Have you ever thought about what makes up a workplace culture? This is something that we all like to talk about, right? Is it a good culture, is it a toxic culture? Workplace culture is made up of shared values, attitudes, behaviours and standards that make up a work environment. But have you thought about this more deeply in terms of how each of us form a workplace culture, how we ourselves are a representation of our culture, our internal, intrinsic culture.
My husband (a wise and emotionally intelligent man) introduced me to the idea of the "culture of you." It made me reflect on how we present ourselves in the world and the impact it has on our surroundings. Rather than succumbing to a victim mentality, blaming external factors for our experiences, we have the power to shape our internal culture and, as a by-product, influence the external workplace culture.
So, how can you create a strong culture of you? Tune in to this episode to find out.
Have you ever thought about what makes up a workplace culture? This is something that we all like to talk about, right? Is it a good culture, is it a toxic culture? Workplace culture is made up of shared values, attitudes, behaviours and standards that make up a work environment. But have you thought about this more deeply in terms of how each of us form a workplace culture, how we ourselves are a representation of our culture, our internal, intrinsic culture.
My husband (a wise and emotionally intelligent man) introduced me to the idea of the "culture of you." It made me reflect on how we present ourselves in the world and the impact it has on our surroundings. Rather than succumbing to a victim mentality, blaming external factors for our experiences, we have the power to shape our internal culture and, as a by-product, influence the external workplace culture.
So, how can you create a strong culture of you? Tune in to this episode to find out.
Welcome to the Career Confidence podcast, the podcast for driven lawyers wanting to step out of the traditional path and build fulfilling and purposeful careers. I'm your host, maria Ducar, legal counsel and career coach, helping you navigate your career with intention and confidence. In this podcast, we don't show away from having real conversations about topics that matter to us. Driven AF go-getters From manifesting your dream career, negotiating the salary you deserve, creating your personal brand, knowing when it's time to pivot. We cover these topics and so much more. You ready, let's dive into today's episode. Hey, hey, welcome to another episode of the Career Confidence podcast. I hope you're doing well. I hope you're having an amazing week so far.
Speaker 1:
So have you ever thought about what makes up a workplace culture? This is something that we all like to talk about, right? Workplace culture. Is it a good culture? Is it a toxic culture? We frame it in this one word of culture. But what actually forms a workplace culture? So workplace culture is made up of shared values, attitudes, behaviors and standards that make up a work environment. But have you thought about this more deeply in terms of how each of us form a workplace culture, how we ourselves are a representation of our culture, our internal, intrinsic culture. I never thought about it this way until I actually had a conversation with my husband, who is very wise when it comes to a lot of things, but he's just very emotionally intelligent and if I'm struggling with something or if I'm having a tough time, he gives me a perspective that really opens up my eyes. So he actually introduced me to this concept of the culture of you. What is your culture? How do you present yourself in the world?
Speaker 1:
And it really got me thinking, because by externalizing culture and the formation of it, we are actually depriving ourselves of the power to have control over our surroundings. What do I mean by that? So if we place the power on the external, saying oh this happened to me because of this and therefore I'm just going to give up on that idea, or I'm not going to pursue that because the environment isn't supportive, or someone said this really judgmental and mean thing to me. So therefore I'm not going to try up as the best version of myself, because what's the point? I'm just going to be judged anyway. This happens to all of us. We can tend to get into this victim mentality and then this victim mentality permeates in the way we show up every day. We won't be our best selves. We might be more snappy with people around us, we'll be more low energy, our ideas and creativity will be impacted and therefore our internal culture is failing and the external workplace culture. If this is how we're showing up, we are contributing to what is called a bad culture.
Speaker 1:
So when we're talking about self culture or the culture of you, it's really taking back the power of how you get to show up in this world, how you get to show up in your workplace, how you get to show up in the relationships that you're in. Because, no matter what's happening externally, if you're going through a difficult time, if you've been blindsided by someone and something negative has happened to you, rather than giving away your power to the external to the situation and therefore just giving up and not showing up as the best version of yourself, you are actually taking control of that and saying that, okay, I might not have control of how other people are or what things happen externally to me, but the thing that you have the power over and control over is how you react, how you move forward, how you choose to show up every day. Because how we choose to show up every day and the key word there is it's a choice. It is a choice because, no matter what is happening externally, you're the one that gets to write the next chapter of your own book. You're the one that gets to create the culture of you, a culture that you are very proud of, that you do not show away from and one that you will leave a mark on this world with.
Speaker 1:
So some questions, some prompting questions to ask yourself in formulating the culture of you are as follows how do I want to present myself to the world? Now, when I talk about presenting yourself to the world, I'm not saying how you want to fake being someone out there, but you're someone completely different. You know, in reality. I'm not talking about that, because the reality of that is how you are in those small moments with people, when no one is watching, when there's nothing to gain, is going to be reflected in how you present yourself to the world, because you know what People can smell bullshit from a mile away. So if you're a shit person behind the scenes, in the small moments in life when there is nothing to gain, then I assure you people will read through that and will say you as not being your true, authentic self, no matter how much you try to, I guess, construct a certain external persona of yourself. So I'm talking about how you truly want to present yourself to the world.
Speaker 1:
How do you want to show up? So remember that how you behave in this world is how it will impact other people. So, when you're interacting with someone, if you're low energy, if you're always negative, if you're you know, if you don't give other people genuine feedback and compliments, if you're someone that's jealous all the time, this impacts other people, and other people will have that low vibe energy around you too, and may also I assure you they will not want to be around someone like you. You want to be someone that is magnetic and you want to show up with energy, as your best self, as someone that is kind to other people, treats other people with respect, because you treat yourself with respect, and that's what you want to present into the world, too. How do you want people to feel after an interaction with you? Do you want people to feel excited, inspired, calm, secure? And if you do want people to feel this way, think about how you interact with people, and not just people that are, you know, someone that is in your profession or someone that you look up to. But how do you interact with people on a daily basis, from getting your coffee in the morning you know your local cafe to your neighbors to going to the server, whatever it is like. How do you generally interact with people and be honest with yourself? Is that a positive interaction and how you want to be perceived by other people, or is there some work to do in this area? When you leave the room, what do you want people to say about you? Now, this has a lot to do with, like, personal branding as well, because, at the end of the day, the culture of you is intertwined with personal branding, because when you are so certain and confident in who you are and how you want to present yourself, this is then translated into your personal brand, which is your reputation, which is what people say about you when you're not in the room.
Speaker 1:
What are your values, what are some of your strongest values that you really feel deeply about, and are you living to those values? Because, guess what? We all know companies that say, oh yeah, these are our values, but when you're working there, you're like, hmm, hang on a second. Are you actually, as a company, living out these values or is it just all for show? And unfortunately, it does happen a lot with organizations. They have these list of values, but they're not truly living those values. So don't only ask yourself what are my values, but also ask yourself am I living truthfully to these values? Another important question to ask yourself, which really forms the essence of the culture of you, is what impact do you want to make on other people, on this world, on your career? What impact do you want to make? Because when you have that strong impact that you want to make, that's tied to your values, that's tied to your behavior, then you're more likely to leave this positive impact that you're wanting to make.
Speaker 1:
What excites you and how do you feel joy? Day to day, we often forget about those things that actually genuinely bring us joy. What excites us? What makes us feel whole? When's the last time you felt that? Truly have a bit of a think about that. What excites you and, by the way, it doesn't have to be something grand. To be honest, what excites me? Having my family and friends around and being with my husband and being with my dog, who I adore. It's those small moments that excite me. It's the fact that my job is so flexible that I am able to see my family during the week, that I can have that quality time with my husband, that I can take my dog for a walk morning and night, every single day. It's those things that really excite me and give me joy, that I'm able to implement throughout my whole week, which makes me show up with more energy and passion in the work that I get to do.
Speaker 1:
So, when you are reflecting on these prompting questions that I've just run you through, don't really intellectualize this like it is a legal problem to solve. Go back to and tune into your body. Tune into how you feel when you answer these questions for yourself. Do you feel constricted or do you feel free? And our body is a huge sign of the truth. It tells the truth because it has this automatic response to things. It filters it through straight away. You know, yes, I feel good about this or no, I don't feel good about this. So get used to getting out of your head and into your body.
Speaker 1:
Something that us lawyers are not great at doing is surrendering and tuning into your body. I really love the word surrender, and not surrender does not mean giving up. Surrender is letting go of the outcome, showing up in the best way that we can show up and being proud of who we are, but letting go of the rest, letting go of how people react to that, letting go of the outcome of that goal that we really want to achieve, because that's outside of our control. But what is within our control is the culture of ourselves, how we show ourselves to the world and how we show ourselves to ourselves when nobody is watching. The biggest part of having a good and positive and healthy internal culture and this is something that I want to talk more and more and more about is taking responsibility for yourself, your actions, your words, how you show up.
Speaker 1:
Unfortunately, we live in a society that it's easier to blame other people For our misfortunes. It's easier to blame other people For us not achieving a certain goal. It's easier to hand that power to somebody else, because for you to take responsibility for yourself and your actions, you really have to stare your ego straight in the eyes and let it go. Say I see you, I see that you're trying to protect me. I see that it's easier to ignore how I contributed to this or how I can actually make this better, because it's easier to just blame someone else. But no, I feel like taking responsibility for yourself and your actions is the most freeing thing that you can do for yourself and for everyone else, and the more people that actually take responsibility for themselves, it will encourage others to do the same and it will be a ripple effect.
Speaker 1:
Now we all get caught up in our egos. We're human, but we can acknowledge that. We can acknowledge where we have been left astray and we can come back to ourselves and admitting where we have gone wrong or off-center or how we've contributed to something. That is the most empowering thing you can do, even if it feels hard. But trust me, if you don't take personal responsibility, it might be the easy way out for now, but it will bite you back harder in the long term and you're not truly ever going to be someone that is showing up as the best version of themselves. You're not going to be achieving those goals that are beyond your wildest dreams. You're not going to create relationships that are super fulfilling because you're not going to be the best representation of your internal culture.
Speaker 1:
I hope this episode has sparked something within you. I hope that it has inspired you to create the culture of you, if you haven't already and we are constantly creating our own internal cultures because we're also changing in different seasons of our life. We're ever evolving human beings, right? So don't feel like the culture of you will always be the same in every season of your life. It will change, but it's important to be creating a culture that you are proud of, one that feels fulfilling, one where you are making an impact and a positive difference in other people's lives through interacting with you.
Speaker 1:
I'd love for you to share with me your biggest takeaway of this episode. Simply DM me on LinkedIn and let me know what your biggest takeaway has been from this episode. Until next time, have an amazing week and chat to you soon. Bye. Thanks for tuning into the Career Confidence podcast. Like what you learned today. Why not share this episode with your work, bestie, and leave us a five star review on wherever you listen to your podcast on? We'd absolutely love to get into more years and help more women, just like you, build fulfilling and thriving careers. Until next time.