One of Team SAARI’s SXSW Sydney highlights was a session called, “Three elephants in a room: money, sex and power" where a gutsy panel sat down and unpacked the three supercharged topics that we often shy away from.

Panellists included Christina Hobbs, the co-founder and CEO of Verve Super, Lucy Wark, Co-Founder of Fuzzy and Founder of Normal, and Jessy Wu, Investments Principal at AfterWork Ventures, and moderated by Vidit Agarwal, Investment Lead at Ecotone Ventures. 

According to Lucy Wark, bringing a level of formality to work offers protection and is often necessary. 

“Bringing your whole self to work is not necessarily a good thing,” said Wark. 

Formality helps people set personal boundaries. The emphasis in the startup ecosystem of leveraging everything about yourself to connect with others, or the focus on the notion that formality in corporations kills culture, is a bit misplaced, Wark reflected.

As someone who was born and raised in another culture, I really resonated with this point. I remembered my first few months in a new workplace just after I had migrated to Australia, and the challenges and pressure I felt to constantly share details about my private life, when I really just wanted to have very basic conversations about music, hobbies and slowly get to know people. 

Everyone around me was being their “authentic self” and very open about their personal life, parts of which I found were probably too private to share. Which made me rethink - was I really being me? Was I expected to follow suit and disclose what felt like a lot? And even if I did, would I really fit in while networking and building relationships? The daily mental dilemma was not pleasant.  

Wark went on to provide some of the best advice I’ve heard that can help anyone mitigate the pressure of this expectation in many work cultures. 

“Try to be an intentional, sustainable and effective version of yourself at work.” 

Wark emphasised that it can be confusing for people from diverse backgrounds for find that cultural tone, and it brings with it a power imbalance. She called for employers and workplaces to rethink some of that cultural tone they are setting up for their companies to support people who might find being fully authentic a barrier to feeling like they can fit in.

Jessy Wu called attention to the details of how we are asked to show up, and that there is a difference between personality and character.

“The work personality has only been around for a few years and as a result, we have started to project rather than just be ourselves,” she said.  

“A good question workplaces can ask themselves is: how can we encourage people to bring that character to work instead of feeling that they have to project?”

According to Wu, while authenticity is a privilege, we should actively think about how we can create owned power rather than seed it. We all have the power to utilise our own mastery of skills and knowledge to achieve a certain outcome, the power to influence people, and relationship building. That owned power is authentically yours, rather than the borrowed power a job title bestows on you. She advised everyone to create a personal brand within your organisation. Doing so means that you are able to capture the value you can create in that organisation so that you can take that with you when you leave and move on. 

“You do owe your workplace your authentic self but you owe it to yourself to not let your workplace dull down that authentic version of you either,” said Wu. 

During the Q&A someone from the audience asked for advice on code switching, the way underrepresented groups have to adjust their language, expression and behaviour in particular situations. Wark acknowledged that having to code switch can be mentally taxing and it is important to practise self care.

By way of advice, Wark suggested a few key practices that can help you create a stronger workplace for yourself or your employees: surround yourself with like-minded friends, managers and colleagues who understand you and your values, and participate in regular therapy were her key suggestions. 

Raksha Burman is a freelance writer, project manager, animator and podcast host. 

Cover image credit: Jessie Wu, LinkedIn.