Exploring the Boundaries of Self-Expression at Work
On Freedom, Part 2: The Workplace
Several recent conversations have inspired me to return to the theme of freedom that I kicked off in this post, where I explored personal freedom and ideas for creating more autonomy in our day-to-day lives. Today, I’m investigating freedom in the workplace, and the role managers and organizational leaders play in shaping employees’ experiences of it.
Whether or not you hold a management or leadership position, if you work with others, you still contribute to the spirit of the environment. And if you’re a group facilitator, the same principles can be applied to cultivating a space that allows participants to show up as themselves.
Freedom in the Workplace
Laura Morgan Roberts, Ph.D. outlines The Four Freedoms We Want at Work as the freedoms to be, become, fade, and fail. She explains that when employees have access to these freedoms, they are more “authentic, actualized, agentic, and agile.” This directly impacts their relationship with their role, responsibilities, company, colleagues, and health + well-being.
In reality, most companies struggle to embrace these freedoms and often have an imbalance across different levels or segments of the employee population.
Let’s do a deep dive into these four areas to explore how cultures of freedom can be nurtured in the workplace (or any team environment).
Freedom to Be
Plenty of workplaces claim to embrace diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), yet still have (often subconscious) expectations that folks will show up in certain ways, and not in others. This can include unrealistic notions that people will check their personal lives at the door. For example, hiding not only key aspects of their identity but challenges they are contending with such as caring for an aging parent or struggling to get pregnant. This concealment is not only a significant amount of effort, it also inherently creates disconnection.
Many years ago, I interviewed at a major tech company. One of my interviewers expressed from the get-go that the only reason he had agreed to take the interview (I get it, it’s a pretty big voluntary commitment) was because I was unlike all the other applicants. My NOT being a Wall Street banker who had pivoted to the tech industry was a breath of fresh air.
I appreciated his honesty and looked forward to our conversation. The only problem was that the highly standardized interview structure was geared specifically toward the aforementioned demographic (the financial metric-obsessed).
While I understand the importance of creating business value, I prefer to balance that with other goals such as solving real problems for real users. Alas, I wasn’t the right fit to speculate on hyper-growth potential, and didn’t get the job. The interview panel seemed genuinely bummed it didn’t work out. But their process wasn’t designed to open the aperture, just to fill a pre-defined mold.
Are folks in your workplace conforming to expectations or able to express different aspects of their background, identity, and way of thinking? It’s well-established that diversity drives better outcomes. Yet if people have to mask up, they’re unlikely to bring that variation into the fold.
How might we cultivate a culture of curiosity, openness, and acceptance so individuals can (safely) show up as their authentic selves?
Freedom to Become
As an Enneagram Type 8, I have insanely high standards and expectations (for myself, and also for others). In the past, I too obviously conveyed my disappointment in others’ work, often focusing more attention on what needed improvement vs what had been done well. Let’s face it - there’s nothing more crushing than delivering something, and having your boss wish for something more.
I’ve learned to shift how I deliver feedback to ensure that folks are recognized for their strengths, while also given opportunities to improve in constructive ways. This has truly entailed better SEEING people. (And these days as a coach and mentor, I’m likely my clients’ biggest champion!)
But some organizations tend to focus on problems and weaknesses, vs build upon assets and possibilities, and that mindset can diminish individual growth and development. In your world, do employees receive feedback that enables them to “become” the best version of themselves, or are they already expected to be there?
Unfortunately, coaching and leadership development are often only available to senior executives, but it’s critical to provide support for folks who are earlier in their careers. At a recent HR conference, various people leaders stressed the importance of career development opportunities across the employee population, through mentorship, sponsorship, and group coaching.
In addition to supporting individual growth, these programs increase employee engagement, build company loyalty, and often create a pay-it-forward mentality.
How might we support individuals on their *path* to flourishing?
Freedom to Fade
Burnout is at an all-time high. SHRM’s Employee Mental Health in 2024 Research Series found that 44% of 1,405 surveyed US employees feel burned out at work, 45% feel emotionally drained from their work, and 51% feel used up at the end of the workday.
For working parents, it’s even worse. Ohio State University’s Examining the Epidemic of Working Parental Burnout 2022 Report found that 66% of 1,285 surveyed working parents felt burnt out, exhibiting extreme frustration, constant exhaustion, and difficulty handling tasks.
What’s the impact on organizations? Lower performance and productivity, turnover, and a negative work environment.
The freedom to fade may seem counterproductive for companies, especially in the context of publicized trends such as “quiet quitting.” However, fading isn’t necessarily a permanent condition – when implemented successfully, it creates a balance in the lifecycle of an employee.
For example, the way parental leave is handled has a massive impact on the expecting parent, their manager, and their teammates. This period of “fade” can happen smoothly with a clear work transition plan – both for offboarding and re-onboarding, flexible return-to-work options, and meaningful communication about continued professional development. As a result, the likelihood is much higher that the new parent and their colleagues stick around, and that work continues without major disruptions.
In considering how to effectively enable and manage the freedom to fade: How can workload be redistributed or shared to accommodate for personal and professional ebbs and flows? How can we be smarter about prioritization? How might we model both stepping up and stepping back?
How can we acknowledge and support individuals when they’re unable to fully show up at work?
Freedom to Fail
The concept of “fail fast” linked to the lean startup methodology is adopted by many a startup to quickly validate product-market fit with a minimum viable product (MVP). The build-measure-learn process is intended to ensure that businesses are creating value for their customers through rapid development > testing > iteration cycles. These rapid feedback loops prevent wasted time, money, and energy. They embrace the concept of failure, because finding out if something isn’t going to work is always better earlier than later.
However, this embrace of failure seems to occur primarily within a bubble of privilege, namely a certain elite consisting of Silicon Valley founders and venture capitalists. And the failures aren’t always so lean – many times they’re pretty spectacular bombs. Take the ego-fueled implosion of WeWork ($47B to bankruptcy) followed by the baffling largest single investment ever from VC Andreessen Horowitz, into founder Adam Neumann’s latest real estate venture.
As a long-time innovation and product development consultant, I’ve found rapid learning (and associated “failures”) incredibly valuable. Companies that aren’t afraid to take risks are usually the ones that stay relevant. They’re also where people are often keen to work, because of the learning opportunities and dynamic environments. But not enough organizations embrace this mindset in smart and equitable ways. For example, marginalized individuals may be unfairly criticized for their failures and therefore withdraw into a safer, low-visibility track.
In testing out new concepts, ownership, transparency, and course correction as a group balances the risk and reward, empowering those at all levels of an organization to try new things. I remember a particularly poignant talk by organizational designer and author Jurriaan Kamer on the collective accountability within the fast-paced, high-pressure environments of Formula 1 teams. From his article on the topic:
Formula 1 teams understand that it’s rarely one person’s mistake. And that it’s best to learn from all the factors that happened during an incident, to prevent it from happening again. They realize if people are not allowed to make mistakes, people will not push themselves and their abilities to the limit.
How might we encourage an equitable culture of experimentation?
