Seen Clearly: Helping People Without Erasing Them

There are moments in this field that stay with you. Not because they were dramatic, but because they quietly change the way you think about people and about the work itself.

One participant arrived at every workshop with a doodle pad and a full package of coloured markers. She came prepared. Not because she planned to disengage from the workshop, but because she understood something important about herself: doodling helped her focus.

Some facilitators might have interpreted that behaviour as a distraction or lack of attention. Instead, I had a feeling it was helping her regulate her attention and remain engaged, so I left it alone.

Later, during a discussion about the strengths we each bring to the workplace, she struggled to identify her own. I used her name while giving an example and mentioned creativity as a valuable workplace strength. She smiled softly and admitted that it might be accurate. In that moment, her doodling looked less like a distraction and more like part of how her mind worked.

After a break later in the workshop, she brought me a small blossom she had picked from a tree outside.

That small interaction stayed with me because it reflected something I continue to think about in career development work: the difference between helping people grow and teaching them to suppress who they are.

Growth or Conformity?

In career development work, we often help clients prepare for interviews, workplace expectations, and employability challenges. Traditional employment advice often focuses heavily on correcting behaviours and presenting oneself in a very specific way. Sit this way. Speak this way. Avoid this. Hide that. Reduce behaviours that might appear unusual or distracting.

Certainly, workplace expectations matter. Interview preparation matters. Professional communication matters. But I sometimes wonder whether our field can sometimes drift too close to teaching people to perform acceptably rather than helping them understand and communicate their actual strengths.

Looking Beyond the Behaviour

Over time, I have worked with participants who reminded me that employability is often far more complex and human than a checklist of ideal interview behaviours.

One participant with autism displayed very noticeable physical stimming behaviours throughout workshops. Some people might immediately focus on the movements themselves. What I noticed was an intelligent, insightful person. He had no formal work experience yet, but that did not mean he lacked potential. He needed opportunities, encouragement, and environments willing to recognize what he brought to the table.

Another participant had a pronounced stutter. He walked more than four hours each way just to attend programming and did so reliably, consistently, and without complaint. Many people would have given up under those circumstances. What stood out to me was not his speech difficulty but his perseverance, commitment, and determination.

Each of these participants had their own charm, strengths, and way of being in the world. And each of them made me think more carefully about the assumptions we sometimes make when preparing clients for employment.

A Strengths-Based Approach

There are some differences we readily accept and accommodate. We would not tell someone with Tourette syndrome to simply stop having tics. We would not expect someone who stutters to eliminate their stutter before deserving an opportunity. Yet other differences, particularly those connected to neurodiversity, are still often treated primarily as behaviours to be corrected or hidden.

That does not mean avoiding conversations about workplace expectations or adaptation. Most people, regardless of background, need to adapt to workplaces to some extent, but there is an important distinction between supporting growth and demanding conformity.

Sometimes the goal is not to help someone become a more conventional version of themselves.

Sometimes the goal is to take a strengths-based approach: helping clients recognize their strengths, understand workplace realities, and find environments where they can succeed without feeling they must erase who they are in order to belong.

Seeing Potential Before Others Do

The right employer is not necessarily the one that demands sameness, but one that is willing to build a more inclusive workplace where different strengths can succeed. Conversations around workplace inclusion and accommodation have become increasingly important, particularly for neurodivergent job seekers and employees. Resources such as the CCRW Disability Confidence Toolkit encourage employers to think more intentionally about accessibility, inclusion, and the recognition of potential in different forms.

As career development professionals, part of our role should be recognizing potential before it is obvious on a résumé, visible in polished interview answers, or reflected in a conventional presentation.

Sometimes what a person brings to the workplace isn’t immediately packaged the way employers expect.

That does not mean it is not valuable.

And sometimes, the most meaningful thing we can offer a client is not pressure to become someone else, but the experience of being seen clearly for who they are.

– By Shauna Specht –

This article was edited with the support of ChatGPT (developed by OpenAI). The ideas and insights shared are entirely the author’s own. 

Image generated with ChatGPT.