A welcome once upon a time story: 

It always begins with “once upon a time…”  We have all read books or stories that have commenced with this phrasing. We have read them and thought I want to be the princess, the knight, the frog, or in my case the character that was the most different in what they presented to the world. You know the character, the one that changes the most, is the unexpected hero, the one that no one sees until the end as the key player in establishing the plot. Yeah, that was who I wanted to be.  Not the princess, or the knight but the person that magically stood up and stole the show right at the last minute. All because they shook off the perceptions of others, their predefined persona and evolved into their values aligned authentic self.  Why am I bringing this up? Well to understand why you behave in certain ways, you also need to understand the path of development for those behaviours.  In essence, why you have felt the need to become a fictional charter in your own work life!

It’s our recognition, choices, ownership, acceptance and kindness, to and of self, which lead us to reinstatement of our authentic selves.  I realise you are probably sitting there reading this and thinking WTF I thought GenMe was all about a no bull shit approach to growing into my authentic self! Well it is but I felt it was important to start with why I have founded GenME. My once upon a time story, so you didn’t think I was some woman that doesn’t know shit about anything to do with working in industries where it felt as though women were a novelty or “playing at the job until you get married and have kids” (yes this was actually said to me in an interview).

So without any further gum flapping (or words on a bloody page) let’s begin.

Once upon a time….

I was the little girl that challenged the boys for backyard and playground supremacy, played with dolls and trucks, the dolls may have driven the trucks with an extremely bad haircuts, fought for my right to cut my hair off to a “Prickle Cut” (yeah it was the 80s), wear hot pink fingerless gloves, a hot pink matching beret with a red velvet suit (I loved Prince before the Diamonds and Pearls Album) to the local show. One of my many fashionable moments. Because I was different, I felt good about standing out, being my authentic self and overall, bloody awesome!

Did I know this at the time?  Of course not, I was 10! I know now that I was trying to be seen for a multiple number of reasons that I am sure a psychologist would have a field day with. But frankly it was me and I accept the good and the bad that came from that period.

Fast forward a number of years and I was also the little girl that grew up to be one of a few women in industries that didn’t appreciate my want to be different, be recognised for my intellect, my authenticity and really didn’t appreciate my overall awesomeness (tongue in cheek).

I struggled for recognition on a daily basis, I struggled for equality in thought, equality in respect and of course position and money. I lost ME in the process. I created a persona that wasn’t aligned with my values, I felt like a fraud on a daily basis because toning it down to fit what is now seen as the norm for a corporate environment, mentally took too much effort to maintain.   It felt like a bad case of chafe!  Yes chafe, that rubbing of the skin in certain places due to being sweaty and wearing uncomfortable clothes. 

Why did I maintain this persona? Because……blah, blah, blah…. No it’s not a mistype, it really is blah blah blah.  All very valid reasons at the time in my mind, income, the position I had worked so hard to achieve, the teams I lead, my peers, my family, pretty much every reason that someone could come up with. On top of that it was also because that is what the world of work was telling me I had to do. Be someone different, be someone who didn’t rock the boat, be someone that fit the culture (even when the culture was shit!) cultivate the persona of the person you need to be, not necessarily what you want to be and set it in place. Now I am not knocking persona development, in fact I believe in it.  Although I also believe that at some point persona development has become the way women should turn up for work each and every day.

That in itself is restrictive (bad chafe again) and just not achievable.  In my experience we woman are taking this too far! This is not a high school movie where you have to fit in to be feel valued.  Its real life and we are doing ourselves a sever injustice if we are crafting persona’s that don’t reflect if not all, then at least some elements of our authentic self. That’s why our male peers and leaders, look at us strangely when the persona slips, its why they become distrusting of our actions or motives, they see the cracks and don’t understand what is happening and why, because men don’t do that, they are who they are to a certain extent.  They have more authenticity in their work personas then we do, because it is natural and allowable. When our work persona fails us, trust is broken, male peers know something has changed either overtly or subliminally. Their experiences of working with you prior the mask coming off, are now counter intuitive to their beliefs about you.  Distrust ensues. Has this happened to me abso-fuckin-lutely! In a big way and multiple times before I realized what was happening and how my beliefs and behaviours were the cause.  In fact that’s a Once Upon a Time story for the next blog.  How I lost something I didn’t even realise I needed until it was too late.

I would love to say that I achieved absolutely everything that I set out to during my career to date but I didn’t. I tend to set my bar pretty high.  What I did achieve was having enough strength, courage and sparkle to set myself apart and take bias’s head on, to learn valuable lessons in how to navigate through male dominated work environments.  I lived it every day, I learnt every day and in the end, I arrived at a deeper understanding of my authentic self.  I have my pink beret back in place. I am taking a stand; I am owning my future and I am supporting you through yours.

So welcome to the GenMe Evolution where you challenge your persona’s to bringing your authentic self to work each day, to grow through the stories of other women and learn how to navigate your own career path.

With Strength to be me I will succeed

With Courage to stand up I will succeed

With authenticity in my heart and mind, I will succeed

I will Sparkle!

Looking forward the meeting you and sharing in your journey!