The 3 Strategies That Help Employees From Minority Groups To Feel More Authentic In The Workplace [Research Breakdown]

The need to be authentic in the workplace is one of the most compelling reasons for people wanting to join employee resource groups.

Find out about the challenges of authenticity in the workplace and some potential solutions you may find useful.

Here are some key messages from this episode:

• The reason why employees want to be authentic in the workplace
• The three types of work related social events you typically find and why members of minority groups avoid them
• The three strategies that may help members of minority groups manage open up in these social events and much much more

Play the episode for more.

Here are some key takeaways from this episode:

People want to feel authentic at work

“I often hear that employees just want to find a place and a time when they are at work where they can just feel real. We all have a yearning to be authentic and you can see why it’s important to people when they’re at work because feeling of authentic implies that we’re being true to our own ideals, our own ethics and our own values”

Minority Group Employees feel obligated to attend work related social events

“The issue was that members of minority groups said that they were attending out of a sense of obligation or a fear of negative career consequences”

The Use of Open Questions to create an open environment

“The subtle difference is that this legitimises everyone’s choices and reduces the feeling that people may be judged on their answers”

Here are some selected links to for the resources and reports I discuss in the episode.

Here are some resources so you can go deeper: 

Harvard Business Review: Diversity and Authenticity: Why Black Employees Hesitate to Open Up About Themselves

Professor Katherine W. Phillips

Dr Tracy Dumas

Professor Nancy B Rothbard

Check out these related episodes of the show.

Identity Work & Employee Resource Groups

Whenever you’re ready, there are a few ways I can support your Inclusion Journey: