In this episode of the Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about breaking free from adopting others’ personas and embracing our own. Many of us have found ourselves impersonating those around us, either because we lacked the confidence to be our true selves, or we were told, implicitly or explicitly, that we had to behave in certain ways to fit into the culture around us. My guest this week, Danielle Droitsch, an executive coach and former non-profit leader, shares how she went from mimicking her mentor’s style to integrating her own strengths and embracing her own style. We also talk about using the approach of experimentation to test out new behaviors, including speaking up and sharing your ideas.
About My Guest
Danielle Droitsch is an Executive and Leadership Coach who empowers high-achieving and purpose-driven professionals to discover their superpowers, love their work, lead with confidence, and achieve the life of well-being they deserve. She firmly believes it is possible to love your career. Yet, a significant portion of the global workforce remains disengaged. Eight years ago, as a senior leader at a national nonprofit, she overcame burnout and disengagement transforming how she approached work. Since then, she has helped hundreds of professionals regain confidence and strength in their careers. Her mission is dedicated to helping people uncover their "secret sauce" to feeling successful and energized at work once again.
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Connect with Danielle:
Career Clarity Journey: 8 Questions For Fulfillment, Well-being and Impact https://mailchi.mp/7b47af821797/3jwkmtvr4y
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Transcript
Kim Meninger
Welcome Danielle. It is such a pleasure to meet you. I'm so excited for our conversation, and I would love to start by inviting you to introduce yourself.
Danielle Droitsch
Well, I am thrilled to be here to talk about this subject. So my name is Danielle Droitsch, and I'm an executive and leadership coach. I'm based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although most of my upbringing and time has been in the Washington, DC area and just thrilled to be here.
Kim Meninger
That's great. And that must be a big difference going from DC to Salt Lake City.
Danielle Droitsch
Yeah, it was. I came here to support my aging parents at the time and but yeah, so basically, I sort of, I mean, I've been in the professional workforce for many, many years, but about seven years ago, I sort of hit sort of that wall that many people hit when they're like, Ah, I'm not sure if this is right. And eventually, somehow found myself coaching. So that's and then, and then eventually because I, because I could live somewhere else, my husband and I came out here, yeah.
Kim Meninger
So tell me more about what your pre-coaching life looked like. What were you doing before you decided to become a coach?
Danielle Droitsch
Yeah. So I, like, right after college, I so I'm been in conservation space for well over three decades, and I still am. I'm still working in that space on the side, but I sort of right out of college, became very passionate about environmental issues and ended up working in a lot of different places, first very local, and then eventually state organizations, and eventually, sort of the big national and international organizations. And that brought me back to the DC area, but I was sort of recalling, I was thinking about it this morning, before I was going to talk to you, and I was like, when did imposter syndrome began for me. And I think it began like, really early, when I was just out of college, and my very first mentor, I, I started to mimic, I started to, like, pretend to be like him, because I was like, I had no idea what I was doing. And I began this, like, really interesting, like, pattern that kind of served me a little for a little while, but it sort of eventually, you know, hit a big wall in terms of effectiveness. But I was rethinking this morning. Yeah, it was, like, all the way back at the very beginning, when I started to sort of adapt some strategies that may have worked a little bit but didn't really work in the long term.
Kim Meninger
Do you feel like mimicking your mentor? Because I think that's a really interesting way of putting it. It was a strategy that helped you manage some of your self-doubt. Or do you feel like the act of mimicking someone else contributed to that feeling of, I am a fraud?
Danielle Droitsch
Well, it's such a good question because at the time, I remember feeling like a bit more confident, because basically, you know, he was a guy, he was older, and he was confident. And so he would, he would just go into a room and sort of take that room a little bit, and I remember sort of pretending to do that, and then people sort of reacted to that. I was like, Oh, this is really interesting. I'm, I'm getting a reaction that I didn't think that they would give to me because just because I was pretending. And so there's a little bit of, I mean, some people, there's that phrase, fake it until you make it. There's a little bit of that there, right? It's not like, it's not a terrible strategy. It's, it's a, it's useful, because you're like, Oh, I'm trying this thing on. And I think it did work to an extent, but I think that I sort of put all my eggs in that basket. I was like, Oh, that figured it out. I just pretend to be some like someone else. And so I don't know it really made me feel less confident, but I think what it did was it helped in certain situations, and then ultimately, because it really wasn't me, it was my authentic self and my superpowers, which is sort of my, my big thing that I like to talk about. It sort of only worked to a point. So yeah, I think that's sort of what happened at that time.
Kim Meninger
Well, I think that's interesting too because that is the risk of trying to sort of mimic somebody else, as you said, is that we're adopting their strengths and their behaviors, but they're not necessarily in alignment with our authentic side. And so eventually that does catch up to you. There's that, that friction there. And so I wonder, was it a, was it a moment, or was it more of an evolution for you, as you got to figure out like this, this strategy works sometimes but it's not a one-size-fits-all solution.
Danielle Droitsch
Well, it's a good another good question because I think it did when you're earlier in your career, I think it's just inevitable that you're going to be floundering around a little bit and you're going to be trying so if you're in the very early stages of your career, that idea of trying on a persona or trying something on is not a bad idea. It's just It helps you sort of figure yourself out a little bit. But I think ultimately, you know, I I probably use that for several years, but then there was a point where I hit I hit points where, like, that wasn't going to work, and then my weakness sort of came out. Or my, not so much my weakness, but you were just used the word strengths, and that's sort of the way I that's the language I use. And also this idea of authenticity, which I know has sort of been a little bit overused, but it's, it's true, it's really the right way to go. And so to be authentic and to be strong, you really want to know yourself basically at the end of the day. You really want to know how you tick and when what you're going to do in a certain situation. So I think what I did was it was sort of like a tool in my toolbox, and I sort of whipped it out all the time. And it was, it was like, here's my confident person persona, that just didn't always work. There was times, in fact, like what I subsequently learned about myself is that I'm a really intuitive person. I'm really strong in the relationship space, very good one-to-one, can read people. That's sort of where I became a coach. I sort of pushed all of that away early in my career, I actually viewed that as a weakness, because I was like, Oh, I'm a relationships person. Oh, I'm a touchy-feely person. I feel, you know, that soft side, that whole soft side that many women have, and we sort of push away. So actually, for probably a solid decade, if not longer, I sort of push that aside, thinking, Oh, that's not the that's not the side I want to share. And so I think I that that whole trying it on and mimicking someone else was really to my detriment. It took me a really long time to discover that there was this whole world of understanding your strengths and getting to know who you were. And once you unpacked those strengths, then you could actually authentically show up and you could still be very confident. It has nothing to do with being confident or unconfident. It's just that my sense of confidence was much deeper and stronger once I actually sort of integrated strengths into it instead of looking outside myself at someone else. And this is what we often do. I mean, we look outside we say, oh, there's that person. They're really successful, or they appear to be really successful, maybe I should act more like them. And in fact, that may work for a time, but it ultimately isn't going to work in the long term because it's going to be inauthentic and it may actually even hold you back.
Kim Meninger
You brought up gender, which I think is an interesting part of this conversation because I wonder about a couple things. Number one is, did you ever find yourself perhaps hitting roadblocks that your male mentor didn't when you were mimicking him, because of the different expectations of how men and women show up in the workplace. And then you also mentioned your strengths might be more aligned with what we think of as more traditionally feminine stereotypes. And so I wonder how you navigated the sort of gender piece there, as you were, and did you work in a male-dominated place?
Danielle Droitsch
Well, at the time it was, I mean, the environmental space has been, at the local level, very women-driven, but the leadership was always, often men. It was like many, many women working for one guy that's not really that way in these sort of bigger organizations, but it was really interesting to me anyway. So yeah, I would say a lot of local environmental organizations are often women-driven. But yeah, the gender issue is really interesting because I would say, yes, I mean, there's no doubt that I would. I mean, I'm hoping I'm getting to your answers, and if I don't have your questions and like, definitely jump in. But I do think there's a tendency to, you know, women being defined as often. And emotional and sensitive and intuitive and all those things. And I would say my generation certainly would be like pushing that away, because it's like, that's the stereotype. So I was deliberately pushing that away because, and I think that does happen in the workplace. I think that if you're emotional, and when I mean emotional, I'm not saying crying, you're talking about being sensitive and being thoughtful and emotional-intelligence at the end of the day, right? That's what we're talking about here. And that, I think, certainly at the time I was rising up in my career, that wasn't necessarily welcomed or viewed positively. Now I think that's changing, but I think that in some organizations, and I coach a lot of women, hundreds and hundreds of women, I hear about that at culture. So this idea of culture is really important. In some cultures, emotional intelligence is really celebrated, and that's fabulous. But in other cultures, and it's really interesting because you could be a very authentic person and go into a culture and then suddenly feel like you can't be yourself because the culture is so powerful, so present. I mean, just the way people interact on email and so on. So I would say that for myself, and I'm not, I would say sort of a more masculine culture has been what I've had to deal with in most of my career. There's been a few organizations where sort of a more emotional intelligence bent has been there, but mostly it's been sort of a masculine culture, which is where objectivity, lack of emotion. You know, TikTok, we got to get things done. Let's not talk about feelings or emotions, is sort of the prevailing approach. And so therefore I would push that away for a long time, and there was a moment for myself, and I'll pause here so I can make sure I'm answering your questions. But there was a moment I remember because I was starting to learn coaching, I was in a program, and I was still in my sort of job that I was regularly going to and I had adopted this persona that didn't look anything like me at home, like I basically went to work and I was, like, all business, and I decided, because I was in this coaching program, to like, just, like, show up differently. It was just sort of like an intention. I remember, like, I'm just going to be a little different. I'm going to be a little bit more like myself, and I'm just going to be more interested in people because that's really one of my strengths. I'm going to, like, try to figure out where they're coming from. I'm going to try and just I getting to know people, helps me sort of engage with them. So I pulled out this sort of me at work, and it was, I remember being very intentional about it, because I was like, this is just an experiment. And I remember suddenly I was still doing my job like I was still doing my day-to-day, but I was feeling better and I was getting a better reaction, and it was sort of like I put that persona away, the one that I had adopted way back in the beginning of my career, where I was pretending to be like my mentor. And instead, I was like, this is working like me, bringing myself to work is really working. And I was actually feeling better, and I was still getting my work done. And in fact, I was doing it more effectively because I was caring about people and worried, wondering about what they felt, and I was able to knit together, you know, a great more agreement and harmony and teams and all the things that I was doing at work, instead of coming at it from a sort of masculine standpoint. So that was, to me, a turning point because I had thought that, that was a, not the person to bring to work.
Kim Meninger
I love the way, well, first of all, I just love how, honestly, you're talking about adopting that other persona, but also that you framed showing up differently as an experiment. Because I think sometimes we feel like whatever situation we're in right now is fixed, that we are who we are, and even if that's not our quote, unquote authentic self, as we're talking about right? That we are in an environment where it's too risky or it's just not possible to shift, and so I love that you just kind of decided I'm going to see what happens here, and that the result was a positive one because I also can imagine a world in which people might have been like, what's up with Danielle, right? Where, what's, what's going on with her? Or that's not how we operate around here, right? But like you, there must have been this, this combination of your courage and willingness to try something new, combined with an environment. And that was willing to give you the chance to do that right? Is that, am I getting that right?
Danielle Droitsch
Yeah. And the environment, I mean, everybody like, let's just name this. This is like a strategy right here that people can use right away. It's something I encourage with my own clients, which is this idea of experimenting to show up a little differently. And so it doesn't require, you know, I have this big strategy, and I have to spend six months planning, and then I've got to figure out how to show up to work. And suddenly I conquered imposter syndrome. It's just not how it works. It is sort of, I mean, the first step is really like just getting to know yourself a little bit more. I mean, you can do something more formal, like taking a strength binder assessment, but you could also just be like, Okay, where do I feel strongest? Like, where do I feel like I'm really in my element? Because for some people, it's going to be in a group, and other people it's going to be one to one or another. For others, it's going to be sort of like an exercise that they're just doing on their own. Everybody is different, so we cannot force ourselves to a context that doesn't work. For me, it's one-to-one. I'm super strong in that space. When you put me into a group, I'm a little less strong, not terrible, but I'm a little less strong because there's a group, and it's sort of a little intimidating to me anyway. So for me, it was the meetings. And so I knew that I was like, You know what? I don't have to be pretend to be anybody. It's a one-to-one meeting. And let me just get to know my staff like these were people who are reporting to me. Let me just talk to them authentically about what they were doing and what was working, what wasn't just to be a better mentor and a better manager. And so I, instead of showing up to the meeting pretending to be a manager that, you know, it was sort of this sort of ridiculous, sort of hierarchy approach. It was more of a connection, a friendship, or, you know, just more of an authentic connection that made them feel supported. And so yeah, then I knew that that was the right context. I knew that was when I was strong. And then I experimented with that, and I even experimented with that with people who I had sort of some tension with at the workplace, like I had viewed that relationship as, like, not my favorite relationship. It wasn't like we were fighting, but it was never like easy. So I was like, I'm going to bring this to the people that, like, somehow I, it's just not an easy, flowing relationship. And then I, I just decided to start asking them questions with themselves and their family and their weekends and just like, creating some like connection. And I remember thinking, this is going to make things a little easier. So for me, that's what experimentation looked like. But for someone else, it may be something different, but I hope that that was a useful strategy to consider.
Kim Meninger
Absolutely and I just love the idea of what you're saying, because I think that connecting at that deeper level with our colleagues automatically makes us feel more confident in interactions with them because they're not perfect strangers, right? I mean, we may sit in meetings with the same people over and over again, but if we don't know them three-dimensionally, if all we see is that business persona, and especially in a very specific context, there isn't that trust, there isn't that sense of safety. And so the ability to break down some of those barriers and really get to know each other is so powerful, and I think so often, that that very primal fear of rejection or that, you know what, I don't have time, or all the stories we tell ourselves to avoid being uncomfortable get in the way of that, but, but I just keep coming back to this idea of experimentation as being a really great frame to allow you to step outside your comfort zone without the same degree of risk.
Danielle Droitsch
Yes, it's exactly right. You just nailed it when you said stepping out of your comfort zone. Because for me, it actually wasn't comfortable necessarily, to do that, even though at home with my friends, my family like that, would be a natural thing, but there's a it was completely not the way I had operated before. So let me use another example, because that may speak to some of your listeners, but there may be so another thing that I have often face seen with my women clients, women leaders, is this idea of sharing ideas and, and, and often, many of my clients have fabulous, brilliant ideas that they want to share, but they're just terrified. There's just a this idea of kind of going out and naming either a problem or an idea, or just speaking up, and will often hold themselves back, perhaps because there's a fear of whatever sort speaking up means I'm going to be so there is a but, and yet they want to. So we talk about experimenting with showing up to a meeting in particular you. It's a meeting context that creates that environment. And just experimenting with sharing ideas, like, I'm going to go to this meeting, I have ideas I would like, I'm going to share them and, and it doesn't have to be in any specific way. It just says I'm going to do something that might be something I normally wouldn't do because I'm going to get a little uncomfortable. But when they share the ideas, and when they experiment, that not always, but more often than not, they go to the meeting, they share the idea or ideas, and then they get their reaction of people saying, that's a good idea. That was, that was a really useful addition, and that's, that's a strength. What they're doing is they're exercising their strategic thinking, like they have good ideas about how to whether, whether it's a brainstorm, or it's a problem-solving session, or it's visioning for the future, there's lots of different ways to go about it that essentially, we're often holding back. And that's an example, a totally different example. But again, it's about a little bit of discomfort, but it's a lot more authentic to them because that's kind of what's going on with them anyway. That's really where they are, and they it just but you're a little uncomfortable because it's not kind of how you've been operating the patterns you've been operating in at work. If you do it again and again, if you find that experimentation to work, and then you start doing again and again, then you're setting a new pattern, and then it will ultimately start to feel more comfortable.
Kim Meninger
Yes. And you use the word exercising, which is aligned with how I think about is building muscles, right? And, and I think this sort of ladder of risk that you the first time you experiment with speaking up probably you don't want that to be when you're in the room with your CEO. You want to do that when you're with your core team and people that you feel more comfortable with and, and then you slowly and incrementally start to build those muscles. And I think that's important too because as humans we tend to think in all-or-nothing terms.
Danielle Droitsch
Absolutely, yeah, it is like this idea of pattern our brains happen, just built into our brains. I mean, there are literally neurological pathways that have been built about how we show up to work. We can't expect that suddenly we're going to show up differently. But we are many people. We go to work, we go into the culture that we're in, whatever it is. I mean, the culture is the culture. I mean, you know, we could talk for hours about some of the problems with the workplace culture, but that's not, you know why we're here? Because that's not, we can't change that, right? Usually, usually we can. We try to, but we can't often change that. So the culture is often what it is. And then we go into the culture, and then we start to adapt in to that culture. And the way we adapt in to that culture sometimes doesn't serve us because of the nature of that culture. If it's a lovely culture and allows everyone to be their authentic selves, great, I haven't found that culture yet with my, with my own, you know, with, with what I've coached out there. But so every culture is its own culture. But then what we do is we have to sort of start to notice how much of my authentic self is showing up. And sometimes parts of it can, and other parts of it can. But what we want to do is just look for the places where we feel like we could be stronger, or we could be we could really strengthen how we feel at work. And everybody has different things they want to focus on, I would say, find the one thing. Don't find all 10 things that you want to fix. Find one thing. So as an example, I have a current client. I can't for confidentiality, can't share all the details. But you know, there's a lot of issues in the culture, like a lot of issues, and, you know, we could spend all day talking about all the problems in the culture. So we've just talked about one specific place where she can really, you know, lean in. And it's not in a big meeting space. It's not at all. The meetings are almost draining. There are bureaucratic there's a lot of decision-making. It just feels very draining. So it's like, yeah, she could try to be different in that, but where she's really going to thrive is in these one-to-ones. And she has a lot of strengths and a lot of amazing skills, and she thrives in those and that's where she lifts herself up, lifts herself up. So the idea would be to have to focus and concentrate on those spaces where she knows. Okay, I already enjoyed these. I just not really paying a lot of attention to them, because we're our brain is paying attention to all the negative things about all the other things. So we focus on the areas where we can and it's really been those one-to-ones and leaning in and saying, You know what, I'm just going to like show up and really be strong in these spaces, whether it's the relationship, whether it's the way you take action, whether it's the way you're thinking, the strategic thinking you're bringing, or the influence you want to bring to that relationship, there's a lot of different ways, but in. Investing in those and then magnifying that as sort of a focus that is really a key way to make a workplace day feel better when we keep trying to fix the things that are really, really broken in organizations. Often it's has to do with bureaucracy. It's, it's, you can do that, but that's not going to necessarily be the place where you're going to really feel better. It's going to be in the place where, you know, you can sort of crank that wheel and you can actually make it move. So that's really where I would, I would do the experimentation.
Kim Meninger
I think that's such a great point. And, you know, I'm thinking about the idea that a lot of times we are in a, in a situation where we're not sure, right? Maybe this culture just isn't for me, and maybe I need to leave. But what I love about what you're saying is that you can take an empowered approach, right to if, if you do some of the things that we're talking about, you cannot control the outcome, but you can control your own behavior. And if, at the end of the day, you don't experience the kind of response that you're looking for, or you feel like this is just too much friction. You are just swimming upstream trying to be this person in this environment that at least you know you've taken all the steps possible for you. But I think going back to the very beginning, where you talked about mimicking your mentor, a lot of times, these cultures become fixed because everyone's afraid to try something new, and everybody sort of feels like they're imitating each other, and sometimes it just takes one brave person to step outside that mold, to give everybody permission to try new things. So if you're going to leave anyway, why not use this as a practice ground to build?
Danielle Droitsch
I just love what you just said, I love it, love it, love it. Because that's sort of, I would say a good chunk of people come my way because they're like, I am done. It is time to go. And you know, absolutely I can help them sort of think about where to aim next. And often I will, just as an asterisk for those who are like, I know I want to leave focus on workplace culture, not the only thing. Obviously, you have to focus on your role but don't miss the workplace culture aspect of what you want anyway. But yeah, so this idea of you can always empower yourself wherever you are. So we can, we can. It's pretty easy. When you've decided I want to leave, or this isn't working, or I'm biding my time, whatever you know, to say, Okay, I just, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna go to work, I'm gonna check off my list. I'm gonna, you know, just do the basic, you know, really interesting statistic is that 70% of the workforce is disengaged in their work, 70% and this is a global statistic. And you might say, Oh, well, is that because of the pandemic? It's not. It's a trend we've been seeing going for the last several decades, and there's a bigger sort of research to unpack there. But ultimately, the workplace has stayed fairly stagnant. While people have changed, we have a completely different workforce than in the 1950s and the workplace is kind of the same, although that's not true everywhere, but it is. You know, we have a fairly wide gap between what the workplace offers and what the workforce wants that is changing, but it's going to take a while, and there's resistance from the workforce because they that sorry from the workplace. The workplace really has some, some clear ideas about what, what it means to be, you know, in a workplace. So anyway, that's another bigger issue. So we have a lot, we have 70% of the workforce that is either partially or fully disengaged in their jobs. I mean, that is a multi-billion or even trillion-dollar loss to our economy, which is not the only thing on our minds. It's really about we don't have happy workers. So that means there's about 30% of the workforce that is engaged, and if that's you great, you know, keep at it. But for most people, that means they're going to work and they're biding their time, or they're even actively, you know, working against, like, actually undermine their jobs. So, so what do you do with those people? Does everybody need to leave their jobs? I mean, that's pretty extreme, right? What we really want is a is a workplace that enables people to shift and change their roles so that they can be in the strengths role. But if you are one person, and you're not thinking about these big systemic issues, you're thinking, Okay, I think I do want to leave, but I really challenge you. Uh, to, to, to find a way to make the most out of the situation you're in, so that you can bring your authentic self, you can engage your strengths, and you can challenge you could be that person like you just said, Kim in the, in the room, that's like, you're going to buck the, the norm and come up different. You're going to show up a little differently to work by doing that, what you're doing is you're doing something called job crafting. So essentially, what job crafting is, is you're trying to organize a role around your interests, your strengths and your behavioral style. And that's what the workplace is not offering. I mean, the workplace does not the workplace is very top-down. So here's your job, here's your responsibilities, here's how you spend, especially spend your time. That's kind of not working. The new model, which is merged right out of the research has come right out of the university sector, is something called job crafting, which is just saying, No, we're not going to change what you do every day, but how you do it, how you deliver your job, you may change it, and though you change it in terms of the tasks you do, how you do those tasks, how you engage in relationships, and even your perception, like how you look at your job. And so there are examples out there of people who have gone in, and I've worked with these are some of my clients, but it's happening, or more broadly, going in and saying, I'm going to Job craft around me. And that's a little bit of what we've been talking about today, sort of like, I'm going to show up a little differently to work. I'm going to be a little bit more authentic. I'm going to change how I do my work, not change the outputs. I mean, we still have the things we have to deliver, but there's tremendous flexibility in how we deliver our work. I mean, you know, usually, if you're in a white-collar job, the amount of flexibility that we have available to us is actually pretty significant. I mean, we're not, you know, being told here sit at this, you know, factory workers job, and here's what you do. And yet we don't take advantage of that flexibility often, because we're dejected, we feel down, we don't feel empowered, but the empowerment doesn't come from our manager. We often think, Oh, if only my manager could empower me. Well, guess what? You don't have to wait for your manager to empower you. You can empower yourself by saying, I am going to do things a little differently at work, and even if you know you're going to leave, like you said, what you're doing is you're starting to get into that sort of pattern of, I'm going to be empowered in my role. I'm going to show up the way I want to show up. I'm going to do great work. I'm going to reach my full potential, and then I'm also going to leave, and I'm going to bring that pattern of thinking and doing to the next role.
Kim Meninger
Yes. So you benefit in the short term and the long term and, and the team potentially benefits as well, which is what I love, because it's a win all around.
Danielle Droitsch
You're engaged. Yeah, you're, you're more engaged in the role. So I mean, each person, what they're what engages them is different, and I'm not saying that. I mean, just to be very clear, the reason that 70% of the workforce is not engaged is not just because you haven't been job crafting and showing up as your authentic self. It's not there are. There's about eight to 12 different factors that inform engagement in the workplace. The employee has control over like a few of those, and the employer has control over most of those factors. So, you know, engagement is really an employer's responsibility. But when you're in a workplace, and you are, you know, knocking your head against the wall and saying, you know, Can we, can we have this? Can we have that? Can we have that? I mean, I can't tell you the amount of people that come my way. It's like, here are all the bureaucratic, institutional problems with my workplace. And we sit there, and we both agree that is a problem, absolutely. And yet, the next question I ask is, what can you do? What can you do? Right And, and so that's really where engaging in strengths, bringing your authentic self, you know, to work, experimenting to sort of just find a way that sort of works for you, becomes a bit of a strategy, so that we while, while those big, systemic issues that are much harder for us to change and influence, may or may not get fixed we have we are really focused on the day to day. We're not focused on the rules and the systems that are not working for us, and often they don't. But we're really saying, You know what? What can I do with my week? What can I do this week with the minutes of my day, with the schedule in front of me? What can I do to make that work for me, and when we start to focus and then that way, you're empowering yourself. You're bringing yourself some more control. You are growing your. Actually investing in your own growth, and yeah, you're going to actually bring a bring a better impact to the team, because we already know that disengaged workers are not productive and they're not as impactful. So if you want to be one of those that says, hey, I'm more engaged, even despite these big, systemic problems all around me, you're going to have higher impact. People are going to notice you. You're going to stand out. All these wonderful things start to happen, but it is a big mindset shift, because, frankly, it's pretty easy to go and look at the systemic issues, like, here's all the things that are broken, and we can all agree that they probably are broken, but it doesn't actually sort of empower us and help us reach our full potential.
Kim Meninger
Well. And you know, you just made me think about this too, as we could do that about our country too. We could do that about our world, right? Like that. There are always going to be things that are outside of our control that we could, if we, if we choose to put our attention entirely on, that we're always going to feel like, but, but, yeah, it's all about where you choose to focus and find your power. And that's what I love about what you're saying is this idea of really empowering yourself and through experimentation and ways that step up, you know, allow you to step outside of your comfort zone, and, you know, not feel like there's going to be a potentially catastrophic consequence to that, which is very incremental steps. I mean, Danielle, I could spend all day talking to you. This has been so fantastic, and I love the practicality of what you've shared with us. For anybody who wants more of your support, wants to learn more about you and your background, your work, where can they find you?
Danielle Droitsch
They can find me at time for wellbeing. So it's time, and then the number four wellbeing dot com and there's a ton of resources on my website for people who are wanting a career fulfillment, but also wellbeing in their life, because that's a high priority. And I have a I have a resource on that website. That is, if you want Career Clarity, then there's a little mini workbook that you can download to get clarity about what, what, what a fulfillment looks like for you.
Kim Meninger
Excellent. Well, I will make sure that those links are in the show notes as well. And thank you so much for having this conversation with me.
Danielle Droitsch
Thank you. I've really enjoyed our talk.