Striking the Right Balance - Personal Stories and Professionalism

Welcome to our dynamic podcast unveiling the art of seamlessly integrating personal anecdotes into your professional life. Join us to explore the secret recipe for maintaining the perfect equilibrium between authenticity and professionalism, all while adding a touch of humor to your workplace interactions.

Segment 1: Selective Sharing - Mastering "Less is More" (With a Hint of Fun)

In this engaging episode, we delve into the realm of selective sharing - akin to James Bond but with relatable anecdotes instead of spy gadgets. Learn the ropes of the "less is more" approach, allowing you to forge connections while safeguarding your privacy. Get ready to become a pro at the art of sharing!

Segment 2: Icebreakers Made Easy - Turning Awkward Moments into Memorable Openers

But that's not all; we've got a bonus tip for you too! Tune in to discover the ultimate icebreaker hack. Imagine leaving everyone in awe with your witty stories right from the start. Our special trick? Preparing icebreaker topics inspired by your life's humorous moments. Prepare to transform uncomfortable silences into bursts of laughter!

Segment 3: Navigating Informal Communication - Unraveling Slack Etiquette

Ever wondered about the appropriate level of informality on work channels like Slack? Join us as we navigate the landscape of casual communication within professional contexts. Gain insights into the best practices for maintaining the right tone while keeping conversations engaging and effective.

So, fellow explorers of the professional sphere, remember that blending personal and professional aspects is akin to crafting a masterpiece – finesse is the key. As we wrap up, keep in mind that the ideal sharing balance is as unique as your favorite go-to coffee order. By mastering this art, you're not just finding equilibrium; you're thriving in the captivating world of work and humor!

Transcript

0:08
[Music]
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welcome to two minds today with your
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host Charlene Authority and leadership
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development and Hala an expert Community
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Builder the Pod all about best practices
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to get you noticed and ahead in your
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professional life
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welcome back
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yes good afternoon Charlene how you
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doing I'm good how are you doing I'm
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good it's so nice to see you again and
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chat and this week with for everybody
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we're going to be talking about sharing
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sharing sharing how much is too much how
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much is too little what's that balance
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that we want to strike at work about
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sharing and actually I have to say like
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before we start I do think about that in
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the context of our podcast like how much
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is too much sharing you know with
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respect to our personal life all the
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time right yeah I'm like well I mean I
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guess I don't know who's listening to
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our podcast and how much to say and and
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not to say and yeah for sure I think
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about it all the time in our podcast
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there's this this feeling that everyone
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wants to be their authentic self and so
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I think today we're gonna kind of blend
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how do we be our authentic self and
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share and and how you're going to do
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that in in a work
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form and then in a public form so let's
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start us off
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selective sharing
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um mastering less is more tell us what
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you think that means yeah you know you
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said uh everybody wants to be their
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authentic self and you know it just got
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me thinking this whole business of your
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authentic self like do we really want to
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share our full authentic self like do I
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need to know that you would trouble
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cutting your toenails this morning like
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okay
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ring to the workforce like we
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about it because we have many sides to
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ourselves you show a different self to
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your mother than you did to your father
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to your brother your sister your best
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friend like each relationship is
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different and when we come into the
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workforce it is a different type of
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relationship that I think that yes you
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got to show your authentic self but do
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you really like there's I think less is
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more when it comes to work I you know
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authenticity may be into the sense of
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like we want to accept our backgrounds
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and who we are and like our cultural
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heritage maybe but I think that work in
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a lot of parts is about fitting into the
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workspace yeah you might disagree surely
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well so I don't know if I agree or
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disagree I will I will state that I am
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like a very transparent person like I
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feel like I just in my work and my
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personal life and this 5K I don't have
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like a lot of energy to be like coded so
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I think like I can know what the right
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thing is to do and then I might do
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something different so just like want to
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name that a little bit of I don't know
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if it's hypocrisy or like a learning
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Edge I'm still working on like I will
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absolutely have those moments of like
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why'd I do that I shouldn't have said
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that right and and I've been in this
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career for a long time and that still
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happens and I and I think like it's it's
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something that I yeah that I that I
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think about a lot and I and I think that
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when we say
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striking the balance of personal stories
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and professionalism I remember reading a
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book really long time ago about getting
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hired and with a question that comes up
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is like
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um whatever how it doesn't matter what
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the question is what are your strengths
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whatever the question is the book
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essentially was like tell it in a story
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have a story that is like oh this one
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time when I was working on a project
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blah blah blah right and just a little
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bit similar with your elevator pitch
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anything you're gonna do have it couched
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in a story so when you're thinking of
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personal stories figure out how they can
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relate to profession right even if
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you're going to bring in your children
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you're anything how can you sort of
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morph that story
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um into into a like appropriate and
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connecting for the workplace because I
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think if you go into the workplace and
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you don't share about yourself at all
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this definitely comes up like how was
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your weekend and things like that
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um then you're gonna have a harder time
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I I started I start all my Monday
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meetings like how was your weekend and I
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feel like we come to work as whole
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people so I think it's important to
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leave space which means I think you need
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to have a story every Monday that you're
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gonna share with people that you know
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your kids soccer game whatever it is I
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don't know that's what I think
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so it is true look at the end of the day
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our Workforce you are working with
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people and you need to have
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relationships and that's where the
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authentic self comes in because you have
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to you have to be true to yourself in
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order to have a relationship with
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someone else the question becomes like
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how much do you want to share and not
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share and what you just said about
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thinking about what you want to say
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about your weekend when you come in on
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Monday is a really good you know segment
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to segue to our next segment which is
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about icebreakers right making ice
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breakers easy
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um because icebreakers is one of those
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ways where in a Workforce we are you
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know formalizing that relationship and
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what you can and can't share and if
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you're like me you don't do it right
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which means I don't think about this ice
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spray somebody says okay give us two
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truths and a lie or give us your
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favorite car and as it's going around
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the circle I'm sitting there like not
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listening to anything that anyone else
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is saying so completely losing the time
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and the opportunity to connect with
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someone else or have something to talk
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to them about after the meeting because
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all I'm doing is obsessing over what I
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should be saying and you just said think
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about your weekend story you got to
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think about those icebreakers ahead of
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time
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have it prepared and have like your
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pocket stories but I would love to give
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a few tips on the other end if you're a
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person leading an icebreaker here here
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are a few things one consistency helps
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we found that like we so I run large Zoo
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meetings and what we started doing is
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before we open the zoom really to appeal
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actually to something you just said is
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we have to acknowledge people in
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different processing times right like
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that is just some people are outward
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processors some people are inward
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processors so like let's say
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um so starting 10 minutes before the
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zoom the zoom is closed
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um we found asking very easy question
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like one word answer questions
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um what was the one we just asked is
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what was your childhood dream job what
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do you love to cook what you know like
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very simple answers we put it in the
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zoom chat in the waiting room before
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anybody could possibly like have that
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time that gives everybody the time and
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what we do is today's opening question
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is and we really keep it consistent from
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week to week so that like the culture
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um for us is that someone is going to
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right away no okay I'm gonna come into
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Zoom also there's this is you know a lot
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of people in the zoom I'm not grading if
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you answered or if you didn't answer
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um we there is studies out there that
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says if you don't speak up in the first
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x amount of time and admitting then you
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won't say anything the whole time so
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getting a little bit of that
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communication if you're wondering like
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why do people do icebreakers they're
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awful
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um really it's to like increase the vibe
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in the
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um communication around a meeting so we
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try and be really kind consistent we
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also ask really simple questions
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um and the question the true truth and
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the line also always gives me anxiety
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and like I think the way if you want a
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trick to that I think the people the way
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people have worked their way out of that
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is is numbers right I lived in Seven
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Cities I live in Seven Cities I lived in
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eight right like it's it's like those
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little switches if you have trouble
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answering that question think of three
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truths and alter one
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um but but yeah there's like five
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icebreakers that get asked every time
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have little answers for each and when
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you are doing the asking really keep in
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mind people's professional and personal
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boundaries when you're asking these
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questions and think about how you can
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prep people for them I think both of
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those are going to get you much more yes
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I love I love it so if you are on the
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receiving end of the Icebreaker prepare
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and if you're putting out the Icebreaker
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think about making it simple easy I also
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like using mentee because I everybody
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gets bringing people out of a zoom I
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feel like our life is complicated I know
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that's true all right
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that allows people to be anonymous so we
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should flag that that people might be
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more comfortable when they could be
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anonymous I I do like them I think
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what's nice about mentee is you get like
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the group dynamic of it you feel oh
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everyone feels less the way or does so
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it adds a little bit more information
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all right let's go on as we're like
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we're almost finishing up we don't want
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to keep you here too long today I want
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to like give you the bit of uh what
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we're thinking
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um the last thing is what about
9:15
slack communication and other forms of
9:18
informal communication in the workforce
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can you over share in there like what do
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you do you have any etiquette tips for
9:25
that Charlene
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so I one yes definitely over sharing I
9:30
was just a harassment training please
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don't put jokes things like that in
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there
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um that to State the obvious to go it a
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step further I am the biggest culprit of
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typing something and we use team same
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slack and like getting it out fast and
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then going back then going back and
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editing all of my typos
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um I now have installed the grammarly
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into my computer so it actually like as
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I type it can edit for me because I feel
9:55
like I've been too casual and I want to
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be like okay let's fix this a little bit
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I don't check it for every team's chat
10:02
um but yes there is definitely a way to
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be too informal but but I also think
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like it's like you should be more
10:08
informal right like I think that and and
10:11
with that it's it's quicker it's shorter
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it's like sometimes when we do emails we
10:16
spend 10 minutes phrasing like I hope
10:18
this email finds you out which I think
10:20
was like one of our very first podcasts
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we ever did right and it was like forget
10:23
all that like no pleasantries and you're
10:26
like hey here's the thing right so I
10:28
think like it's true it's true I do
10:30
think though in slack and any kind of
10:33
office communication you have to match
10:35
the style of everybody else who's there
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to a certain extent so if other people
10:39
are being a little more casual you can
10:41
be a little bit more casual just be
10:43
careful of like the basket of things you
10:46
want to share and if everyone's being
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more you know if they're not using
10:50
formal language you don't use formal
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language but remember like here's the
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lawyer in me that is a written record of
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everything that you are writing right so
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just because like that could be you know
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it could be beneficial or it could be
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harmful I I would love to keep going on
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this Charlene I don't know if you want
11:09
to give one or two I'll give I'll get my
11:10
last thought on black it's the same
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advice I gave my 10 year old don't put
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anything in typing you wouldn't want red
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in a courtroom
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um right yeah so true that and even if
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you delete it it's it's still there it's
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still there there's no such thing as
11:25
anything being deleted all right so I'm
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going to wrap it up for us today with
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respect to sharing folks listen
11:31
selective sharing is always important
11:34
you want to be your authentic self but
11:36
think about what you're what you're
11:37
bringing to the table ice breakers make
11:40
it easy if you're putting it out there
11:42
plan ahead it's okay to have the same
11:44
jokes over and over again think about
11:46
our most you know well-known comedians
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they're always saying the same thing
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again it's okay and last but not least
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informal communication slack etiquette
11:56
whatever you know whatever your office
11:58
uses whether they're doing teams just
12:01
match the style of everyone else and
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remember it is written and as Charlene
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says to her son would you want it read
12:09
in a courtyard
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thank you thanks for joining and as
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always we encourage everybody to learn
12:16
just a little bit more every day and
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we'll see you next time bye
12:21
bye
12:22
take care
12:25
and thought-provoking be sure to
12:27
subscribe to our podcast to stay up to
12:29
date on the latest insights in the
12:31
industry and remember to share this
12:33
episode with colleagues and friends who
12:35
will find it helpful thanks for tuning
12:37
in we'll see you next time
12:39
bye
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[Music]