Let’s Make it Personal
One of the things I have liked about these COVID times is the fact that the personal and the professional have become a little more merged. As we have all worked from home, more of our lives has become visible and with it, I think, a little more of ourselves. The trimmings of the usual workplace — formal attire, office environment — have gone. To a degree positional power and hierarchy have also been diminished by the eye of the Zoom screen that has no notion of who is “the boss” and no interest or concern. Dogs and children and home décor have been part of the conversation and part of the space between us all. I have liked this and hope it will continue. I hope too that it is closing the gap between personal and professional boundaries even beyond Zoom, such that people feel able to bring more of their whole selves into the realm of work. This can surely only be more comfortable and easeful for the individual and more enriching for the organisation.
One of the bits of feedback I have received recently in response to my new website is that it is “very you”. People have commented that there is something about the feel of the site, the colours, texture and tone that really reflects my style and approach. This made me so happy as it was absolutely my intention. But on top of that, it highlighted to me how much the “personal” and “professional” have merged in me over the last seven years. I am Neon. Neon is me. I bring so much of myself into my work, into my relationships with my clients, into my coaching:- there is really very little discernible difference or boundary. I wonder if this is partly why my work doesn’t really feel like “work”. I think that having such a deep sense of purpose also helps a lot, but this sense of “wholeness” is a source of great joy and pride in me.
And yet it is not really the “norm” for many, if not most people, right? And language itself suggests a divide between work and home through the words “personal” and “professional”. But what does “professional” really mean? Does it have to mean “seriousness of manner” as the dictionary suggests? And what or whose purpose does this kind of divide really serve?
I am a fierce advocate of blending the personal and professional such that you are bringing your whole self to work and drawing on your whole self whether engaging in work or a leisure activity. This is what Laloux talked about in his research into a newly emerging paradigm of organisational culture. I know it is still anathema to many types of business. But I believe that it is the pathway both to healthier and more human organisations and to greater wellbeing for the people that work in them.
