Who You Are, Not Just What You Do So who ARE you? Secure, lifetime jobs are a thing of the past for many workers. The economy changes quickly, companies change products often, and the world market changes. People used to look at jobs as lifetime commitments in which they identified closely with their particular job or company. For many, this way of looking at themselves is no longer useful. A change in the way people view themselves is necessary. Rather than saying "I’m an auto worker for General Motors," the new worker will learn to say, I’m a person with skills which can be used building cars for General Motors, building computers for IBM, working in a small machine shop, or a plastics manufacturer." This way of looking at yourself is called branding. It is way to think of yourself and to project yourself as different from other workers. It is a way to highlight your unique skills and abilities so that managers or employers can see exactly how you will fit into the job or fill a need they have. This will ultimately help you find a new job or get the promotion you want.

Looking At Yourself In A New Way You start by identifying exactly who you are and where you want to go. Let’s start with these questions:

• What are your values?
• What do you want in your next job?
• What do you NOT want in your next job?
• What do you want to think about 8–10 hours a day?
• What gets you excited about work?
• What type of working conditions do you want? (inside, outside, at a desk, in the field, …)
• What is your personality and preferred work-style?
• And so forth.

These questions and the answers they bring forth will help you identify who you are and what you want in a job. For example, for a person who values generosity, has an outgoing personality, likes to occasionally work alone and loves to work with people. They want to be able to have influence on which projects they take on, they get excited by innovation and don’t have a preference about the work environment. This combination would make a great reporter of technology, science or medicine. The budding journalist may have to spend some time writing obituaries or advertising, until they have paid their dues. But, they will know their goal.

The same combination of attributes would make a person who worked on a computer processing loan applications miserable. That person would value stability, dislike change and find comfort in the unchanging environment.

Let’s go back to the budding journalist. What can they do to maximize their ability to get the reporter job? What have they done in the past that uses the skills and abilities required of a reporter? Do they have writing samples? Have they managed projects? You get the idea.

It is separating out what you do, from who you are. It is about identity.

Often times our job and the job title morph into our identity. Then when we lose the job, we lose our identity. Sometimes we lose the job due to a personal or professional failure. Many successful people say they are more defined by their failures, than by their successes. Thomas Edison failed over a thousand times before he succeeded with the light bulb. Failure is an essential component of building character and gaining knowledge. How we handle failure and adversity becomes part of who we are.

If we identify too closely with the job title, we are empty when we lose the job. "If you are what you do, when you don’t, you aren’t." When I heard Wayne Dyer say that, I laughed in recognition. I had lost my job after eleven and a half years. I had worked over sixty hours a week. I had no "spare" time for friends. My life had been my job – period. It was devastating when it was gone. I no longer "did." With apologies to Descartes, "I laugh, therefor I am." That’s when I realized I needed a new way of looking at myself and how I presented myself to others.

Recently, this new way of looking at myself has become known as branding. It is a job in itself to define yourself in this way. It requires introspection and persistence and honesty. Not everyone is up to the task. The reward is being able to say confidently, who you are and what you offer to the world. I now think of myself as a unique bundle of skills, abilities, experience and knowledge. When people ask me what I do, I no longer reply with a job title. I now reply with a clear and balanced identity. Losing my job was a blessing. It gave me time to define myself and identify what is important in my life.

A brand is built upon what is valued by a person or a company. If the values are clearly identified, it is easier to stay true to the values. The identity will build to a larger vision, and the brand can be carried forward, regardless of apparent obstacles. It will become your foundation. A strong foundation can withstand a hurricane of change and upheaval.

Your particular brand will flow from this foundation. What you do and the results you produce becomes your brand. Your success, will come from your ability to be authentic in times of change.

So who ARE you?

Contact me now to begin the journey of discovery and adventure as we get you to where you want to be.

Telephone: 916 • 803•1494 E-mail: eal@EALCoaching.com