We talk a lot about vulnerability and authenticity in the working world today.
But with every successful person always seeming to be on the verge of a public meltdown (in the name of authenticity, of course), it always makes me wonder where we draw the line between “Overly dramatic and energy-sapping personality,” and “Human robot who does not emit feelings in public.”
Because I don’t care much for authenticity or vulnerability when it feels performative…. but I also can’t relate much to people with perfectly buttoned-up public personas.
I don’t have a universal solution to offer, but I think it comes down to what that person has going on underneath the good day or the bad day.
When I know someone is committed, driven, or passionate about something, I can hear about their bad day and still trust that the deeper currents are moving them towards a place I want to go with them.
But when I’m not sure about that, when I can’t get a sense of what their deeper vision, purpose, or desire is, I stay in that un-trusting place and I keep one foot out the door.
I have to know there’s something underneath that’s worth holding on to.