just getting started. It might offer you some too.