41. What is your Hybrid Professional Identity? Meet Sarabeth Berk

Jan 31

Dr. Sarabeth Berk is the leading expert on hybrid professional identity, and a hybrid professional herself. She was featured in Forbes, and is a TEDx speaker, author of More Than My Title, and recipient of a Colorado Inno on Fire award for her innovative work. Her hybrid title is Creative Disruptor because she works at the intersection of being an artist, researcher, educator, and designer.

Through groundbreaking research, Sarabeth developed a one-of-a-kind approach that takes personal branding and career development to a whole new level. Today, she helps professionals discover and articulate their hybrid professional identity and unique value in the workforce. As a result, her clients feel more seen, empowered and confident, and teams recognize each other as more than their job titles, valuing the critical yet different roles of experts, generalists, and hybrids in the workforce.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

What is your professional identity? This is different from your job title!
There are three different types of worker identities:
- Singularity: Single professional identity
- Multiplicity: Having many different but separate professional identities
- Hybrid: Having intersections of different professional identities which form a new identity (as a result from reintegration via Debrowski’s positive disintegration)
Having a hybrid career personality is common in gifted people
It takes a bit of work to identify your primary set of identities vs. your non primary identities (secondary and tertiary identities)
Vann Diagrams help to visualize and understand the intersectionalities of your hybrid professional identity
You have the permission to have a hybrid professional identity!
We go through multiple cycles of (career) identities throughout our lives: Phases of explorations followed by achievements of a certain identity.
a/r/t (artist, researcher, teacher)
Hybridity is a choice and it is developmental.
Work is like a three legged stool:
- 1. Knowing your passion
- 2. Your purpose, why you do what you do
- 3. Your identity, who are you when you fallow your passion and purpose.
You need to make sense of yourself first! No one is going to make sense for you. Especially in the gifted space.
Prefixes:
- Intra discipline = single
- Cross and multi disciplinary = separate
- Inter (between) and trans (beyond) disciplinary = hybridity