Page 12 - index
P. 12
RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS
Why the Mohawk is good for business!
It’s Monday morning, and it’s time to trade in your Mo- around the proverbial boardroom table all conform to
hawk for a more ‘palatable’ comb-over. Your latest tat- our homogeneous version of what a team member
too (a mandala that inspires you to dream) is neatly ‘should’ look like. Critically, even great work environ-
tucked away under your crisp white shirt. Ankle bracelet ments (and their ‘dress codes’) put a lid on authenticity.
removed, you push your standard-issue beige socks Changing this will require managers to get comfortable
into black loafers. It’s time to switch off your inner self with ‘different’ in all its shapes and forms – and the ac-
and turn on your corporate persona. ceptance of several key principles:
Successful businesses are ‘innovative’ and ‘creative’. Authenticity is not only good for people
They ‘do things differently’, or claim to. The driving force
behind this success is a company’s employees – those The corporate world is fraught with categorization – a
who enter the product incubator daily in order to turn sorting of who is good enough to play which role at
‘innovative’ and ‘creative’ into verbs. Quite often, how- which level. Companies aren’t allowed to (openly)
ever, we expect ‘out-of-the-box thinking’, yet expunge make discrimination a part of that categorization. But
any form of expression. How can we expect staff to human nature dictates that what we see shapes what
reach their full potential, if we won’t allow them to bring we think and what we think, in turn, filters how we see.
their authentic selves to the table? Few companies will The alchemy of perception is very difficult to dissolve –
admit to any form of racial, gender or other forms of making the mistake of assuming that our perceptions
bias, but in focusing on compliance – have we lost sight reflect the truth even more so. In reality – there is a dif-
of inclusion? ference between a Mohawk and a comb-over.
It’s easy to pay lip service to collaboration when those
12 Asian eMarketing - September 2016 - Search Analytics & Search Engine Optimization
Why the Mohawk is good for business!
It’s Monday morning, and it’s time to trade in your Mo- around the proverbial boardroom table all conform to
hawk for a more ‘palatable’ comb-over. Your latest tat- our homogeneous version of what a team member
too (a mandala that inspires you to dream) is neatly ‘should’ look like. Critically, even great work environ-
tucked away under your crisp white shirt. Ankle bracelet ments (and their ‘dress codes’) put a lid on authenticity.
removed, you push your standard-issue beige socks Changing this will require managers to get comfortable
into black loafers. It’s time to switch off your inner self with ‘different’ in all its shapes and forms – and the ac-
and turn on your corporate persona. ceptance of several key principles:
Successful businesses are ‘innovative’ and ‘creative’. Authenticity is not only good for people
They ‘do things differently’, or claim to. The driving force
behind this success is a company’s employees – those The corporate world is fraught with categorization – a
who enter the product incubator daily in order to turn sorting of who is good enough to play which role at
‘innovative’ and ‘creative’ into verbs. Quite often, how- which level. Companies aren’t allowed to (openly)
ever, we expect ‘out-of-the-box thinking’, yet expunge make discrimination a part of that categorization. But
any form of expression. How can we expect staff to human nature dictates that what we see shapes what
reach their full potential, if we won’t allow them to bring we think and what we think, in turn, filters how we see.
their authentic selves to the table? Few companies will The alchemy of perception is very difficult to dissolve –
admit to any form of racial, gender or other forms of making the mistake of assuming that our perceptions
bias, but in focusing on compliance – have we lost sight reflect the truth even more so. In reality – there is a dif-
of inclusion? ference between a Mohawk and a comb-over.
It’s easy to pay lip service to collaboration when those
12 Asian eMarketing - September 2016 - Search Analytics & Search Engine Optimization
