Be Yourself: Is That The Best Advice?

‘Be yourself.’ Quite possibly the most common piece of advice out there. Such a vague adage though. What does it actually mean? We hear it so often. Especially when going into high pressure environments, maybe a sporting competition, an interview, or a work presentation. Be yourself… is that really the best advice???

What if you’re a jerk to other people some of the time? Is it okay to just ‘be yourself’ and carry on being a jerk? Do you want to bring that version of you to an important job interview? Probably not!

‘Be yourself, skilfully.’ Perhaps that’s a better piece of advice!

Build the self-awareness, build the knowledge, and build the tools so you can skilfully adapt or flex to different contexts. Then, you can bring your authentic self, skilfully tailored to meet the demands of the specific context.

Spotlight is a tool I use to help people be themselves, skilfully. Feel free to get in touch if you’d like to see a sample profile.