New title. Bigger office. Harder decisions.

And internally?

Am I actually this person?

As an executive coach, I see this moment all the time. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a first-time manager, someone stepping into the C-suite, or a woman considering whether she even wants the bigger role.

Identity doesn’t automatically catch up to opportunity.

In this episode, I sat down with Dr. Suzy Larson to talk about what she calls Professional Identity Formation — the process of learning to think, act, and eventually feel like the role you’ve stepped into.

And it often starts with a wobble.

For her, it was a simple doctor’s office form.

Occupation: __________

She paused.

For years she wrote “pharmacist.”

Now she was in academia.

Was she still one?

That tiny hesitation? That’s the moment.

Four Key Takeaways:

1. Identity lags behind growth.You don’t wake up confident just because someone handed you a title. You grow into it. Thinking, acting, and feeling like the role takes repetition and time.

2. Reflection turns chaos into clarity.Suzy shared a simple tool: What? So what? Now what?When something shakes you — a promotion, a failure, a pivot — pause. Meaning doesn’t form without reflection.

3. Who you are at home and who you are at work are not separate.I loved her DNA helix analogy. Your personal and professional identities twist together. You don’t leave yourself at the door — you refine yourself as you go.

4. Change the soundtrack.This one hit. Suzy is actively working to speak to herself the way she speaks to her daughters — with generosity instead of criticism. Identity isn’t just built by competence. It’s reinforced by the story you rehearse every day.

There’s a line she shared at the end that I haven’t stopped thinking about:

It’s okay to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress at the same time.

That might be the most accurate description of leadership I’ve ever heard.

You are already valuable.

And you are still becoming.

Both are true.

In this episode, we cover:

[00:02:15] What professional identity formation actually means[00:04:00] The identity wobble moment[00:06:30] Reflection as a development tool[00:08:15] The “What? So what? Now what?” model[00:14:15] Supporting someone in a transition[00:19:45] The DNA helix: personal + professional identity intertwined[00:23:45] Identity-based habits and Atomic Habits[00:28:30] Women, confidence, and shrinking[00:31:30] Anchoring identity in faith[00:39:15] “Masterpiece and work in progress”

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