Two new studies show the importance of being yourself at work.
The first study, from Rice University, shows that being yourself at work drives engagement. Both your own and that of your colleagues. To many of us that is easy to do, for others it is harder.
Myself, I came out as a Social Democrat a couple of years ago. In a consulting company located in the most expensive area of Stockholm this is about as common as a snow fox in Sahara. Still, that was not a scary step to take.
A European man I know who is happily married to another man explains how his homosexuality “disappears” whenever he travels to the village where he grew up. In that village homosexuality is simply unthinkable. Do you think he can be happy there?
By repressing his own homosexuality he also helps the village maintain the belief that homosexuals are found only in bigger cities. Gays remain an abstract “them” to the villagers.
The film “Philadelphia” with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington shows the same pattern in a corporate setting. Concealing your own identity means you may have to endure exposure to the prejudices of your colleagues in a way that would not happen otherwise. In Philadelphia the executives threw some nasty gay jokes around, not knowing that their new young star was taking offence.
If the character played by Tom Hanks had been open about his sexuality he probably would have helped set a more open communication climate in the company. That would have benefited himself and his colleagues. We can see that when we look at the relationship between openness, motivation and enjoying work in our database.
This does not just happen in American movies. A woman I know was adviced by HR to keep mum about her wife. Of course that was not going to work in the long run. One evening, talking over a couple of beers the secret slipped out.
The next morning, as she came to work, all of her colleagues were waiting for her. Giving her a huge applause!
And that is precisely what David Ruth and Amy Hodges at Rice concluded. By letting your colleagues know who you are setting a more open communication climate. Everone benefits from that. Both yourself and your colleagues will enjoy work better.
And that is not all of the good news…
My colleague Jana just read a study from the University of California that shows that job performance increases when you are open about who you are. This study shows that openness ends your colleagues speculations about your inclinations. Letting go of that frees up energy, and that gets more work done.
In conclusion: openness drives motivation, work enjoyment, engagement and work group performance. Letting go of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” is probably improving the performance of the US military.