“The more I’ve leaned into my authentic self, the better it’s actually worked out” for general manager at creative agency The Hallway, Chris Murphy.
The idea of a single authentic self is one that Murphy says was explored during his time with The Marketing Academy, where the difference between character and persona was pointed out.
“When thinking of your character as a seed within your persona, the idea is to close that gap between the two,” Murphy says.
“Why is it important? You don’t want to come across as deceptive, and that’s so easily, and so unintentionally done.”
Dan Krigstein and Chris Murphy
Murphy was speaking on The Growth Distillery vodcast, hosted by News Corp Australia’s director of the Growth Intelligence Centre and independent think tank The Growth Distillery, Dan Krigstein.
He adds that the character and persona distinction is vital for creating a feedback-forward culture in the workplace. Another key part of creating an environment that thrives on feedback is making sure that “it’s constantly happening.”
“There’s one thing that Jules [Hall] our CEO at The Hallway always says: give small compliments along the way to just give people a barometer of where they’re standing, as opposed to waiting a year for feedback. That’s super important.
“For anyone who knows me, I’m very much the same in this booth, as I am in the pub and on the footy field. They’ll know that I’ll give them a very honest depiction of where I think improvement will be.”
Speaking to Mediaweek, Murphy adds that “we’re all in this game of belief.”
“It’s an infinite game of belief, whether we’re believing that we’re good enough to work at the agency or the company that we want to work at, the belief that the campaign that we’re sending out is good enough to get the results that we need, or the belief that you’re going to sit here and be on this vodcast.
“Every person that has worked on my team has instilled this vision of belief and has left my team feeling like they believed themselves a bit more. For me, that’s me doing my job.”
Finally, for the leaders of tomorrow, Murphy shares his best piece of advice: “Have the absolute belief and conviction that you are good enough to teach someone else your learnings.”
“A lot of people have this impostor syndrome about mentorship – I, personally, felt more nervous about taking on a couple of mentees than running an agency,” Murphy says.
“You feel an immense sense of responsibility, that you’ll shape this person’s perception of their career, potentially. But at the end of the day, they’re just happy to sit there and chat to you. It’s more about going, look, here’s my experience, here’s what I learned, and here’s what I would do differently if I did it again. Stuff like that to someone just coming into the industry is absolute gold.”
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Top image: Chris Murphy