Your career narrative is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal to inform and influence how others see you. Quite often, however, I encounter clients who either aren’t clear on what their narrative is or don’t feel like they are in control of it. In both cases, not having ownership of your career narrative can impact how others perceive and engage with you. This calls to mind the trite maxim, “perception is reality.” While reality is absolute, given that perception is subjective, you have the power to shape it through your storytelling. However, for it to become reality, your storytelling must be accompanied by evidence and action.
We have all experienced the co-worker who we believe is not very good at their job, yet somehow is well known by company leadership and always seems to advance ahead of those who produce better work. Whether we like it or not, these individuals have mastered their career narrative and have learned to bend reality to their desired perception. The challenge for the rest of us who do great work but aren’t the slickest salesperson is to shift perception to our reality.