Showing up authentically

Showing up as yourself at work means being able to contribute authentically.

It means being prepared and considered, while still feeling comfortable enough to ask questions, share ideas that are still forming, speak honestly about what you need and bring some of your own personality into the way you work.

At HBF, showing up authentically can look different depending on the person. For some, it might be loud, confident, and unmistakably present. For others, it is much quieter and more practical.

It means feeling comfortable enough to say what you think, ask for what you need, challenge an idea without worrying you have made it awkward, admit you are still learning, and bring your experience, judgement, humour, care, and perspective into work.

It is also about what you make possible for other people.

Where behaviour does the work

This is where HBF’s leadership behaviours move from intention to practice. They are felt in the way people lead with care, stay open to different perspectives, take accountability for the impact of their decisions, and keep coming back to what will help members, colleagues and the organisation go one better.

At HBF’s recent Senior Management Team forum in Perth, leaders came together to focus on how those behaviours are practised across the business. The session created space to reconnect, reflect on risk culture, strengthen leadership capability, and have open conversations about how decisions are made and leadership is demonstrated.

Those behaviours matter because they give people a practical way to be themselves at work without making it only about individual confidence.

At HBF, people understand the impact of their decisions on members, colleagues, and the work around them. Going one better means there is room to question what already exists and help improve it.

That is how showing up authentically is supported by the everyday behaviours. People feel trusted enough to contribute, challenged enough to grow and clear enough to bring their whole self to work.

Supported to grow as yourself

There is something powerful about being challenged by someone who is genuinely on your side.

That sits at the heart of EmpowerHER, HBF’s mentorship program for women. The program creates space for women across the organisation to build confidence, grow their networks and think about the kind of leadership that feels true to them.

For then Tax Manager, Emma Pereira, EmpowerHER offered the chance to build a mentoring relationship with General Manager for Member Operations, Felicity Pittaway. Emma was looking for someone who could challenge her thinking, offer a fresh perspective on her career, and help her broaden her view of the business beyond Finance.

Their first conversation could have stayed safely in the territory of roles, goals, and polite professional context. Instead, they spoke about their career journeys, aspirations, and values. Emma described it as less as a kick-off meeting and more like catching up with a friend, piecing together who they are and what they stand for.

Emma was able to bring curiosity and ambition into the conversation, while also being open about what she wanted to understand more deeply. Felicity brought experience and perspective, along with the kind of reflective questioning that nudges someone outside their comfort zone without making them feel smaller.

And then there is the line Felicity learnt from Emma: “always leave loudly.” A useful reminder that making an impact does not require anyone to make themselves smaller first.

Emma has since moved into a new role as Head of Finance Enablement. While career growth is never the result of one conversation alone, Emma’s EmpowerHER experience shows what can happen when someone has the space to test their thinking, build confidence and be supported to see their contribution beyond the boundaries of their current role.

Creating space for life

Showing up as yourself also means being able to be honest about the season of life you are in.

For new parents, that can be complicated. Becoming a parent can shift your identity, energy, confidence and what you need from work. It can make the smallest forms of support feel enormous, and the absence of them feel even bigger.

Molly Corke, Marketing Manager at see-u, shared the reality of returning to work after becoming a mother of twins. There was joy, and there was guilt, exhaustion, and the feeling of trying to find herself again outside of being “mum.”

Returning to work gave Molly space to reconnect with her skills, her confidence and her identity that exists alongside motherhood. Flexibility, understanding, and connection made a difference, along with having people at work who understood the reality of the season she was in.

People do not become less capable because life is full. They are more able to keep contributing when they do not have to hide the other things that make their lives so full.

What people make possible for each other

A leader makes space for a harder conversation, and someone feels more comfortable asking the meaningful question. A mentor challenges with care, and someone grows without shrinking themselves to fit. A parent is met with understanding, and the reality of life outside work becomes something that can be spoken about rather than quietly carried alone.

At HBF, showing up authentically is part of how the work gets done.