Thursday, August 24, 2006

A cure for the professional identity crisis



Over a brasserie table littered with architects' drawings, Herminia Ibarra is fielding calls on her mobile. While the rest of Paris winds down for the summer, she is juggling wedding preparations with plans for repairing and moving into a new flat.

It will be a break from equally wide-ranging professional roles: research and teaching at Insead, where she is professor of organisational behaviour; conference appearances, including at this year's World Economic Forum; and advising companies on leadership, diversity and talent development.

But it is precisely this multiplicity - the skills, in­terests and experiences people use to build a sense of professional identity - that fascinates Prof Ibarra in her academic work. "I'm interested in what happens when you hit major transitions and how that calls into question your sense of who you are," she says.

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