Think you must trade in your beautiful Femininity in order to experience your Fierce? Today’s professional woman is faced with interesting opportunities to discover how to bring even more femininity into the workplace. It isn’t about changing the workplace; it is about bringing your best-self into whatever space you enter. Let’s face it, most of our best energy is shared through our work. Why not bring the beautifully divine part of you into that space as well?
So how do you honor who you uniquely are and what you might desire to support you doing your best at work? Read on.
Working the Feminine Way
Several years ago one of my clients requested that I join his team as an Executive Vice President. My response surprised even me (and certainly surprised him). I said “NO!” so strongly that we both stepped back. This was an interesting response for me because I had left the corporate environment years prior, quite literally on my knees.
As a coach I had created a business that supported the way I desired to work. After working decades within the structured environment of a fast paced, high-tech company, I desired to create a greater flow in my own business that would allow me to honor a more feminine approach to my work, which to me meant marching to my own drum a bit more freely and becoming an entrepreneur.
What I didn’t realize was how this opportunity was not going to go away. My answer haunted me. I wondered why I was so against going back into the corporate environment. I had done some of the best work of my life in that environment, created amazing relationships and would like to think I had added immense value. The bottom line was that I was facing a FEAR. The fear of losing myself again and getting sucked into the workaholic tendencies that had plagued me my whole life.
With the support of my coach (yes! even coaches do better with a coach), I made a decision to do what I learned would become one of my best Power Tools: I ran directly toward what I was afraid of. This time I entered the opportunity in the driver’s seat. With the help of my coach, I stopped to create a strategy that would support a working environment that would honor the way I had learned I worked best. I negotiated the wage I desired, the responsibility level I desired, the title, the hours, the flexibility, the team, and even the office with the big window that I desired.
I also approached this opportunity very differently than any prior experience. With the awareness that I desired to bring my feminine-self into work, I made a few agreements with myself. To start with, I brought a much more feminine-self by allowing myself to dress in flowing skirts and beautiful fabrics that fit me well and always included a pair of heels that I loved. Each Monday I would buy a shamelessly oversized bundle of fresh flowers (it is so in my pleasure to have fresh flowers) and arrange the new bouquet in the office kitchen. Some of the best personal connections happened during these early mornings while arranging the new bouquet, where curiosity brought several others in to see what beautiful flowers would grace my office that week. These blossoms and the clothes I chose to wear were an outward expression of the femininity that I felt inside.
In addition, I created a beautiful office space with gentle fabrics and colors that were soothing and calm. I chose crystals that were supportive in opening the heart and sharing authentic communication and love. An altar with the intention of bringing out the best in the work environment and each one involved anchored my office to remind me what I was there to bring to the people of this amazing company.
Often our board meetings would begin with a centering moment of meditation and always with the awareness that we had great responsibility as the executive team to bring our best and highest integrity. This is where the fierce resides: knowing what you are here to do and making sure you do it with your most aligned integrity.
The time I spent working with this company, leading the marketing, communications, and human resource (called Human Possibility) departments, was some of my most challenging, professional work. My fierce showed up often during times of cash flow issues, when there were questions of payroll getting posted rather than an owner taking their check. Moments of following the laws that govern our industry versus padding the bottom line required my fierce to show up, too. The flowers in my office, the hugs I freely gave to team members and the way I dressed never once interfered with my fierce (except the time I met an angry, armed community in the parking lot after laying off some of my team members – sometimes heels are not the best choice – but that is another story).
Feminine and Fierce is what our modern world is begging us to bring into our work space. We are the ones who hear the call to be even more of ourselves. The corporate world does not need another woman showing up playing like a man. The corporate man isn’t asking us to play like a man either. These men appreciate a woman for the unique and beautiful gifts we bring to every space we enter, as long as we bring our Feminine along with our Fierce.
So Let’s Get Real here . . . I ask you, BEAUTIFUL (Yes, YOU!), if you could be just a little more yourself at work – what would you do differently? I challenge you to make one step in the direction of showing up even more your fiercely feminine self. I’m right beside you working on being my own version of feminine and fierce. Together, we give others permission to show up as well.
P.S. For you amazing MEN – please give us words of encouragement when we bring our Feminine & Fierce to the office. With your support, we will not only be bringing our best, we will also be paving the way for a better work environment for your daughters as well.
