How to Rebuild Your Professional Identity

When you’ve spent too long being overlooked, You start to question your own value even if nothing about your skills has changed. I’ve seen this over and over. Engineers who were passed over for promotions. Talked over in meetings. Assigned busywork instead of real ownership. Eventually, it wears on you. Not because you weren’t good, but because the environment convinced you to doubt it. Here’s how I help clients start to rebuild: 1. Separate the environment from your identity. You weren’t the problem, the system was. Bad leadership can cloud your confidence. Step one is naming that. 2. your receipts. Make a list of things you've built, solved, improved, or led. Read it out loud. Remind yourself that your impact didn’t disappear, you just stopped hearing it. 3. Talk to people who’ve seen you at your best. Old teammates, former managers, mentors. Borrow belief from those who saw you clearly when you forgot how to. 4. Don’t wait to “feel ready” before you re-engage. Confidence doesn’t come before you take action, it comes from it. Start small, but start. 5. Choose your next space wisely. Healing confidence isn’t just internal. Put yourself in a room that actually sees you. That reflects back the version of you you’re working to reclaim. Your skills didn’t vanish. Your voice didn’t lose power. You’re not starting over. You’re just rising back into your full capacity. And this time, you’re not shrinking to fit.

A layoff can make an identity shift feel even more challenging for leaders. However, it’s also a powerful opportunity for growth. Here’s a step-by-step exercise I recommend for gaining clarity and strengthening your leadership identity: 1/ List Your Leadership Roles. ↳ Write down how others see you as a leader – your titles, responsibilities, and achievements. 2/ Let It All Go. ↳ Imagine that these roles no longer define you. What remains? How do you feel without them? 3/ Explore Beyond Leadership. ↳ Reflect on your passions, personal values, and what drives you outside of work – the parts of you untouched by titles and expectations. 4/ Rebuild Your Identity. ↳ Embrace a fresh perspective. Start small, but grow it steadily each day. By embracing your unique identity, you become layoff-proof. No setback – whether a layoff, personal challenge, or leadership change – can fully define you. You are a leader who has cultivated depth, resilience, and versatility. When you rise like a Phoenix, it’s not just about facing change—it’s about thriving, embracing abundance, and uncovering the strength that has always been within you. What part of your leadership identity makes you resilient in the face of change? How can you strengthen this to become even more layoff-proof?

Lately, my feed has been full of green banners. Every week, people reach out—former colleagues, friends of friends, folks I’ve never even met. All asking the same thing: “How do I tell my story in a way that actually gets attention?” Not just attention. Traction. Because a résumé doesn’t always cut it. A list of job titles can’t explain how you’ve grown. And in a market like this, where qualified people are getting ghosted, the only way to stand out is to show how you’ve changed. That’s why I use the C.O.R.E. Framework when helping others rewrite their narrative. At the center of every great story is change. This helps you tell yours with more clarity, confidence, and connection. ⸻ 🖼 Context What did life look like before the shift? What were you focused on? What did success mean to you back then? 💥 Obstacle What disrupted that world? A layoff. A restructure. Burnout. This is the moment that forced you to rethink your path. 🧗 Rebuild What did you do next? The messy middle. The experiments. The reflection. This is where the growth lives—and where most people give up. 🌱 Emerge What did you learn? What changed in you? And how does that change make you more valuable now? Here’s a quick example: Context: I was leading an L&D team focused on completions and compliance. Training was seen as a checkbox, not a business driver. Obstacle: A company reorg forced us to tie learning to performance outcomes. Our usual metrics didn’t hold up anymore. Rebuild: I shifted gears—interviewed stakeholders, aligned programs to behavioral goals, and embedded learning into the flow of work. Emerge: Now, I approach learning as a lever for change, not just knowledge transfer. That mindset shift transformed how I lead—and how I deliver results. You don’t need a perfect résumé. You need a clear story. One that starts with change, and ends with purpose. #CareerStorytelling #Reinvention #JobSearchStrategy #ProfessionalBranding #OpenToWork #LearningDesign #CareerGrowth