Change isn’t easy, especially when you decide that it’s time to revise some aspect of your own life.
To successfully refocus a business, one needs to change the way they think about their industry, and that is what I am attempting to do today. Blogging about this topic is just one way for me to take my own advice by sharing my voice, presenting my authenticity, and being more empathetic.
To initiate this change, here are three concepts that may help you with this transition:
1. Your career is not your whole identity.
To do good work, one must let go of using their career to define their value. As women in the business world, we are often taught that we must minimize emotions in order to succeed. Our crutch becomes when we define our value by how we perform in a work setting, which makes it difficult to accept anything other than our best performance. And when we don’t perform our best, our emotions take over and allow us to judge our identity and value as lesser-than. When we associate our identity heavily with our best performance, we do not allow ourselves to fail. This restricts us from being creative, taking risks, exploration, and innovation. The risk of centering your identity around your career is that it restricts innovation within yourself.
2. Telling your whole story is important so people can get to know the real you.
Over the past five years of sharing my story on college campuses and corporate events worldwide, I noticed a trend. Deep inside me, viscerally, there was a voice telling me that I wasn’t showing my whole self. My stories became about my successes, and rarely did I mention the things that went wrong. People can respect you because of your successes; however, successes can also create separateness. They are a form of establishing superiority rather than equality, whereas your failures make you relatable and promote empathy. When you make yourself relatable, you support others better because you show them that they, too, can work through those failures to come to a similar form of success.
3. Minimize the need for affirmation.
Lady Gaga captures this idea when she sings, “I live for the applause” in the chorus of one of her hit songs. When one becomes addicted to the sensation of people clapping for them, they crave that affirmation even when they are not on stage. Affirmation in any external form becomes risky because it’s not coming from within. It is a process to learn how to value oneself not just because others tell you you’re great, but because one is following their own path. All the affirmation in the world can never replace the self-confidence that comes from being yourself and defining success in your own terms.
To manage change through a career transition, find other ways to define your identity other than your career, share parts of yourself that make you relatable, and discover ways to affirm your choices within yourself.
The transition I am making requires that I take these points and use them to my advantage.
Have you gone through a career transition? If so, what did you find as some key takeaways from that experience?
Feedback is very important to me, and I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts and insight. What else would you like to see me blog about and share here on LinkedIn? Please connect with me on my social accounts @HilaryCorna and follow me on LinkedIn (even if we’re already connected). Thank you!
In love and respect,
Hilary Corna
