From the course: Personal Effectiveness Tips

Increase your productivity by being yourself

From the course: Personal Effectiveness Tips

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Increase your productivity by being yourself

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- When we talk about productivity, almost always it's about time management or delegation or prioritization. Those things are important for sure, but today, let's step back for a minute because it turns out there's an overlooked way to increase your productivity and your satisfaction at work. Amazingly, it's being yourself. Authenticity may feel risky, but it's actually better for your career to be yourself. At times, we've probably all felt like in order to succeed at work, we need to concentrate on fitting in or tamping down certain aspects of ourselves. That's a pretty common feeling, and as it turns out, a destructive one. Sociologists use the term covering to describe the phenomenon when people play down certain aspects of themselves in order to fit in. That might be a mother who tries not to talk about her kids at work, so she'll seem like a more serious professional or a gay person who doesn't keep a picture of his partner on his desk, even though he'd like to, or a member of a minority group who avoids mentioning his cultural heritage. It turns out consciously playing down your identity takes a toll. A study by the Center for Talent Innovation showed that closeted LGBT employees felt much more isolated at work than their openly gay peers and were much more likely to feel that their careers had stagnated. The reason researchers believe is that it takes a lot of psychological energy to manage your identity and keep tabs on what others may be thinking. That energy freed up employees were better able to focus on performing well at their job. A study by the Deloitte University Leadership Center for Inclusion showed that covering is pervasive. 61% of all employees cover including 83% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual employees, 79% of African-Americans, 66% of women, and 63% of Hispanics, and a full 45% of straight white men, the people you might imagine don't need to cover, said they had also engaged in covering about everything from physical and mental health issues to their family situation, such as getting a divorce or being a single parent. Research into the phenomenon of covering shows that you're actually less productive and effective at work if you're hiding aspects of who you are. If you want to be more productive, yes, it's good to think about time management, but it's even better to free yourself from the expectations of others. Opening up about your life helps you perform better at work, connect better with your coworkers and enjoy yourself more. Especially for LGBT employees, it's important to be aware of what anti-discrimination policies your state and your company has in place to ensure you're protected. But in general, research has shown that the more you can relax and focus on work, not your identity, the better off you and your company both are.

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