Amy Vaughan is a Government Compliance Analyst, Southern Hub, at Diageo. She shares her story of being her authentic self within Diageo's inclusive work environment.
“It has been my experience in life that I’ve never been able to actively find my path. My path has always found me. It wasn’t until I started living my life true to the person I am, & not the person I thought I needed to be, that the most amazing things began to happen. And when my Diageo mentor challenged me to identify my top three core values in life, the one that popped out was authenticity," explains Amy.
Being authenticity during Diageo interview and beyond
When Amy interviewed at Diageo, she wanted to be certain that her prospective team knew exactly who she was: what she knew and what she didn’t. She wanted them to know that she sometimes goes to her sister’s oncology appointments and that at the time she also had a parent with Alzheimer’s. Amy explains she wanted Diageo to know she's "kind of nerdy, that I drink far too much espresso, and that my wife and I have a toddler."
Amy is consistently impressed by Diageo's willingness to foster authenticity by holding space for vulnerability. "Employees cannot be authentic if they do not feel safe being vulnerable," she says.
Working at Diageo with Pride
The year Amy joined Diageo, a few people in her local community formed a committee and hosted the county’s first Pride festival and parade, and it drew hundreds of attendees. But with all the excitement, it also attracted people who didn’t support the LGBT+ community or the families who were proud to celebrate Pride with their young children.
"Through this experience, we chose to form a non-profit, and I was asked to be a co-founder. With this opportunity, I had to face my fear of being super public with my life. But with the daily lessons I get in authenticity from my child, who is always unabashedly himself, I knew I had to honor him, and all of us, so I agreed to serve. I’m proud to say that our 2022 Pride festival was a major success and the support from everyone at Diageo has been incredible and overwhelming," explains Amy.
Amy encourages everyone to celebrate and let the world see the as they truly are, not as they think they ought to be. She finishes by quoting American television host Fred Rogers, “The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.”
"We are better for celebrating ourselves and our colleagues in all the ways we are perfectly and imperfectly human," concludes Amy.
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