Who are you?
A simple yet loaded question. That’s because people tend to answer the question with what they do rather than who they are. Most of us do that, which is not too much of a problem, but it can be problematic when we want to re-brand or move on from that old job title and we find ourselves so tightly wrapped in ‘what we used to do’ that we cannot easily shed that old idea of ‘who we are’.
Having an identity helps us. It makes it possible for us to behave in a way that makes sense to us and others. In some ways, it makes us who we are today. The key is to identify ourselves in a way that benefits both us and others now.
For example, after working as a professional in a corporate setting, it isn’t always easy to move on from that last job title. The previous job shouldn’t dictate what we do next. That much is simple enough. To effectively move on from the conundrum of our ‘stuckness’ in a past identity, I recommend, once again — and this is something I harp on about all the time when clients start brand-building — Self Discovery.
Knowing who you are, by understanding your personal values, strengths, and preferences, can free you from an identity that may have been rusted on to your past self.
You might be a strategic thinker who can relate to others easily while providing creative solutions to complex problems. Those qualities can be transferred to many areas beyond the title of, say, Business Analyst. A description of you (who you are being), rather than your past job title/s (what you used to do), is always going to be ‘who you are’.
Let’s re-think who we are now.
Who are you?
P.S. If you missed my last dispatch, you would have missed my mini Branding Lessons on Instagram. I posted a series of 15 lessons there in bitesize chunks. Follow this link to see them all.
