Authenticity, Identity, and Being Yourself at Work

Harvard Business Review Work Smart Series
Publishing may 14, 2024

You may recall that in January 2023, I wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review about whether you should disclose invisible marginalized identities at work. That article is now included in an HBR Work Smart book releasing May 2024. The title of the book is "Authenticity, Identity, and Being Yourself at Work" and it is already available for preorder wherever you buy your books. 

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Just be yourself, right?

We're complex people. Professionally, we're recent graduates, employees, star performers, and first-time managers. But we're also best friends, devoted family members, sports fans, plant parents, social justice warriors—or any other combination of these and other traits. But how much of ourselves should we really bring to the workplace?

Authenticity, Identity, and Being Yourself at Work is filled with practical advice from HBR experts that can help you answer this and other questions like:

• What does authenticity really mean at work?

• What values do I want to live into?

• How do I take control of my professional identity?

• How should I disclose personal information without oversharing?

• In what ways can I overcome feelings of impostor syndrome?

• When should I conform to my company's culture—and when should I stand out?

This book will help you figure out how much of "you" to bring to work so that you feel more comfortable and confident—and ensure you're presenting yourself as you want to be seen.

Rise faster with quick reads, essential advice, and relatable stories.

It's not easy to figure out work when you're still exploring who you are and what you want in life. How do you translate your interests, skills, and education into a career you love while also navigating a new work environment?

The Work Smart series explores topics that matter to you: being yourself at work, collaborating with (sometimes difficult) colleagues, maintaining your mental health, and more. Each title includes chapter takeaways and dozens of resources so that you can go beyond the book to engage in the media you learn from best. Work Smart series books are your go-to guides to step into and move forward successfully in your professional world.

Ending Checkbox Diversity

REWRITING THE STORY OF PERFORMATIVE ALLYSHIP IN CORPORATE AMERICA
Published October 25, 2022

A Google strategist shows how companies can move beyond performative allyship into the authentic enactment of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

After being in corporate America for nearly a decade as a triple minority who passes for a straight white woman, Dannie Lynn Fountain knows that corporations’ modern plague is the story of its DEI duality. Time and time again, she has witnessed companies pretend to care about DEI for public relations fodder and then discriminate against employees or ignore their identities.
 
Dannie’s solution to this problem? Rage against the system by refusing to accept mediocre-at-best action. This story isn’t just about how messed up corporate DEI currently is; it also takes a hard look at what is necessary to get diversity right in three parts:
 
●      The context of corporate DEI
●      Why the change in perspective
●      What’s not working and how to change
 
Ending Checkbox Diversity gives readers an understanding of exactly how corporate America is failing underrepresented identities and offers a plan for what to do next, with clear examples and metrics for evaluating DEI in their own careers and aligning themselves with companies that are actually doing the work.