While talking with a group of college athletes about identity and authenticity, I was sharing how it is important to know who you are and to show up in every space as your true self instead of pretending to be someone else or being who you think others want you to be. Know your gifts, passions, the unique qualities you bring, your boundaries, what you like and dislike, what you are willing to tolerate, etc.
One of the athletes brought up how her identity is tied to how she speaks. So, she should not have to change how she speaks in order to get a job. She believes that if she did change, she would not be presenting her authentic self. This D-1 athlete disagreed with being expected to use “standard English” in an interview to get a job. She argued the origin and validity of this phrase and its practice.
Merriam-Webster defines “Standard English” as:
“The English that, with respect to spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, is substantially uniform though not devoid of regional differences, that is well established by usage in the formal and informal speech and writing of the educated, and that is widely recognized as acceptable wherever English is spoken and understood (Italics added).
What stands out to me in this definition is that standard English is used by “the educated and widely recognized as acceptable…”
Adaptability vs Compromise
Some believe there is no such thing as “standard English.” Whether you do or don’t is not the issue, because no matter how we feel about it, in most professional settings, there are some expectations for us to have a “strong command of the English language.” This is a phrase you will see on many job descriptions, and for those that do not include these words, it is often implied. The higher the job level is, the more having a command of the English language is expected.
During my career in radio and television broadcasting, I chose to be intentional about how I spoke. I had to think about my audience and the language style they were accustomed to hearing. A lot has changed since then. Different language styles, especially in TV sports, are more widely accepted. However, in my early years, there was a different standard, and to secure a job in that industry, I needed to adapt the way I spoke.
Because “standard English” was not what I was most comfortable with at the time, I practiced my “standard English” diction in my hotel room before I would call a gymnastics meet as an analyst for ESPN. I took the complimentary newspaper left at my door and read the articles out loud until I felt more comfortable and confident in my ability to speak in a way my TV audience would understand and respect. In doing this, I was not compromising who I was; I was simply adapting my language style to fit the setting I was in.
Although non-standard English is more accepted now than it was when I entered the workforce decades ago, not adjusting our language in some settings may still prevent us from getting the job or being promoted because strong communication skills are an unspoken requirement.
No matter how smart or skilled we are, not adapting how we communicate may also keep us from getting past the first interview because of someone’s conscious or unconscious bias, which leads them to believe that the way we talk displays our level of intelligence; thus, the reference to “the educated” in the definition above.
Of course, this isn’t necessarily true. There are individuals who can command the English language but may be challenged intellectually, and others who have not mastered that communication skill but have highly brilliant minds. Even though this is true, the reality is that there are gatekeepers, individuals we must encounter to get from where we are now to where we want to be, and their biases towards how a person speaks may close doors for us depending on the style of English we speak.
Translating What You Want to Say Is Okay
But back to the dilemma. If we want to own our authentic identity in every space, does changing the way we talk mean we are changing who we are?
My definitive answer to that is, No.
Just as we travel to a foreign country and work to learn the language so we can get what we need to get and go where we want to go, changing the way we speak on a job interview is us simply translating what we want to communicate into the language the interviewer can understand so we can get what we need, a job, and go where we’d like to go, on the payroll. We can still be our authentic selves as we use different communication styles.
If this topic is something you or someone you know is wrestling with, I hope you consider this perspective. If you are like the D-1 athlete I referred to earlier, who is powerfully embracing her true self and adamant about changing how certain dialects are perceived, keep in mind that change is much harder to enact from the outside looking in. To have influence, you must position yourself to be influential.
Translating your authentic words into a language that another party can understand may be what gets you through the door. Your Brilliance will keep you there. Who knows, while sitting “at the table,” you may have the opportunity to help others understand how assumptions created by language or dialect biases can lead to them missing out on hiring great talent. Being in the room gives you the opportunity to do this, but it may take you adapting your language style to get there.