Fit in or Stand out?
An Interview on Unleashing Human Potential within a Global Multinational
You are sitting in a room full of ‘important’ people and something tells you the conversation should head another direction. What do you decide? Do you stick out your neck and add your value? Or do you choose to keep quiet and avoid the risk of being rejected?
Today I meet Mahvish Zaman, HR professional at a global Multinational.
She’s a very bright, energetic woman and she really understands how HR can provide value to the business.
We talk about the balance of fitting in and standing out. What does that mean within a large complex organization? When do you swim with the tide but take the risk of losing your authentic voice? And when do you listen to that voice, and stand out? And what does it take to unleash human potential?
Fitting in helps to connect with the culture
Mahvish starts by telling about the strong culture. The positive side of fitting in creates a sense of belonging. ‘Our ecosystem is a connecting point. Everyone who works here has a certain connection to the brand and loves sport. As well as the competitiveness and energy that comes with it. The common core is winning. That is something I learned here’.
She is experienced in HR and is good in influencing, but this culture of competitiveness was new to her. If she wanted to succeed, she had to learn how to get familiar with this competitive atmosphere. "Good preparation is key. When I am working with a certain leader, I know which three things I have to prepare to be effective".
The total value you bring to the organization is a combination of your uniqueness and what you learn and absorb. Getting to know the bits and bites of the culture helps you to connect with people and discover what works best in business.
Standing out leads to engagement
Connecting with the culture and the people helps with doing your job, but only up to a certain point. The reason you’re hired and the other person with a similar CV isn’t, is your specific approach to things – the uniqueness you bring to the table. Your unique talent, where all your authentic skills stem from, makes you stand out from the crowd.
When you express this natural talent, you’ll be able to influence the situation, instead of being influenced.
If you are too busy trying to fit in, you are constantly in re-active mode responding to the outside world. You adjust yourself too much, your inner world (your active mode) runs down. It is bored, not activated enough to add value. You start questioning your own engagement. You start questioning your own value. "Am I really a problem solver?’ They didn’t get a single solution from me in the last period. I can start questioning. It’s not that the talent has gone away, it’s there. But if you don’t give that talent enough space to actually flourish then it will become a problem.”
I still remember not feeling the ability to use my own talent when I started my third job. I felt like a racehorse caged in a small stable. Next to personal disengagement, not enabling people to use their talent means an immense loss of potential for the organization. If a talent isn’t allowed to flourish, they would be unable to add value and organizations at are risk of losing potential.
How much room does your organization give to the employee’s unique talent?
“Each business unit has a different take on that”. Mahvish explains how in every function the window in which you can be disruptive or creative is different. When you are a designer, your specific role is to be creative and unique.
You have to come up with something new and not yet defined, so there is a lot of room for your specific authentic approach. A person in Operations might not get the same space as a designer but then they have their own way of identifying their uniqueness.
On the other hand, each person has a unique talent. It’s extremely vital, motivating and effective when someone is able to express that unique factor. The standard processes within an Operations and Planning environment might ask for talents that seem less creative at first sight.
But imagine what happens when you find out your team member flourishes when he creates order in chaos? Wouldn’t he be the first one to ask to prevent weaknesses in the system?
Imagine what happens when you discover a colleague’s natural talent is to bring a holistic point of view. Wouldn’t you invite her to create a strategy on how to win in a changing retail landscape?
And that person who is the best motivator ever when everyone is tired, wouldn’t that be wonderful if he is allowed to spread his energy around the clock on shipping days like Black Friday?
Pockets where talent shines
Their organization is known for allowing people to unleash their unique potential. Former athletes flourish in business functions, because of their experience in sports, but also because of their contagious attitude. And of course it’s a challenge to make sure everyone stays engaged and uses their talent to the maximum.
Mahvish acknowledges that they do pretty well and that they are being more and more proactive to enable employee engagement. It’s not only the employees themselves who have a responsibility. All stakeholders have a role to play.
Interested in how you unleash your talent and the unique talent of others?
Read the second part of this article that covers several hints for each stakeholder we discussed during our interview.
>> Employees – Bring your best self each day
Employees who bring their best-selves to work every day are an essential part of success within Mahvish her organization.
Focus your energy
An important part to staying engaged and feeling invited to add value is to harness your energy and capacity. To take a step back to move forward is a must in today’s accelerated society.
“One of my biggest strengths is that I have a lot of capacity. I can do literally a lot of different things. But I was so tested the last two weeks. I have to learn to switch it on and off. I can do many different things, but to be able to keep that momentum, I might have to make trade-offs at certain times. It’s not that I’m losing my strength, but I can choose when to use it”.
Mahivsh notices especially an ‘I can do everything’ attitude with the interns. These ‘raw talents’ don’t know yet what they are really good at. “We love the ‘I can do everything’ attitude, but if you harness that energy in the right way, the impact can be so much bigger”.
Working as a trainer in Talent Development training programs, I met a lot of participants who excelled in their careers when they finally stopped doing everything and started doing what they were especially good at.
Most of the time this meant showing courage and stepping outside their comfort zone. Trying to fit and copying others lead to achieving average success. That is safe and excelling in your not-yet-proven unique approach is scary. But each one of them found out that ‘a copy is never as good as an original’.
Ask yourself: What did I give back?
Instead of running on and on, Mahvish advises to take a little break and to reflect on two questions:
What did I learn from the past few months?
What did I give back?
Getting to know what you can bring to the table is a prerequisite – How do you serve the project and the company? Especially Millennials are constantly curious and on the hunt for new experiences, and forget the fact that in the end they are asked to serve clients and the company. “Go to a leader and ask ‘What can I do for you?’ “
Next to the fact that your colleagues will appreciate this question, you’ll get more clear insight in what YOU bring to the table. Keep asking yourself ‘Where did I make a difference? How did that serve the results and/or the people in the room?’
>> Leaders – Create room for talent
Cascade the vision
Mahvish tells how their CEO creates an inspiring future vision and sets goals. He cascades these to his team and they translate these visions and goals on their turn and communicate them with their teams. This cascades down the entire organization all the way to the DC employee who packs the shoes. At least in theory. In reality it’s a challenge. “It’s where you can make a difference as a leader. Create a container where the vision and goals are clear, then you have room to give attention to the talent”.
A clear communication of the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of the company’s vision and goals, inspires the ‘how’ to be extraordinary. To unleash the existing potential a subtle balance of focus and freedom is needed. In case of too much direction, we are micromanaged and I don’t have to tell you where that leads. Too little direction tends to spread our focus and we miss the mark.
“We are relying on the managers to do that. In some cases it has been done really well. He or she has cascaded the vision, the goals, the strategy and everything. But in other cases people have just received the goals and put them in the drawer and haven’t talked about them until the following year.”
Mentor people to recognize talent
More and more the role of the leader turns into being a mentor. Their management development program is focused on developing leaders who recognize talent and are able to create an environment where people can develop and express themselves. Mahvish mentions, “Managers that mentor those raw talents, play a key role. They recognize the energy and value they bring to the table, but also define and package it for them”.
>> HR – keep a sharp eye
Stand up and provide feedback
Apart from setting up systems and programs to enable talent to emerge and develop, Mahvish mentions an important role for HR. “When I am seeing patterns, I have to stand up in the meeting. I have to say: ‘You know what guys? I have been noticing these patterns in the meeting. I have the feeling these employees are not engaged to the level you should engage them”. In the end people are open to that kind of feedback. It’s a natural habit for people to rush when they are in the heat of the moment. It’s incredibly productive when someone reminds them to improve their leadership skills.
Rotate jobs to excel growth
A unique intervention to stimulate personal growth within their organization is job rotation. “Everyone that we hire we are hoping that they will grow and develop. An average person stays max 2 years in one position”. The steep learning curve keeps people on their toes. Of course this rotation of jobs, also means rotation of knowledge, which is essential in this agile business environment.
“On the contrary, some people like to settle in. This rotation and constant change can create anxiety”. I understand this downside. It takes time to get to know the new rules of the game. It takes time to fit in. So it takes time to find the courage, feel the trust to express their true colors and unique value.
Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, author of The Gifts of Imperfection and research professor at the University of Houston, explains this dance between fitting in and standing out perfectly. To fit in, you don’t have to swap your unique qualities to belong. You don’t have to be the same as others in order to fit in. She writes: “Belonging is showing up and letting yourself be seen and known as you really are—love of gourd painting, intense fear of public speaking and all. Many us suffer from this split between who we are and who we present to the world in order to be accepted. But we're not letting ourselves be known, and this kind of incongruent living is soul-sucking.”
I wish you lots of agility between these two forces of fitting in or standing out at work. Sometimes it pays off to blend in and get to know the rules of the game. But I wish you lots of moments where your true talent may flourish as well. Stay conscious when it does and don’t allow your reactive mode too much stage if you want to add value and stay engaged. I wish for you to discover your natural talent and that you could name it in one word. That way you have a compass in your hands to help you and your colleagues to unleash every possible potential.
At the end of our time together, Mahvish and I realize we could speak on and on about this topic for hours. Her passion for HR and the company is inspiring and it’s amazing to see how truly engaged she is herself. It’s inspiring to see how she shows up at her best each day over and over again.
Interested in learning more how to unleash your companies or your own potential?
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PS If you enjoyed reading this article, stay tuned. Mahvish Zaman connected me with a colleague to learn more about the balance between fitting in and standing out within in a large multinational.