Me Being Me: Authenticity and Belonging for Me

I was recently asked to speak about authenticity and belonging for a large group of leaders at my place of employment. I found this request interesting not because of the job role I am in, and in-fact it was appropriate, it was because I had to challenge myself on this topic, dig deep, and prepare to be completely authentic. Here is what I shared.  

It has been a journey to get where I am today especially talking about authenticity and belonging. You see for many years I struggled with who I thought I needed to be to succeed. When I started in a clerical role decades ago, I felt I had to be everything that I was not. I was not from a good family, I was not college educated, I was a not a high-school graduate, and I was not from a good neighborhood and therefore, I felt I was not anything special but just trying to find my way.

What I was - a Mexican American single-mom from a disadvantaged neighborhood but with insatiable curiosity, hard-working, interested in moving up, and willing to do whatever it would take to succeed. But with this unfortunately, it led me to not talk about my lived experience and my identity, as I thought everything that I was, would not be accepted or valued and possibly prevent me from moving up and most importantly, prevent me from fitting in. How would a person like me get a chance?

“I thought early in my career that I needed to suppress my ethnicity and my true-self. I worked hard to create what I thought would be an acceptable workplace identity.”

I thought early in my career that I needed to suppress my ethnicity and my true-self. I worked hard to create what I thought would be an acceptable workplace identity. I just wanted to fit in and not be treated or seen differently. But this was exhausting because I was not living my true self, I was not living an authentic work life, and I never felt like I truly belonged because of this.

Fast-forward to now, and here I am speaking about what is tremendously important and that is to fully embrace who you are, flaws and all, and not to feel you must be something, or someone you are not, to be accepted.

I’ve had an amazing experience here from a clerk to an executive director and I can now and finally fully embrace who I am and I hope to inspire others to do the same. I am excited about what my department is doing to foster and celebrate our diversity and our differences. Through our various initiatives that span the organization, to eight employee resource groups, we are continuing to bring awareness to the importance of authenticity and belonging and of course inclusion and diversity.

As one of the chairs for the Latinx Employee Resource Group, I still hear stories like mine today. With responsibility for all of the employee resource groups, I look forward to cultivating these communities to allow our teams of varying backgrounds and identities, to celebrate their diversity from cultural heritage celebrations to fireside chats on various topics, as well as the impact to business initiatives and policies. These communities not only foster belonging and authenticity but also give voice, awareness, and change to what’s important to these communities.

“Inclusivity and representation matters, and we need to see this at every level of an organization to create an environment of belonging for everyone. ”

Inclusivity and representation matters, and we need to see this at every level of an organization to create an environment of belonging for everyone. It is great to partner with the patient experience team as what we do together to support our team members extends to our patients and families as “what they see, is what we see.”

Before I hand this off to the next speaker, with whom I went to graduate school with, I’d like to highlight a quote by Brene Brown, "authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we're supposed to be, and embracing who we are."

After giving this speech, I felt liberated, surprised that I had been so vulnerable, but most importantly I felt free; free from any other person’s expectations of me but instead living a more authentic life for me. This in turn, has given me a sense of belonging for me. I would challenge you to do the same.