Effects of Esteem and self Image in the workplace
Sociology
We live in a fault based society, a society in which we are thought from a young age, to seek out our imperfections, where we fall down, in order to improve.
As a teenagers, we attempt to copper fasten our own identities, differentiating from our parents. We become in these years, a mosaic of the influences around us.
Human nature is the need to survive, to be bigger and stronger than our nearest competition, we have a need to prove we can provide food, shelter and offspring to a prospective mate.
Until relatively recently, being a good, honest, hard working person, comfortable enough to provide a home and lay dinner on the table, was enough. Now however, we are faced with the unrealistic task of matching celebrity..
Image
We now, everywhere we turn, are faced with advertising, attempting to sell us the perfect life, perfect skin, perfect waist line we all crave so desperately.
Images of celebrities, both looking their best, or looking their worst, matched page for page with full colour, glossy images of what they say it takes, to look like you belong in the pages yourself and maybe, just maybe find the perfect mate.
The Effects
When we see photographs of celebrities, edited in Photoshop or not, we are faced (when they know they are being photographed) with images of Confident, Grounded people who are happy to be seen.
Yet, when we see photographs of ourselves. We are faced with something we do not recognize as the person in the mirror, we don’t see it as us. We see flaws.
So how does this effect our working life?
We all have a GAP. A difference in how we see ourselves and how the world sees us, a difference in who we feel we are, and who we feel the world expects us to be.
The Camera shines a spotlight on that Gap
In many ways, how we are in front of a camera, is how we are in life.
There are 4 Types of people.
Those who OWN IT!
They are confident, Grounded and happy to be seen.
People willing to take on challenges, push themselves to the next level, try new things and chase their goals, no matter how unobtainable they may seem.
People who accept disagreement, not fretting over their fallibility, who can articulate their views when challenged and remain calm, and collected in a crisis.
They are committed to their roles, following through to the end, they do not need approval or feel the need to be perfect.
Those who POSE!
They become something other than themselves, the joker, the person with all of the answers, even the ones that are wrong. The argumentative type. happy to spread gossip in order to draw attention.
They become agitated when challenged and often seek approval for their work.
Those who DIMINISH!
They become smaller than themselves.
The introverted quiet person, who likes to tick along at their own pace, never really contributing anything of too high risk or value for fear of being shot down.
The people who fear uncertainty, have higher levels of stress and berate themselves over mistakes, often searching for unobtainable levels of perfection.
These are the people with high instances of sick leave, unhappy in their roles who take a long time to recover from set backs and failures.
Those who AVOID!
They don’t want to be seen.
They don’t want to be in front of the camera, they don’t want to take on responsibility and take on roles below their capability. They seem completely without motivation and worry about speaking forward for fear of challenge or ridicule.
So what has any of this got to do with Headshots?
Growth. Changing focus, from surface to substance. Sharing what is truly important. Who we are and how we do, what we do. Giving everyone the chance to OWN their experience. Not just in front of the camera, but in life.
Looking at and understanding expression, over the tiny imperfections we and we alone see.
Your Image, Is your Brand, your identity.
How you walk in the skin you wear is your choice, why not embrace it. What other choice do you have?