RESHAPING YOUR PERSONA AND IMPROVING YOUR CHARACTER
We develop our character and persona over time without thinking about who we are becoming. Character traits are something learned from first influencers, parents, and teachers. We develop our persona as we grow and present ourselves to the public. We seldom realize that these traits are what lead us to do what we do and how we do it. Often we settle into patterns and do not reflect on them. For example, you may have been at your last job for a number of years, and after two promotions, your interest waned and going to work each day became a chore. It seemed that your head was somewhere else, but you could not determine why. Then one day you were laid off in a massive company reorg, and you asked, “What am I going to do now? My last job put bread on the table and gave me status and respectability, but I did not like it, and it never felt like the right fit. There has to be a better way.”
Being fired or laid off is traumatic, but it does have benefits, two of which are:
1. It opens the door to reviewing and possibly reshaping your persona.
2. It provides an opportunity to learn who you really are by examining your character.
RESHAPING YOUR PERSONA
The word persona derives from the Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. In theatrical terms, it is an assumed personality. In today’s world, it refers to that part of your personality exposed to the public. It is the apparent you that people see, and it may be different from your character, the real you. It is you who created your persona, either consciously or subconsciously, and it may have resulted in your being a dynamic leader or a loyal follower.
People in the public eye such as company presidents or CEOs, TV personalities, actors, and politicians frequently assume a certain persona that appeals to their target audience. Take politicians, for example. They want to be viewed by constituents as caring for their welfare and the needs of the country as a whole, but sometimes their character flaws are revealed and they fall from grace. The disconnect between the two, once it has emerged into the public view, can lead to the politician’s being perceived as unreliable and dishonest.
Persona is equally important in the private sector. Let’s review the persona of a well-known deceased CEO, Steve Jobs, cofounder and CEO of Apple Computer. When I worked with Apple in its early days, Steve’s persona was that of the good, kind, caring, and generous boss. However, behind his mask, Steve could be a ruthless guy, one who might greet you in the morning and say a polite “Good Morning” or look at you with fury in his eyes and say, “You’re fired!” for no apparent reason. Nobody quite knew who Steve really was, and for that reason many workers left Apple or declined offers to work there.
Bring this to a more personal level and look at your persona in the workplace. Focus on the role you played in your last job, the one that disappeared one day when you were least expecting it. If you were in a leadership position (i.e., the boss), what was your persona? Was it in conflict with the real you? Did you think of yourself as the good, compassionate, helpful, caring boss dedicated to making the company great? Did you assume this persona, this mask, to hide your real motivation: to oust your boss and move up in rank and compensation? Could it have been the reason why you were let go from your job as regional sales manager in a staged “reorganization” while your friend Mary, another regional sales manager, was kept on the payroll? Only you can answer that after a private, honest meeting with yourself.
Before making the big move toward serious job hunting, discover who you really are. Were you the one who used every chance to derail your boss while playing Mister Good Guy? If your introspection reveals a difference between your persona and the real you, take measures to make these two competing entities one and the same. How do you begin? With honesty. If you have any doubts about how you are seen, ask your former boss and coworkers what they thought of you, no holds barred.
IMPROVING YOUR CHARACTER
Character can be defined as the aggregate of traits and features that form and identify the real you. Your character is the set of values and sense of ethics that you hold dear. They determine not only what you might say, but also how you act.
This period of downtime affords an opportunity not only to see where you’ve been and where you want to go, but also to learn who you really are now that you can’t hide behind a corporate title or affiliation. Looking back, you might find that the real you became lost in the corporate culture or was disguised by a preoccupation with political correctness. In the course of your previous job, you may have forgotten what you truly think or how you feel. It’s time for a homecoming with yourself to find out who you really are.
To begin the process of rebuilding character, you need a foundation upon which everything else rests. I like best the foundation stones posited by Character Counts!, a nonprofit organization dedicated to character education. One of their constructs is the Six Pillars of Character, which act as the foundation for exploring character education and character building. These pillars are trustworthiness, fairness, respect, caring, citizenship, and responsibility. Review this material at www.charactercounts.org.
The next step is to determine who you truly want to be and how you can build character traits to fulfill your mission. For example, assume that your goal is to secure a leadership position in a management job where you can help your staff grow professionally by acquiring new skills and by working as a team. This mission requires you to develop character traits that include teaching and mentoring skills, learning how to assess an individual’s strengths and weaknesses, accepting total responsibility for your role in the company, and becoming a sympathetic listener.
The rebuilding process is not for the timid. The easiest path is to do nothing and just hope that something will happen in the future. Chose this path, and you will stay where you are now, the same old you who lost a job quite possibly because you did not have those character traits to be an effective leader or a loyal and productive follower.
MOVING FORWARD
Redefining your persona and improving your character will prepare you to move forward with confidence to the next phase of the rebuilding process, establishing objectives for the remainder of your career. It’s just ahead in the next chapter.
CHAPTER TAKEAWAYS
• Persona is the face you present to the public at large.
• Character is who you really are.
• Persona and character must work in harmony for growth in your new career.
PRINT AND DIGITAL RESOURCES
Brooks, David. The Road to Character. Random House, 2016.
Character Counts! www.charactercounts.org.