Showing Up as Your True Self at Work

What does it really mean to be authentic in today's workplace?

In this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up, host Dennise Cardona, M.A., '23, sits down with Timothy Olivella, a graduate student in UMBC's Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership (EIL) program, to explore the role authenticity plays in professional success, leadership, workplace culture, and personal fulfillment.

Learn more about UMBC Professional Programs and the Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership (EIL) program: https://professionalprograms.umbc.edu/entrepreneurship-innovation-leadership/masters-of-professional-studies-entrepreneurship-innovation-and-leadership/

#UMBCMicdUp #UMBC #Authenticity #Leadership #CareerGrowth #ProfessionalDevelopment

Transcript

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Dennise Cardona  00:00:00  

Hey, thanks everyone for tuning in to this episode of UMBC Mik'd Up Podcast. I am Dennise Cardona, your host, and I am here today with a current graduate student in our Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership program, and that is Timothy Olivella. Timothy, it is so wonderful to have you here on the podcast. Thanks so much for joining us.

Timothy Olivella  00:00:21  

Thanks, Dennise. I'm so happy to be here. I'm so, so excited for our conversation today that we're going to have about authenticity, and so I'm happy to introduce myself a little bit, like you said, Timothy Olivella, he, him, his pronouns. I'm a full-time student in the Entrepreneurship Innovation Leadership Master's program, but I'm also a full-time staff member here on campus at UMBC. I've been working here for a couple of years now, about three years. I do a lot of work with our instructors for courses, scheduling classes, but my favorite part of my job is teaching a class, and so I teach what's called an introduction to the university class on campus for incoming students. I get to teach them about the culture on campus, the resources, things like that. So, so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Dennise Cardona  00:01:07  

Ah, it's great to meet with you again. I mean, we've spoken before in the past, but it's just great to have a fellow retriever on the podcast with me. So, yeah, thanks for being here. Of course, of course, we've had a past conversation about authenticity, and when we were talking about that, I said, "Oh my gosh, we have to have a podcast about this, because it's such a beautiful topic. And so, what does authenticity mean to you, Timothy, in a professional setting?

Timothy Olivella  00:01:33  

I've been mulling over that exact question in my head for so long. It is something different to every single person, and I think that's the beauty and authenticity, right? It is a culmination of all of your experiences that make you who you are, and it's kind of a way that you can convey that experience, and your background, and your culture, and your gender expression. You can convey all of that through an authentic lens in a way, so how it combines kind of with a professional setting. It's just, how can you bring your whole self to work, to any sort of professional experience? Doesn't have to be where it can be volunteering, right? How can you bring your full self to the people around you? And I don't think there's any wrong way to do that, right? It's so unique to every single person.

Dennise Cardona  00:02:23  

I love that authenticity is so important. It's so critical to show up, like you said, as your authentic self. You know, I think a lot of people may struggle with that. I certainly have in certain environments where maybe, like, when I'm in a different financial world, when I used to work in the financial world, showing up as my authentic self was hard, because you know you want to, you want people to assume that you are that person that belongs in that particular environment, and when those two things clash, I think that's where the inner conflict can come in.

Timothy Olivella  00:02:56  

I think authenticity is so it's personal to who we are, right, and it's sometimes hard to open up and show everything about ourselves to everyone around us, right. It's so dependent on the relationships that you talked about, whether with your coworkers, with your friends, even with your family. You know, all those relationships are so unique, and how you show up to those conversations, how you show up to those events, those experiences. There's a way to do it in a way that is still conveying that authentic self of who you are, though you may act differently in different situations with different people. You know, I show up differently at work than I do to my a party with my best friends, right? But there's a way I can show up to both spaces authentically with all the same values that I have, with all the same, all the experiences that I have, so, so, yes, it's so important. I think it's very topical today as well, too.

Dennise Cardona  00:03:53  

Yeah. Why do you think so many professionals feel pressure to present a polished version of themselves at work.

Timothy Olivella  00:04:03  

I think that has a lot to do with how we were raised, you know. If I ask you the question right, what does a professional look like to you? I think we both may have that vision of someone, maybe in a suit and tie, someone wearing, you know, just very professional clothing, right? Have having a briefcase, you know, they're on the way to a meeting, so they got to, they got to be somewhere, they can't talk too long, right. We're kind of conditioned to think that that is the one way to be a professional, right. And so I'm still like unpacking and unlearning some of that stuff too, you know. I'm sitting here on my desk wearing a T-shirt for Retrievers, T-shirt for UMBC, and so I can still be a professional and still maybe not show up as polished as maybe I had once thought, and I think that in turn is, you know, how I view myself, the values that I have, I can still be a professional though I may not be dressing like. I thought a professional was, and so I think a lot of it's, yeah, just how we were raised.

Dennise Cardona  00:05:06  

I love the, I love what you just said. I mean, so I'm in a very creative role in marketing, creative writing, blogging, video production. It's very creative, and I used to find in the past when I used to show up very dressed up for work that I felt that I kind of felt like I couldn't be as creative, if that makes sense, because I was like it was uncomfortable, you know, something was like my maybe my my skirt was pinching or the shoes were uncomfortable, and I couldn't, for me, be my authentic creative self in that kind of feeling, and so, over the years, I mean, I still dress professionally, polo shirts and things of that sort, but they're much more comfortable, they breathe, and I'm able to think more creatively as a person, and honestly, as a professional, this is my authentic self, and so I love how workplaces have become more business casual, if you will. I mean, it's still a professional element to it, but it's just.. it's for me, depending on your role, it's very comfort is very important to me as my authentic self.

Timothy Olivella  00:06:13  

Absolutely right. It's.. it's how can we show up to do good work that we're proud of? Doesn't always matter that we're wearing a suit and tie, and you know our pet, our shirt is tucked in, right? We can still do good work.

Dennise Cardona  00:06:26  

Do you believe, Timothy, that people are becoming more authentic in the workplace today, or maybe less?

Timothy Olivella  00:06:33  

So, I've been a working professional only for a few years now, only about three years, and so I had a lot of experience in higher education, and so what I know about higher education, right, we are a very people-forward, people-focused line of work, right. We measure success in students walking across the stage at graduation. We don't measure success by how much money we made by these students, right. And so there's a very humanistic side of higher education, and so I think working here, you know, we do, my coworkers and I, we value the human experience, we value being fulfilled, right, that's the message that we're trying to convey to students, that I convey to my students, right, it's not about success than it is fulfillment, right, and so I think fulfillment is really in tune with who we are authentically, ourselves, our goals, our values, our aspirations that we want for ourselves, and how can we make that in line with whatever the professional journey we want to embark on, right? How can we align those two things, and so I think, like I said, where I work now, my coworkers, my supervisor, we value that we are all people. We value that we have goals, dreams, ambitions, both within the workplace and outside the workplace. And so I hope it's the same in industries, you know, everywhere outside of higher education. So I'm curious to know, yeah, what kind of youth experienced in that?

Dennise Cardona  00:08:01  

Well, I will tell you that years ago I wasn't as confident of a professional as I feel like I am today. I mean, the experience and the passion for what I do obviously has helped that journey along, but there was a time when I was, I was in sort of a supervisory role, and I wasn't quite fulfilled with that. It wasn't the administrative tasks weren't what I wanted to focus on, but I didn't realize that until I actually got into the role, and my authentic self, if you will, did not feel aligned with that particular role that I was playing, and so I feel like I wasn't able to bring the value that I wanted to into, into an environment, and so sometimes I would argue that authenticity means sometimes you have to take a step backwards, re-examine, and find that way that you can. For me, meaningful contribution is what I'm all about, and I want to be able to bring value and meaningful contribution to whatever role I'm in, and for me that was much more of a creative role, and thankfully, I mean, at UMBC, they've just been fantastic about that, about finding that meaningful contribution within yourself, and how you can bring that to UMBC specifically, and so I, you know, for me, being in this higher ed environment has been amazing, because that is what is valued, is how can, how can you bring out that in somebody else as well, and so for me that leadership ended up turning into more of a creative leadership direction, and gosh, that was the best decision I ever made. So that was me showing up as my authentic self,

Timothy Olivella  00:09:47  

absolutely. And that's the whole point, is that it's so personal to who we are. There's no right or wrong way to being authentic, right? I think a lot of what I try to convey to students. That I'll kind of touch on that success versus fulfillment thing. It's if you ask yourself, you know, what do I really want to get out of my professional experience? Some people may say it's, I want to work for this company, that's great, that's awesome, but for me, when I look inward, what I really want out of my place of work is to be able to have connections with people, students, to be able to share some sort of knowledge to contribute to someone's life in a meaningful way, and that is so authentic and personal to me. And there's so many ways I can make that happen, where it's to a point, almost, where I feel like I could probably work in so many different settings and different offices. Who cares what my job title is called right, but because that's the lens that I want to convey myself in, and to that's my goal for myself, that I can really align my authentic self with my work self, and I think there could only be, you know, enjoyment, fulfillment through that, and so,

Dennise Cardona  00:10:57  

you know, thinking of leadership, right, how can authenticity impact leadership in the way that teams work together? Because that's a big deal when you're talking about working within an organization. How do you feel about that?

Timothy Olivella  00:11:12  

I've had various leaders in my life that some have really leaned into that humanistic side, you know. Who are we as people? What do we want out of working here or working on this project together, and I've had some others where they say we need to get this done. I don't care what's going on, everyone's life, we need to make time for this to do it right now, right? And it's when we talk about the former, right, that person that can understand the value that each person is bringing to a team, not only can we get the work done in such a way that is collaborative, it's innovative, it is efficient in ways that we didn't think would be possible, because we have that personal connection, it's that that piece of knowing that I'm feeling supported and who I am as a person, right, your leader, your boss, your supervisor, whoever that leader is makes such a difference in your work experience, and so when you have someone that can lean into all the cultures of everyone that's bringing to the team all of everyone's just life experiences, right? I think it can only lend itself to a more robust product to a more beautiful product that can reach so many more people. I think that is like that's also that idea of inclusive excellence, right? You know, UMBC values inclusive excellence. It's that idea that when we can say that everyone matters here, everyone is bringing something unique to the table, that innovation can flourish. So,

Dennise Cardona  00:12:41  

wow, that was a powerful statement. What's the difference, Timothy, between being authentic and simply over sharing at work? Because I think some people might fear that there might be there needs to be a distinction between what authenticity showing up as your authentic self and over sharing means,

Timothy Olivella  00:13:03  

yeah, yeah, I think it's the idea that authenticity isn't a thing, right? It's not I'm going to show up today and be authentic, it's more of like a framework, it's more of like a way that you can carry yourself, right, and so I can go to work and say I'm going to tell my co-workers about my weekend, about this date I went on with my partner, about this party I just went to, but it's less about the things that I'm sharing, but it's the way that I'm sharing it, right, it's the way that I can maybe bring someone else into the conversation where we can have a mutual exchange about our experiences over the weekend, right. So, there's ways to overshare authentically, there's ways to overshare not authentically, right. It's definitely a balance that you'll have to figure out as you know you're embarking in that professional journey.

Dennise Cardona  00:13:55  

Absolutely, I do think that's one of the big lessons I've learned throughout my career, which has been, you know, well, a while now, is that, you know, it's started out very young and very green with it, and perhaps I over shared in certain environments, and then you learn those lessons, and you figure out how can I keep this professional while also creating a collaborative team spirit, if you will, where it's a personalized yet professional, so it is a balance, like you said, it's like a fine line between that and I think experience really is the only way that people can actually figure out what works and perhaps what doesn't work too.

Timothy Olivella  00:14:42  

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Dennise Cardona  00:14:44  

AI, right. Let's talk about a little bit about AI. Why do you think authenticity is especially important in a world that is increasingly shaped by AI and also technology?

Timothy Olivella  00:14:57  

You know, part of me is. Fearful, you know, a little bit of technology taking over that humanity that we have, you know, creativity, relationship building. Technology doesn't have, you know, the most, the most important place in those conversations, right? The ideas that we have are influenced by our cultures, by the way we were raised, by the teachers that we had, by the places that we lived in, and they're all so personal to each and every one of us. And when we lean into that, that is like magic that's happening, not when I can type into an AI chat bot to, hey, come up with this idea for this thing, for me, it's missing that humanity, that that authentic experience, you know. Do I think it could get the job done? Sure, but that's not, you know, a goal that I have in my life. My goal in my life is to engage in meaningful personal conversations with people to build a beautiful world with people at the forefront, right, and so there's ways to use AI in ways that can make maybe help speed up certain processes, right, but

Dennise Cardona  00:16:10  

yeah, one of the things that I like, I teach a class on different generations, so it's generational learning, and it's so fascinating to see how different generations are dealing with technology and how that affects their professional and personal relationships. I mean, you know, it's unbelievable, and it's what a wonderful thing that being able to take different generations and learn from each other how to balance that personalization in this technological world. I think that's going to be a very valuable skill for professionals to be able to enact in a professional environment, because you have the younger, I call younger generation new professionals coming out who were maybe born with technology in their hands, and you have folks like my generation where we weren't. We were building tree houses in the summertime, you know, just out there, never had a computer until I was in college, type of thing. So I learned so much from my younger students, and they obviously they learn some from those who are more senior, if you will, and it's just it's really fascinating, you know, just looking at, for instance, my mother, 83 years old, using technology, and I see that her, I see her using it in a way that's actually benefiting her life, and she's able to communicate with family from all over the country, and she's learning different things, and I think that's great, but the authentic side of this in a professional setting, which is what we're talking about here, is using technology in place of that human humanity is where I think the danger comes in, and I think that's where, as instructors, that's that's part of our responsibility is to ensure that that human touch is not lost, and that can be a very challenging thing. I don't know if you deal with that in what you do as an instructor, but I do find there's some challenge in that.

Timothy Olivella  00:18:29  

Absolutely, you know, I've kind of.. I've had to adapt a lot of my, the presentations that I'm giving, the assignments that I'm giving to students to ask more reflection-based questions. You know, I want to hear more about from you. What your ideas on this topic are? How do you feel about this topic? You know, I want to really engage how important it is to bring your own voice to the conversation. I think in the conversation of technology, I think I also want to focus on social media, right? That social media has such an influence on what younger generations, a lot, but I think kind of cross generations, right now, that it influences what we think an ideal or perfect life is, right, and I think through that we're losing some authenticity, right, you know, I see someone on my phone, who's extremely successful working for this big tech company, gets on their private jet, you know, does whatever, you know, goes to fun concerts all day long, and you know, I could see how that would influence me to say, "Oh, that's the life I want to live, I want to be that person, but if you keep chasing that same idea, if you chase that idea, you can be successful, but you're not going to be fulfilled, right. And so I think social media has such an influence on authenticity. I think it's, we need to start, you know, navigate as a society, how can we still value our own journeys into. A way that, yeah, can lead to fulfillment. It's not always about chasing that person's success,

Dennise Cardona  00:20:06  

yeah. That is a very powerful statement, and it couldn't be more true. What advice, Timothy, would you give to someone early in their career who feels they need to say fit a mold, if you will, to succeed professionally

Timothy Olivella  00:20:24  

well. One, I think early being early in your career, you're going to learn so many lessons, right? It's not always going to be the easiest that it can be to be your authentic self, and you know you may get your first job that may not be exactly in line with what you want to do long term, but it's a first job, you know, you're learning everything you need to learn to then move on to the next job, right. And so, when it comes to like fitting that mold, everyone has a different take on it, right. Some people do want to have a job where they're told exactly what they want to do, they wear a uniform, and that's great. If that's someone, if you're that person, and you want to have that structure in your life, that is great. Then go for it, right? But sometimes the mold that you're trying to fit is to be yourself, to be authentic, to find a job that values the creativity that you have, that allows you to design and create how you want to create, right, and I think there's ways that you can find that in all sorts of different roles out there, you can find that in all sorts of different industries. It's just about how do you right think about yourself authentically and kind of use an authentic lens to guide your decision making to guide the projects that you want to work on to engage in certain with certain people that maybe also value that within you and so the answer is kind of you got to follow your own path it's going to be a trial and error and you just got to go for it head on, you know.

Dennise Cardona  00:22:04  

So, as a student in UMBC EIL graduate program, have you have your experiences there influenced the way you think about leadership, communication, or authenticity in professional spaces?

Timothy Olivella  00:22:16  

UMBC Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership Masters program has completely broken down the idea of what I think entrepreneurship is. You know, I started this program thinking entrepreneurship is starting a business to make money. I've taken two classes in this program, and that has been broken down to rubble at this point. Entrepreneurship is this idea that you can do anything you want to do if you use a framework to create a business that's sustainable, right? That you can be successful and you can be fulfilled, right? You know, this spring I'm taking an entrepreneurial finance class, and as much as I'm learning about profit and loss statements, and learning about balance sheets, and you know, different types of investors, the real message I'm walking away from this class is, is that if you don't have the mindset to be successful, then the finances will never be there, that you need to have that mindset to be successful, to have dreams and aspirations, to really believe in the business that you're selling, and the finances with the structure that we've been given from the program will follow, and so this program has changed the way that I think about entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership are kind of like tools that you can use to have a successful business, have successful endeavors, and so this program has just been a wonderful way of opening my eyes to the world of entrepreneurship.

Dennise Cardona  00:23:52  

Yeah, and without that authenticity, entrepreneurship is out the window. You need, it's like you need that coupled with entrepreneurship in order for any endeavor to be really successful.

Timothy Olivella  00:24:07  

Absolutely,

Dennise Cardona  00:24:08  

thanks so much, Timothy, for sharing your insights today. It's been really great speaking with you about this topic. It's a topic that I'm passionate about, and I can see you are too, and I'm really grateful that you are here to share that with us.

Timothy Olivella  00:24:22  

Absolutely, thank you so, so much for having me. I wish everyone listening good luck in your endeavors, and hopefully UMBC can be a part of your journey. So, thank you all,

Dennise Cardona  00:24:32  

and thank you, everyone, for tuning into this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up Podcast. If you'd like to learn more about our offerings, just click the link in the description. Thank you so much.