Defining Your Core: For the Company and Yourself

“To be yourself, you have to know who you are.” — Deepak Chopra

During the first month of the Culture Lab program, we focus on defining core. The core being who you are, what you stand for and defining your legacy.

During the first workshop with a group of business owners and company leaders, someone asked: Should we be going through the exercises as ourselves, or as an employee of the organization?

We asked them to go through the various exercises as themselves rather than who they are at work. It is important to initially define who we are as individuals before defining the core of the organization. For founders at an early stage, who they are and what they stand for will also be the same for the company. Their core is the company core.

There are a number of exercises we take people through to understand what is currently driving their behavior and decision making. We help people understand the underlying values they find important. We show people their patterns and the place from which they are making business decisions. We also remind them of their strengths and weaknesses.

When the mirrors are turned and they discover more about themselves, they may not always like what they see. They may not value that thing that’s been driving them for so long. They may not even realize they are stuck in a habit that’s holding them back. We have to let people discover their ghost values (and subconscious motivators). As Ray Dalio would say, “Untruths are scarier than truths.” From there, they can create aspirational values and re-prioritize their time and efforts in a new direction they have intentionally chosen.

We as individuals have our own microcultures. For employees, it’s not until we understand and define who we are, that we can clearly see whether we are aligned with the organization or not.

Our microcultures as employees make up a shared culture of an organization with overlapping values and beliefs that bind us together while working toward a common goal.

Numerous workplace studies reveal that employees stay longer and are happier when they can be themselves at work and feel like they fit in. To reach that point, employees first need to be aware of who they are (the good, the bad and the ugly) to better see how they align with their workplace and the organization needs to do the same. This also makes work more efficient when people know how you work and what to expect from you.

We all wear multiple hats between work and our personal lives. Whatever those other labels might be, life’s just better when we can come to work as our whole selves.

How do you align with your workplace culture?