Sandler Training - October/November 2019

Sandler Training - October/November 2019

WWW.CROSSROADS.SANDLER.COM / 208-429-9275 / OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019

FIND YOUR EDGE

ROLE VS. IDENTITY HOW SEPARATING THE TWO CAN HELP YOU SUCCEED

Americans have a troubling habit of conflating work with identity. Often, when we meet each other for the first time, the first question we ask is, “What do you do?” That’s a sharp contrast to the rest of the world, where prying into someone else’s work life is considered a bit rude. The Atlantic calls this phenomenon “workism,” and defines it as “the belief that work is not only necessary to economic production, but also the centerpiece of one’s identity and life’s purpose.” Personally, I think workism could be at the root of a problem I see a lot when helping clients at Sandler Training — and undoing it could be the solution. At some point in our working lives, we’ve all had to face a problem that has grown out of proportion and might even seem dangerous. The difficult truth is these challenges are typically products of our own creation — more specifically, of our workism. When we merge who we are and what we do, we tend to rely on the same coded responses and go on autopilot, unable to get an outside perspective on our work.

To face any kind of issue, you must be willing to separate your Identity (who you are) from your role (what you do). Think back on the last time you started fresh at a new company. How willing were you to listen to criticism? How often did reprimands seem personal? How easily did you read into the instructions of others as a reflection of their personal motivations? “ “THE NICE PART ABOUT BEING THE SOURCE OF YOUR CHALLENGES IS THAT YOU CAN ALSO BE THE SOLUTION. SO, BE THE CHANGE YOU NEED TO ACHIEVE THE SUCCESS YOU WANT.”

The longer we work in a business, the more easily we confuse our identities with our roles. We take criticism as a personal affront and view attempts to coach us as shaded acts of subterfuge. That

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