Needed because you can, or because YOU ARE
Happy New Year!
2024 Brought on a lot of excitement for my practice here. Some highlights:
Launched a new website! More content coming on the page, as well as LinkedIn, Instagram, and via email - Follow wherever you enjoy consuming!
Expanded client reach - Went from unofficial, contract based service to fully functioning consulting practice offering organizational plans and individual coaching services.
Updated offer packages - Redefined partnership offerings in 2025, still customized to tailor the needs of our clients.
I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions, or only self auditing at year end, but this particular reflection help me realize these highlights are very much a product of choosing to operate from within, and much less based on what other’s need me to be. Change of year can often connect with a desire for change of self. In building Crossover Performance Group, it’s been the ultimate investment of self. I’ve realized the (consistent) action needed to be who I tell myself I am. I’ve chosen the identity as a talent strategist and coach professionally. It can be a strange feeling, in that there is no shortage for people sharing their advice, instruction, or opinion on career and personal development these days. However, taking action on my identity over time should provide as a credible version of who I choose to be. So, in spirit of accountability in my own coaching advice here, sharing my first post of the year about identity.
*Hint - I’ll be working on my own 2025 data on employment* - For now, probably no surprise if you are following employment trends, but there’s plenty of surveys and data to suggest large numbers of employees are dissatisfied with their career status. To that point, I strive to coach towards identity. I propose the questions as follows:
Are you needed because YOU CAN
or
Are you wanted because YOU ARE
There is no wrong answer, and the result for all of us might look different. Some outputs can look the similar. Either could product money, status, connection, likeability, security, amongst other outcomes. I’d argue that only the latter will produce a sustainable output of fulfilment, self-respect, and meaningful (personal/unique) connection, which is often what is described to be lacking when surveying disengaged, dissatisfied workers.
Two things can be true by the way. For example, you may have the ultimate fulfilment and priority identifying as a father, and in order to do so at the best of your abilities might mean right now, you do what is needed because YOU CAN - like taking jobs that check off boxes with current skills (that make a suitable yearly wage). Or perhaps you are an engineer that feels like you are only scratching the surface on why you pursued your degree in the first place. You are getting paid for what you CAN do, yet who you identify as is much greater.
Any way you slice it, the differentiator comes with values. So if you are on the fence of where you want to go this year, consider if who you want to be is greater than what you can contribute to others; if the latter doesn’t align to your identity AND the reward doesn’t add up, it might be time to invest in a plan to reinvent your career development strategy. Some ideas to sit with:
Do you own your identity? Or is too much of it tied to something you don’t?
What is the breakdown of your time? Does time spent on tasks for others on things you can do greater than time spent on tasks that align to what you CAN do and identify with?
Is there an alternative to current work choices that could maintain what you are scared to lose?
What’s holding you back? List potential actions that would start a break through.
*Kicker - Is change/growth in your current state enough in your control or at the mercy of others? In other words, after you’ve done everything you can (and doing it well), are there still insurmountable obstacles in your way to get where you want to go?
MG
P.S - one of my favorite videos from 2024 on this topic at the 55 minute mark here
