Welcome to Week 49 of the Authenticity@Work Leadership Tool-kit! My intention for this series is to share a quick tool each week to help you lead with more authenticity, adaptability and inspiration so we can together create workplaces where we bring the best of ourselves and inspire others. So grab a journal and an accountability partner to make these practices even more powerful for you!
In last week’s post we talked about how to dance with your dream. What one small step did you make to start working toward your dream?
What if we each took the time to draw the narrative of our lives? In my workshops, I often have leaders draw out their leadership journey. What we learn from others’ journeys helps us gain access to who they are, what drives them, and allows us to be touched by their dream.
So let’s declare a Bring Your Dream to Work day. How can each of us find the expression of our dreams in our daily work? Google’s “20 percent time” projects enables engineers to spend one day a week working on projects they’re passionate about that aren’t necessarily in their job descriptions.
Dancing with the dream means that we engage with our passion. It is the pursuit that brings richness to our lives rather than only the achievement. We make room for it in whatever capacity we can. If the time is not right to pursue it full time, pursue it as a hobby or a side gig. Now more than ever, people working full time are pursuing part-time entrepreneurial options.
If you are a leader in your organization, take the time to ask others about their dreams and encourage them to engage with them. Find opportunities for them to bring part of their dreams to the workplace. Ask them what changes they are inspired to create and what ideas they have to contribute. Watch them light up and point them to what they don’t see when they are lit up.
This Week’s Tool:
Bring your dream to work. Take it with you to your next meeting. What does this open up for you? (for example, a part of my dream is creating more authentic workplaces. As part of this, I may bring curiosity to my next meeting to help me learn about who the other person is authentically rather than his or her work persona.)
Brainstorm with coworkers how you can bring your dream to life at work and help them bring theirs to the workplace.
Get the latest resources for Authenticity@Work (this tab will get updated with all kinds of cool resources). Curious to know more about the book? Read the reviews about Wired for Authenticity here.
