Cultivating a Professional Persona
Discovering and defining your professional persona can be the key to lifelong success, according to insights shared by a management and coaching guru. Muireann Bolger reports.
A professional persona is pivotal to any successful career. But how can you develop this key asset in a way that is both authentic and effective?
In an inspiring Capsule Keynote: Discovering and Defining Your Professional Persona: Keys to Self-Management, yesterday, Fordham Law School (NY) Assistant Dean Toni Jaeger-Fine advised on how this could be achieved.
Ms. Jaeger-Fine, principal of Jaeger-Fine Consulting, LLC (NY) and author of Becoming a Lawyer: Discovering and Defining Your Professional Persona, offered her own definition of a dynamic professional persona.
“This is a set of attitudes and behaviors. And these go beyond technical knowledge and substantive expertise, and really determine our success and happiness,” she said.
The Secret Sauce of Success
According to Ms. Jaeger-Fine, the development of a professional persona is a lifelong process and honing it can be “empowering” in all aspects of our lives.
However, she said, it can be hampered by a lack of attention.
“The problem is, we don’t think about these attributes very often,” she said. “We’re concerned about our substantive knowledge and technical skills, but we really tend to underinvest in the attitudes and behaviors that I think are the secret sauce of success.”
The speaker shared valuable insights on how her own trials and tribulations had furthered her own personal journey. This, she revealed, included her ability to express her own identity.
“I’m gay, I was not out till I was 30 years old, and I can tell you that those years took a huge toll on me,’ she reflected. It is vital to be true to yourself, urged Ms. Jaeger-Fine, explaining:
“It’s about being authentic and finding a setting where you can be yourself, where you don’t have to hide. By hiding, you spend a lot of mental energy doing that rather than doing something more productive.”
Different Stages
The first stage in developing a professional persona is foundational and involves acknowledging our shortcomings, Ms. Jaeger-Fine said.
Providing a personal example, “When I started to write a book about this subject of a professional persona. I thought I had it all figured out,” she reflected. “Of course, I soon discovered that this attitude was borne out of hubris, and I had to devise a more effective way of working.”
Continuing, she said, “There were so many areas in which I had to improve in major ways, and I found that frustrating. But I’ve come to believe that this is a beautiful part of our journey over the course of our careers and lifetimes.”
“We’re concerned about our substantive knowledge and technical skills, but we really tend to underinvest in the attitudes and behaviors that I think are the secret sauce of success.”
Toni Jaeger-Fine, Fordham Law School (NY)
Another foundational stage involved in the building of a professional persona is cultivating good habits, according to Ms. Jaeger-Fine.
“Building strong habits removes decision-making attached to activities or projects that you might not otherwise want to do, such as exercising. It also saves you time and energy. And best of all, these habits beget other habits,” she said.
Ms. Jaeger-Finealso spoke of the importance of emotional intelligence, and how fundamental these attributes are in delivering good leadership and retaining talent within an organization.
“Being a great leader heavily overlaps with the skills needed to have strong social and emotional intelligence,” which also helps to develop positive workplace patterns that can help stabilize the workforce within law firms.
Ms. Jaeger-Fine proceeded to describe the concept of self-management as a mindset based on growth, referencing a quote by Henry Ford: “I really want you to listen to this, whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
The comment, she explained, underscored the power of optimism: “It’s about how you view your failures and weaknesses, your failures and shortcomings. Do you view them as part of the normal course of life? Or do you view them as unique to you? How you view your past will define your own future growth. It’s about having resilience and grit.”
Let Go of Perfectionism
“Putting yourself in uncomfortable situations,” she explained, allows you to develop a reservoir of memories that can strengthen future resolve “when another sort of ‘unspeakably difficult task’ comes your way.”
Humility is also key to a successful professional persona. “Many think of humility as the absence of confidence. I don’t think that’s right.
“Humility, at its essence, is about deeply, truly believing that you could learn things from the most unexpected sources, whether it is the most junior person on the team, the secretary, the IT person, or the person who serves you coffee,” Ms. Jaeger-Fine opined. “I’ve had so many amazing conversations and have learned so much from an array of people, largely because we all have such different backgrounds and experiences.”
In concluding, Ms. Jaeger-Fine advised the audience to abandon the pursuit of perfectionism.
“When you make a mistake, realize that everyone makes mistakes. That’s part of the human condition for which you can’t take responsibility for,” she said. “Fix it to the extent you can put in place your procedures to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and move on.”
Video courtesy of Envato Elements / andrey3dp
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
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