Last week-end, I went to a yoga retreat ten miles down a dirt road in the middle
of the national forest that surrounds Sedona, Arizona. Amid the glorious red
rocks and the Korean-influenced vegetarian food at the Sedona Healing Resort,
about twenty of us tried to make it to enlightenment without wine, TV, cell
phones, radios, and protein. (After day 1, someone went into town and brought
back chocolate, thank God).

The theme of this retreat was "Remembering Your True Self." Part of the retreat
consisted of journaling, answering the question "Who am I?" In order to get to
that question, we had to answer several others, including 1)who would you like
to apologize to, 2)who would you like to forgive, 3)what was the worst part of
your childhood, and 4)what are you really done with.

The point of this exercise was that we carry small things with us for a long
time, and often we're not even aware of the burden we have been carrying. But
that burden determines who we are.

The question of "Who am I?" came up again this week in another, very dissimilar
context: a workshop Stealthmode Partners sponsored called "Creating a Corporate
Culture." Joelle Hadley, one of the best management consultants and presenters
I've ever seen (and I've seen many), was leading the participants through some
formulas for productive and successful cultures.

I know I will not get this exactly right, but here's an approximation of one of
them:
A + (S+K)+G =IRPP, which means that an employee's attitude, plus the sum
of his skill sets and knowledge, plus a set of defined goals, adds up to the
internal rate of personal productivity.

This attitude stuff is important, because we all bring our attitudes with us to
work every morning. A corporate culture is made up of the attitudes of all the
company's employees. And our attitudes are, in most cases, subconscious and
negative.

That means either we don't know who we are (we don't remember our true selves),
or our concept of who we are is negative.

It's hard to build a productive workplace or a personal relationship on
unacknowledged or negative self-concepts. No wonder most companies end up
swamped in office politics, petty infighting, and lost productivity. Joelle
told us that employee surveys reveal 76% of the workforce is either "just
showing up" or overtly hostile to the company that pays the bills (think
Dilbert). There's always a corporate culture, but it often doesn't serve the
corporation.

What's the cure? According to Joelle, managers must bring their whole selves to
work. This means abandoning the "game" face most of us use at the office, and
really connecting with colleagues and employees. Apparently, attitudes, even
long held, can be changed if a manager (managers are unbelievably powerful)
contributes to an employee's self-esteem rather than destroys it. And employees
who have higher self-esteem make greater contributions to the company.

The five biggest motivators for employees are personal praise, written praise,
promotion for performance, public praise and motivational meetings. Notice that
money does not figure in these top five. No one wants to answer the question
"who am I?" as "I am a paid mercenary." But most people get only routine,
impersonal feedback from their colleagues, and no praise for jobs well done.

Most managers take very little time to connect on a personal level with their
employees. In fact, because of all the EEOC rules and the harrassment and
diversity training that's out there, I bet most mangers are *afraid* to talk to
their employees. Unfortunately, we've painted ourselves into a corner.

I have always brought my whole self to work. I haven't had a choice; I'm out of
control. In teaching college, it worked. In public relations, it sometimes did
not. At Intel, it *really* did not. Intel's corporate culture regurgitated me
after a year. They didn't have to fire me; I quit.

Now, as I am helping startup companies, I understand that if you begin with a
corporate culture that encourages employees to bring their whole selves to work,
you eventually develop a work culture that's as strong as(or stronger than) a
family. During the dot-com era, many companies had cultures that were so strong
they kept people at work for days and nights on end. Articles appeared in
magazines criticizing these companies for trying to replace the family. Yet the
people who worked for dot coms felt ownership in the companies and were willing
to give their best efforts. Now, the pendulum has swung the other way as
companies once again downsize through a recession.

Imagine the other people on the retreat with me remembering their true selves in
Sedona. Then the retreat is over, and they're back at work. They have done all
the work to remember who they are, and perhaps they have actually brought their
whole selves to work. After all that effort, no one notices. Bummer. Back to the
game face. I'm outta here.

Namaste,

Francine