7 Signs that your Identity needs a Review

For years, people have surfed the waves of career opportunity without giving much thought to their professional identity. However, this is rapidly changing: sometimes for marketplace reasons and often for personal reasons.

How would you know that it was time to rethink your work identity? Here are seven signs that often spur people to take action:

1. Being under-valued. Taking a job below your pay-grade, needing to discount your fees, being stuck below a ceiling, getting out-manoeuvred in negotiation… these are often symptoms of a deeper issue, which will not get solved by mere confidence affirmations in front of the mirror.?

2. Disliking how people introduce you. Perhaps you have difficulty introducing yourself: this is often the case with people do a variety of things. But what frequently nudges people into action is when someone else introduces them as a “safe pair of hands” or “makes the website look good” or in any other way that they feel diminishes their value.?

3. Loss of meaning, purpose or energy (or not belonging). Sometimes this happens gradually, so you only notice it after a break or team-meeting, or at year-end or around a big birthday. Other times, it’s something that someone says in a meeting. Whatever the cause, you know that you are not putting the same energy into your job or business. (Yes, quiet quitting may be one of these effects. Often followed by quiet firing.)

4. Referrals and opportunities drying up. Perhaps your network is starting to retire, or you are no longer getting calls from recruiters. Or while your social media is getting engagement, this is not translating into clients. You may be putting a lot of efforts into business/career-development, but this is not paying off. This is often not so much a problem of communication, but more a problem of identity, particularly in crowded markets.

5. Not progressing past first meetings/interviews. You see others getting opportunities in your field, but somehow you are not, despite your outstanding experience and skills. So, you are often able to get a first meeting, but then nothing happens. Later on, you hear that they appointed someone else or filled the opportunity from within. They seemed so positive at that meeting: what happened?

6. Bland (or no) reviews, lack of recognition for the value of your work. Perhaps you felt depleted by some feedback from your boss or client, or the testimonial you received seemed very watered down. Or you feel vulnerable in the context of the next re-organisation. For independents, this may include not getting renewals or referrals. For too many people, this translates into getting no feedback at all!

7. Concerned about the threat of emerging technology, e.g. AI. When people have a strong identity, they usually embrace emerging technology as another part of their toolkit. If, however, they feel vulnerable, then fear of AI or digitalisation can be yet another dystopian nightmare in their fearful imagination. So they are more likely to shun technology than to?investigate the opportunity it brings.

If you find you have related to three or more of the points above, it's time to recheck your identity. Even if your expertise / story / value-proposition / charisma worked in the past, this is no guarantee that this identity has enough momentum for the future.

If you are ready to review, you are invited to join one (or more) of the interactive Zoom workshops in July.

In each of these sessions, we will:

- share experience of the 7 signs above, i.e. spotting if your identity needs an upgrade

- identify 3 questions to clarify if it’s an identity issue or something else, for example “perhaps I just need to meet more people?” or “I need to master some new technology”.

- learn how identity is evolving in the Age of AI

? John Niland, July 2023. For enquiries about John as coach or speaker, on topics of self-worth and professional identity, see www.selfworthacademy.com or email [email protected]