The Key to Knowing What You Are All About
We’ve all been asked to do it - walk confident into a room and talk about what you do and how it helps others. What you say today when you walk in that room is probably different than what you may have said a year ago.
I recently went through an identity crisis. Not me personally, but my business. Yes! Honestly, I think every organization goes through it at some point in time. We stood stand-still, trying to figure out who we were becoming and what we were all about. We experienced a point of growth, entering a new phase and one day I looked up without a clear understanding of what we were all about or who we were becoming. However, I was very clear about what I wanted our company and the brand to be and how I wanted it to serve our people.
We’ve all been through it; change. Women that want to elevate their lives and their careers and lead with purpose, clarity, and intent know by faith, greater things are on their way.
As your business or the organization you lead evolves, you can quickly fall prey to what everyone else wants you to be if you’re not careful to secure your identity with clarity and confidence.
How to Hold Firm to Your Identity.
There are 4 strategic areas that help convey to the world what you’re all about. Keep in mind, it starts with you. As you evolve personally, so too will the work that you lead and have an impact on.
Know your values. What are the values that drive priorities, motivate, and set boundaries for you AND for the organization you want to lead? This is a great moment to reflect on experiences and things that you’ve been through that are now shaping you personally. Your perspective as a woman, a leader, whichever titles you may bare will influence how you approach and bring forth value to this world. For us, courage, growth, faith, making and difference, and being well all play a significant role in how we show up to serve the women in our community.
Use your voice. How are you using your voice and unique personality to connect with those you want to reach? Whether reflective, intellectual, or playful and fun, your voice and the tone it takes on form a brand. It’s a valuable and unique asset to framing your identity.
Visualize your identity. How do you visually represent what you do? How do you show up when stepping into a room? Does it connect with those you want to reach? What impact is it having on your ability to connect with them? You have an opportunity to leverage visual elements to really provoke emotion and draw people into what you’re doing. We live in a visual world. I find it so powerful to know how visuals have a psychological impact. In this article, Forbes conveys the impact of color and storytelling in visual identities to help meet our organizational objectives.
Be true to you. Knowing the unique value that you bring to those that you’re serving plays a large part in how you lead and how your business connects. As you create and originate, imagine what can come from your brand being a beautiful expression of how you are evolving as the entrepreneur and the leader behind the scenes.
Seamlessly grow. Evolve. This is your opportunity to draw on the uniqueness of each element of who you are today. Reflect this in the work that you touch and the impact you make. Be intentional. You can stand firm to who you are and see your brand evolve at the same time. It not only happens, it’s necessary.
Cheering you on!
Sharnell Weathersby
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