Do you tell a professionally credible story: to co-workers, colleagues, stakeholders, investors and clients?
Or, does the story you tell sound comfortably familiar and similar to the stories told by other professionals? Those with the same job titles, academic degrees, generation or levels of education. Stories told in their resumes and profiles. Through their professional behavior in meetings, at conferences and during social gatherings?
Is your story stereotypical or distinctive?
Many professions, particularly those in STEM and finance disciplines, have a required, mission-critical, often linear progression of specific qualifications and certifications to get these talented professionals to where they want to go. They get to the same place as everyone else: with the same, linear progression of earned and increasingly more difficult qualifications and certifications.
And then what happens? When you arrive at where you want to go, do you feel the same as everyone who already is there? How do you stand out and become more visible, relevant and valuable?
To get to where you need to go, your professionally credible story leverages your unique, purpose-driven differentiated value.
Most often, discovering your professional purpose is about uncovering the risks you take in building your professional story. Those being-in-the-moments scenarios, where no one asked you whether you wanted to be there, or not. I call these your One Millimeter Mindset™ Moments.
These risks, which represent your greatest professional opportunities, always seem to find you when you least expect them. What are yours?
For STEM professionals and left-brain thinkers like you and I, these risks and opportunities make us uncomfortable. After all, you and I are trained to always have the right answers. Yet, when we are in these moments, together, there is no immediate right answer. Often, we are faced with uncertain and ambiguous scenarios: situations we may never have encountered before.
As a result, One Millimeter Moments give us reason for Pause. And make us hesitate. Do we move one millimeter forward, and get out of our own way, professionally? Or, do we hold back, and hunker down into what remains comfortable?
Quite often, when you and I revisit your professional stories during my keynotes and workshops, you rediscover the small things you do, so effortlessly, yet dismiss as unimportant or insignificant. Yet, these purpose-driven characteristics are hard-wired into your professional DNA, and become the foundation of your professional story.
What professionally credible story do you have to tell? Because your co-workers, colleagues, investors, employers and clients await your distinct, relevant and valuable story.
- Planning your next team, corporate or association meeting? Engage me to present one of my Storytelling for STEM Professionals and Left Brain Thinkers speaking programs, workshops or moderated facilitation services. Contact me here.
- Download my new checklist and worksheet: Six Professional Development Targets to Hit each Month.
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Babette Ten Haken’s One Millimeter Mindset® Storytelling for STEM Professionals and Left Brain Thinkers Speaking Programs target purpose-driven professional success. Become more visible, relevant and valuable to your organization.
Find out more about Babette’s professional story here. Babette is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and the National Speakers Association. Her playbook of communication hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com. Babette’s speaker profile is on the espeakers platform. Contact Babette here.
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