What is whole identity development in the workplace?
Last week, I was hanging in a room on Clubhouse titled "The Great Resignation" and you know what everyone couldn't stop discussing?
Identity.
Seriously. Among all the statistics of how millions of people are quitting jobs, migrating, reshuffling, and realigning their values to find better work or work they love more, the conversation kept returning to:
finding yourself,
matching your work values with your purpose,
being the person you want to be,
and losing your sense of self when losing your job title...
Everyone kept coming back to identity!
When we lose our jobs, change our jobs, want a promotion, or are looking for new work, this is fundamentally a moment where we question who we are and who we want to become.
It's a moment of hybridization of our work self into something new or furthering our multiplicity, which are two different ways of growing in our career.
The identity economy is here, and it's a bigger deal than we realize.
As Esther Perel states in her podcast How's Work:
“The identity economy is where workers seek self-definition and fulfillment, help with their emotional and physical well-being, and a boost in their professional growth."
The three areas she outlines are major buckets that comprise employee satisfaction and a sense of purpose at work.
Perel's emphasis on the identity economy is no coincidence.
She's shedding light on it because employee engagement (especially at managerial and leadership levels) has been wildly fluctuating due to the impacts of the pandemic on worker well-being.
A Gallup story in July 2021 shows that employee engagement has remained steady after a decade of improvement (even with the COVID disruptions), but still only 36% of employees feel engaged at work:
Currently, 36% of U.S. employees are engaged in their work and workplace -- which matches Gallup's composite percentage of engaged employees in 2020. Globally, 20% of employees are engaged at work.
The percentage of actively disengaged employees is up slightly in the U.S., from 14% in 2020 to 15% through June 2021. Actively disengaged employees report miserable work experiences and are generally poorly managed.
The elements of engagement include clarity of expectations, opportunities for development and opinions counting at work.
It's time! Let's focus on whole identity development in the workplace to improve engagement
A recent Inc. article reflects the heart of the matter.
We can't focus on talent as mere assets. We must use an integrative, holistic approach to understanding the work and home sides of an individual.
As a professional identity researcher, I focus squarely on the complexity of multiple work identities one person may hold within their career.
However, the dimension of professional identity is embedded within a range of personal, social, and familial identities a person possesses. These are separate and united aspects of our self, which is what makes this a complex matter for research.
Whole identity development is a novel idea for the workforce because work/life separation is a myth.
As Perel explains, “Work becomes the place for community, belonging, meaning, purpose and growth—at least in a white-collar framework.”
Identity is a critical link in talent development, retention, and engagement. Yet, until now, it hasn't been a prominent topic in career development and job transition discussions. Why not?
When we repeatedly focus on upskilling, reskilling, unlearning, and hacking the "hidden job market" to get ahead, we lose sight of the who by attending to the what.
In reality, as we gain new or evolved career skills, talents, values and interests, it forces us to reconsider our self-concept.
Who we are is a driving force of what we do and why we do it.
The questions we need to start asking ourselves and those we manage or advise are:
Are you growing more in your singularity, multiplicity or hybridity of your professional identity? Why is that?
What types of roles best support your type of professional identity?
How are your professional and personal identities related?
What are your personal versus professional values in work? How are they similar and dissimilar?
What kind of work blends both value systems together to the degree you're seeking? What type of professional identity do you become when you achieve the blend you desire?
How might we create a job search process that connects your identity desires with the right role, instead of focusing on job titles?