What’s Your ARCHETYPE? (ep.183)

What’s your archetype? Knowing your archetype can help you control your narrative, provide you with focus, and boost your confidence. Take the Archetypes Quiz at www.talkabouttalk.com/archetypesquiz. Archetypes are shared, universal patterns that help us understand characters, stories, and even ourselves.  

 

12 PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY ARCHETYPES

 

1. CAREGIVER – maternal, comforting, trusted, generous 
2. CREATOR – artist, designer, maker, vibrant 
3. CITIZEN – girl/guy next door, hardworking, friendly, down-to-earth, loyal 
4. EXPLORER – adventurous, innovative, pioneer, investigator, trailblazer
5. HERO – disciplined, inspiring, strong/brave, warrior, champion 
6. OPTIMIST – kind, simple, innocent, pure 
7. JESTER – humorous, comedic, entertainer, playful, light-hearted 
8. IMPASSIONED – focused on senses, relationships, inclusive, passionate, devoted 
9. MAGICIAN – transformer, dreamer, visionary, spiritual guide. 
10. REVOLUTIONARY– radically distinct, bold, rebel, unapologetic 
11. RULER– authoritative, influential, political, sophisticated, ambitious
12. SAGE – learner, teacher, academic, analytical, wise. 

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

This might be one of the shortest and most impactful podcast episodes you’ve heard in a long time.  I hope so!

 

Of all the topics I coach people on and that I speak about, I’d say Personal Branding, and helping people articulate or narrate their unique brand makes the biggest impact. Typically I run my coaching clients through several exercises to help them identify their unique brand, including but not limited to: seeking input from others, taking personality tests, creating your personal Venn diagram, running through mental exercises, reviewing formal work feedback and evaluations, completing worksheets that I assign, and lots more. 

 

And of all these personal branding exercises, identifying their archetype is the one that they often tell me is the most helpful.

 

So I thought I’d spend an episode coaching YOU on how to identify your unique professional identity archetype, and what to do with it to help you be your happiest and most successful self. Sound good?

 

Welcome to talk about talk podcast episode 183: what’s my archetype. In case we haven’t met my name is Dr. Andrea Wojnicki. Please just call me Andrea. I’m an executive communication coach at talk about talk where I coach ambitious executives like you to communicate with confidence and establish credibility so they can achieve their career goals. The topics I cover are all focussed on communication, including things like overcoming imposter syndrome, becoming a great storyteller, listening like a leader, nailing your formal presentation, establishing executive presence, and establishing your unique personal brand.

 

You can learn from me through private one on one coaching, corporate workshops and keynote speeches, the boot camps that I lead, the archive of this podcast, and through my email newsletter. If you go to talk about talk.com you can sign up for the newsletter there. It’s like getting free coaching from me every two weeks.

 

While you’re there on the talkabouttalk.com website, I encourage you to take the archetypes quiz. That’s the topic of this weeks episode. I’m going to help you identify which of the 12 professional identity archetypes resonates most with you and what you can do with this insight. Just go to talkabouttalk.com/archetypesquiz.

 

OK – By the end of this episode: You’ll understand the power of identifying your professional identity archetype and how you can use your archetype to accelerate your career trajectory.

 

Here’s how this episode will go: 

 

First I’m going to define archetypes for you. Give you the archetypes 101 lecture.  Don’t worry – it’s brief. Then, I’ll share a list of 12 professional identity archetypes.  Your challenge is to identify which 1-2 of these archetypes resonate for you. I encourage you to do this both qualitatively – by listening to my descriptions and thinking about which 1-2 resonate with you.  Then also by taking the archetypes quiz at talkabouttak.com/archetypesquiz. This quiz is kind of like a personality test. It will help you validate which archetype resonates for you.

 

So Let’s start with this.

 

What are archetypes?

Simply put: ARCHETYPES are UNIVERSAL PATTERNS. Got that? Universal patterns. Universal as in broadly understood – by many or most – as well as universal as in over time.

 

Many archetype researchers highlight that archetypes, these universal patterns, have been around since stories were told. Think Athenian philosopher Plato, way back in 400 B.C.  Think mythology.

 

If you consider the etymology of the term archetype, there’s ἀρχή archḗ, which means “beginning or origin”,[4] as in the word archaic.  And then there’s type or τύπος týpos, as in pattern or model.

 

More recently, just 100 or so years ago, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung talked about how archetypes relate to our collective unconscious.  (An aside. Carl Jung also developed several other important psychological concepts such as the persona and such as extraversion and introversion. You know, at the end of every Talk About Talk podcast interview, when you hear me ask the guest expert “are you an introvert or an extravert?” Well, that’s Carl Jung too. Anyway, I digress.  But hat tip to Carl Jung.)  

 

So Carl Jung is the scholar who established that archetypes are innate representations that universally exist in our minds. These archetypes, or universal patterns, typically come in the form of two things: characters and/or stories. And these universal patterns are commonly adopted by fiction writers, as a means to help us as readers or audiences members to make sense of the story.

 

Many of the papers you’ll find about archetypes identify 12 common archetypes.

So why should we identify our archetype? 

 

Based on my experience coaching thousands of executives, I can tell you that this can be a powerful exercise. First of all, people love being diagnosed.  Who doesn’t love copleting a personality test, then reading the results and thinking, WOW.  That’s me. To a T.  We feel seen, recognized. That’s a good thing.  But there’s more to this. 

 

Understanding your archetype can help you create your narrative- you can adopt the words and phrases associated with your archetype to describe your leadership style, your personality, your values. And you can do so knowing that this description, this archetype, will make sense to others.  Based on all the research on archetypes, we know this is a universal pattern. It’s not that you’re walking up to people and explicitly declaring: “I am a Magician and a Sage!” But rather, you reference your strengths and passions in these terms/ So Archetypes can help you clarify your narrative.  

 

They can also provide you with focus and direction. It’s not that you won’t evolve or grow, but chances are the themes associated with your archetype will describe your strengths, perhaps things you could focus on and succeed.

 

And last, people tell me that knowing their archetype provided them with a confidence boost!

 

Now, let’s get into this. Which archetype resonates for you? 

We’re not all Heroes, are we?  I know I’m certainly not a hero.  But I do know which archetype resonates with me.  Do you know yours?

 

Before I read you the list, I want to share something important with you. For our purposes, I substituted several of the archetype labels to make them more relevant for this professional context. There are some words that, even if they accurately define us, are less suitable for our career context, I mean,.. Imagine being on a job interview and telling the interviewer that you are a “Lover.” Or “Innocent,” or even a “Rebel.” So I changed a few of the labels, without changing the main idea.:  

 

“Lover” became “Impassioned”

“Innocent” became “Optimist”

“Rebel” became “Revolutionary”

 

The main theme for each of these remains the same.  Just the labels changed, to make them more relevant for our professional, career context. 

OK – To make this easier for you, there’s a list in the shownotes that briefly describes each of these 12 archetypes.  Whether youre watching on Youtube, or listening on Spotify or Apple or wherever, just click on the shownotes and you’ll see the list there.

Now I’m going to briefly take you through 12 of the most common archetypes.  And I have a challenge for you.  Listen to the descriptions and think about the extent to which each archetype resonates.  

 

Are you ready?  OK- here’s the list – in alphabetical order: 

1. Caregiver
2. Citizen
3. Creator
4. Explorer
5. Hero
6. Impassioned
7. Jester
8. Magician
9. Optimist
10. Revolutionary
11. Ruler
12. Sage

 

Im going to read that list again, this time with a brief summary of how you might show up at work if this archetype resonates for you.  In your mind, for each of the 12, I encourage you to decide which of three categories it belongs.  It could be:

 

• YES!  That’s me.
• Or SORT OF – that describes me sometimes
• Or NO – that’s not me.  I know those people, I respect those people, but that’s not me.

 

SO YES, Sort of, Or No.  Again, in alphabetical order:

 

1. CAREGIVER – maternal, comforting, trusted, and generous.  I’ve met plenty of physicians and consultants who are caregivers. Certainly, you do not need to be in a vocation where you are literally caring for people to be a caregiver archetype. But it’s true that sometimes our personality can draw us to a particular career. Ask yourself. Compared to others, are you a caregiver? Yes, sort of or no? next.
2. CREATOR – think inventor, artist, designer inventive, unique, maker, and vibrant.  If creativity and expression is your default, you might be a creator. Yes, sort of, or no.  Are you a creator?
3. CITIZEN – girl/guy next door, hardworking, friendly, down-to-earth, and loyal. Whenever I think of the citizen archetype, I always think of Michelle Obama. Think of the person that everyone wants on their team. Is this you? Yes, sort of, or no.
4. EXPLORER – adventurous, innovative, pioneer, investigator, trailblazer, the adventurer. I remember a CEO I coached a few years ago who was definitely an explorer. In every one of his positions over the last 15 years he had pioneer ednew categories, or created new products. He was a trailblazer. What about you? Are you an explorer? Yes, sort of, or no.
5. HERO – disciplined, inspiring, strong/brave, warrior, champion. Hero’s an interesting one. We’d all love to be called a hero, right? But there’s a specific definition here. Are you a warrior, making sacrifices on behalf of a cause? Think about people like Malala or Nelson Mandela. Are you a warrior too? A hero? Yes, sort of, or no.
6. OPTIMIST – kind, simple, pure.  You smile a lot. You bring positive energy to meetings and your optimism is contagious.  Is this you? Yes, sort of, or no.  
7. JESTER – humorous, comedic, an entertainer, playful and light-hearted.  I remember coaching one women who had just received a big promotion to chief of staff at her large global organization.  When we were talking about archetypes, she said “Im probably a jester, but I hide that at work.  It’s not appropriate.”  “HANG ON A SEC!” I said. Didn’t you just get promoted?  Doesn’t your booss know about your sense of humor?  Of course you dongt tell inappropriate jokes.  But having a sense of humour is a strength. You are the one who brings leveity to intenseor dire converstaions.  You know what? She felt so relieved.  I could tell by the look on her face.  And awhile later I got an email from her, saying this had changed everyting for her. She was happier and more successful that she’d ever been, mostly because she was being herself, including being the Jesterr. So are you a jester? Yes, sort of, or no?
8. IMPASSIONED – focused on sense, relationships, memories, and inclusivity. I’ve noticed in my coaching practice that several senior HR executives resonate with this archetype. It’s not surprising. What about you? Yes, sort of or no.
9. MAGICIAN – transformer, dreamer, visionary, an inventor, or even a spiritual guide. Don’t let the word spiritual scare you away. You might be a magician if you are focussed on change and impact. Is this you? Yes, sort of, or no.
10. REVOLUTIONARY– radically distinct, bold, revolutionary, and unapologetic. Whenever I think about this revolutionary archetype. I remember a CEO I coached a few years ago who told me that he purposely wore a black motorcycle jacket to work on his first day. He wanted to reinforce his reputation as a rebel. Are you a revolutionary? Yes, sort of, or no.
11. RULER– authoritative, influential, political, connected, sophisticated, ambitious. I can think of a few friends who are incredibly successful and who are senior leaders who are rulers. I remember during Covid I was running online personal branding workshops with female executives all over the world. When we got to the ruler, archetype one woman raised her hand and said in her beautiful deep voice, I believe I am a ruler! We all laughed. Yes of course she’s a ruler, it’s amazing when you read a description and you know it’s you.
12. SAGE – learner, teacher, academic, analytical and wise. I think I have been a Sage since I was a young kid.  Whenerever we were playing “house” (like who’s the mom, who’s the dad, who’s the baby? Who’s the dog? ,I would say “I want to be the teacher.” What about you? Are you a sage? Yes, sort of, or no.

 

That’s it! Just 12. Sure, its just 12, but I know it’s a lot. That’s why included the list for you in the shownotes.

 

I mentioned that I’m a Sage.  Actually, I’m a combination of Sage and Magician. So Sage as in the learner, the teacher, the academic.  Yep. That’s me.  Also known as a nerd.

 

I’m also a Magician.  .  I hope to help you transform into a confident, exceptional communicator. My best day at work is when someone tells me that I helped them improve or transform.

 

How you should feel when you’ve effectively identified your 1 or two archetypes: 

excited, satisfied,… 

Stories should come easy to illustrate you in your role as this archetype

This is your happy place.

Benefits of identifying your archetype

Help you create your narrative- you can adopt the words and phrases associated with your archetype to describe your leadership style, your personality, your values.

Provide you with focus and direction

Boost your confidence!

 

Last, I want to share three important things to keep in mind:

 

There is no hierarchy of archetypes. No one archetype is better than another. The Hero is no better than the Optimist.  And the Sage is no better than the Caregiver. The true power here, lies in identifying which 1-2 archetypes truly, deeply resonate with you and your true essence.  Your purpose.  Your default.  Your essence.

 

Your goal is to identify which 1 or 2 archetypes resonate for you. No more than two! I used to think identifying your one archetype was the goal.  But witnessed for many clients the powerful identity that can come from the unique intersection of two archetypes (like for me, Magician and Sage). If you narrow it down to 3, then I challenge you to identify which one is primary and which two are secondary. In other words, three primary archetypes is too many. Your goal is to identify your top one or two archetypes.

 

yes your archetype can change.  I’ve had a few meaningful conversations about this. First with UofT professor Maja Djikic, whom I interviewed in episode 157.  Then more recently with Harvard Professor Jerry Zaltman, who shared his concern with me of pigeon holing people. Yes, we evolve as humans.  We have chapters or seasons in our lives, when particular archetypes might be more resonant. Your archetypes can change. 

Got that? So there is noo hierarchy of archetypes. Theyre all good. Your goal is to id 1 or 2 – not more than two archetypes that resonate for you. And yes, your archetype can change.

 

I should mention 1 more thing. I touched on this briefly when I was describing the 12 archetypes. Sometimes, people with a particular archetype might be drawn to a particular vocation. Like say caregivers might be drawn to nursing.  That’s an obvious example. But you get the idea. But don’t take this to mean you have to conform to succeed.  In fact, being unique can be part of your strength. Some of the most successful people in a certain vocation are successful because of something that makes them stand out relative to their peers.

 

And that’s the main point of this episode.  Identifying your unique strength can make you more successful and more satisfied than ever.  Identifying your archetype can help you get there.

 

Take the quiz. 

It’s at TAT.com/archetypes quiz.

 

Please email me and let me know which archetype resonates for you.  And also what you thought about this podcast. I love hearing from you! You can connect with me through the TalkAboutTalk.com website, or you can connect with me on Linkedin and message me there.

 

Thanks for listening.  And TALK SOON!

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