Who Are You Outside Your Title?

I worked with a senior VP who was at the top of his game by every professional measure.

When I asked him: who are you if the job goes away tomorrow?

He couldn’t answer.

He’d given so much of himself to the role that the role had become the answer to every identity question.

Lost touch with everyone who wasn’t a colleague.

Hadn’t exercised in four months.

His entire sense of worth was occupational.

A career built on the total exclusion of everything else isn’t a career.

It’s an identity so narrow that one reorg can collapse it.

He didn’t make dramatic changes.

Started running again.

Reconnected with two old friends.

Started leaving the office by six on Thursdays.

Small things. But each one was a reclamation.

He started feeling like a person again, not just a title.

Who are you outside yours?