Bootstrap Leadership Blog

How Do You Describe Yourself?

Steve Arneson - Thursday, April 26, 2012

We attended a party this weekend where we knew only about half the guests.  In the course of introducing ourselves to the other half, I found myself asking the common question – “what do you do?”  Which means, of course, what do you do for a living?  We’ve all asked and been asked this question hundreds of times, right?  And what do we usually hear, or say?

 

The fact is, if you meet people who work in mid to large organizations, they generally respond with their title or role.  Almost everyone I meet who is senior enough to have people reporting to them still answers this question with something like this:

           

I’m the SVP of Marketing for…

I work in Finance at…

I’m the head of IT at…

I run XYZ for…

 

I get it, of course – people identify with their title or role, and believe that’s the easiest way to help the listener “get” what they do.  But just once, I’d love to hear someone say a version of this:

 

I lead a team of people in the X department at…

I’m responsible for leading a team at…

I have the privilege of managing a team of people for…

I’m the leader of…

 

Feels different, don’t you think?  Wouldn’t that response likely prompt another question from your new friend?  Here’s a suggestion - the next time you’re asked: “what do you do?” (assuming you do in fact lead others at work), try out a new way of answering that clearly stamps you as a leader.  Make your job sound bigger than just your own role or title (because it is!).  Bring your team into the answer, and see where the conversation goes from there…


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