Professional Identity (PI)

Lecture about professional identity 

Peoples’ concrete approach to their work and assignments, often reveals that the individual has not sufficiently reflected and considered whether, and to what extent, private values and qualities should be applied, protected, or addressed in the professional field.

Our studies and experiences also indicate that the employee does not always consider how they are influenced by their work, in their role/function at the workplace. In other words, whether their reactions and symptoms to working conditions/stressors are natural and normal, considering whether the individual believes it is a result of their lack of skills, abilities or whether they generally feel they fit in with the culture at the workplace.

The preventive measures in Professional Identity focus on increasing the employee’s ability to self-reflect, put things into perspective, detach from underlying psychological mechanisms when under pressure, etc. It is about developing and maintaining a metacognitive perspective (also known as a helicopter or drone perspective). 

In the transition between private life (when off work) and professional life (at work), the employee must develop an awareness (a functional border), that helps separate private influences from work-related influences. Work-life balance focuses on increasing awareness about the competition that has unfortunately arisen between work and private life – both domains contending for the individual’s resources and time.

With increased awareness about Professional Identity, the employee can better take care of themselves, establish boundaries, and thereby invest energy in the conditions in their (professional) life, that the person realistically and specifically is responsible for, and has influence over.

In the long run, this awareness will contribute to a working environment, with an increasing communal focus on strengthening one another, in such a way that the work environment supports both the employees and the problem-solving.

The lecture can be customised to be more or less interactive and with or without participant preparation and examination of participants’ apparent PI focus.

The lecture can be conducted at the end of a workday or during a personnel- or development day, where parts of the organisation, or the organisation as a whole, are gathered.