Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes
When you write a blog, the question of how much you want to reveal about yourself comes up very quickly. At first, I thought I will write about what I know from a business or human resource specialist perspective. Then as I wandered across the blogosphere it became clear that I had to be more transparent -for you and me.
Opening up can be difficult. People might think you are flawed. They may not want to work with you. They may not like you. They may twist what you say. They may not agree with you. The list goes on.
It was this blog post that made the difference: How to decide how much to reveal about yourself by Penelope Trunk. I was hooked. I spent hours reading about her raw life experiences, marveling in her resilience.
Sure, I walked away with – wow she’s gone through and deals with a lot of crap. However, what sticks in my mind is that she is a survivor with real life experiences. She gets it. And I would love to talk to or meet her, even though she is a private person.
Would I ever get to that level of transparency? Who knows? Some may think I already do it – until they read her blog.
For example, I marveled at how she handled: My miscarriage on CNN, ABC and AOL. It caused quite a stir. She met controversy squarely and firmly and found a way to place the real issues on the table.
Many of us have problems or issues we deal with silently. Painfully silent.
You believe that no one will understand or that you will be judged harshly for thinking or feeling a certain way…until you read or hear about someone else who thinks or feels similarly.
It is at that point you start to trust someone else. It’s a funny thing, when you take risks, become more transparent, it builds trust with the people who are afraid to ask for help.
Article by Lynn Dessert
Lynn Dessert is an executive coach and training expert on cognitive development and personal effectiveness - facilitating behavior change for individuals and teams. Clients consult her to design and deliver HBDI leadership development programs and career minded individuals engage her for personal development. Lynn is the author of Elephants at Work and owner of Leadership Breakthrough, Inc. specializing in Executive, Leadership and Career Development. Start your discovery process by contacting her at 585.249.5149 today.
Lynn has written 276 awesome articles for us at Elephants at Work
Twitter: @http://twitter.com/LynnDessert | Facebook | Google+ | Blog → Elephants at Work
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Dealing with issues painfully silent.. I can relate to that issue. Yes some of us were brought up that way. Even though I may consider myself to be a progressive, forward thinker, I find my self at times being more curteous and minding my manners, if you will. Finding the way, to allow those emotions not to be surpressed, and allowing those issues out slowly. Thay is the key, that I haven’t been able to find. Allowing your self to share those powerful issues, fueled by emotion can be difficult. I can attest to that.