Status – What Does It Mean And What Does It Matter?
- Sep 1, 2022
- 3 min read
Written by: Emma Vincent, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Status is something I struggled with throughout my corporate career, to the point where I used to regularly fall out with my work colleagues as I would get fed up with people speaking to my title and not my ability, usually meaning they would treat me better than they would someone in my team.
Hopefully you have already read my musings on Success in my last BRAINZ article; if not you can read it here. In this article, I want to build on my theory that both Success and Status are most definitely inside jobs – if we choose for them to be! Let’s start with the definition of STATUS, so we are all speaking the same language here:
a: position or rank in relation to others b: relative rank in a hierarchy of prestige
the condition of a person or thing in the eyes of the law
state or condition with respect to circumstances (Miriam Webster.com)
It’s hard to even find the words to describe how that definition stirs emotion in me, but here is a bit of a brain dump at how it makes me feel: It makes me recoil and to go back to the emotion of not being enough, of having to compare myself to those “further up the org chart” than me. Which in turn, meant I was sometimes(a lot of the time), obsessing about chasing or repelling the “next label” to give me the “status” that I thought would take the not enough-ness away. But, after many years of living in a super hierarchal world I can vividly remember the moment when I woke up and saw this STATUS thing as a social construct that could be changed, in my own mind at least, through simply choosing to see it differently and I started to behave according to my own definition.
I was out visiting one of my many teams and was scheduled to do a “back to the floor” exercise. In a four-hour shift with a true master of his craft he woke me up to the stories I had allowed myself to believe.
The way he approached and completed his work helped me to wake up to the fact that I could never do what he did, to the level he did, and when I said that to him, he reminded me that I could do things that he probably would be quite uncomfortable with – and that’s what made me realise that STATUS means absolutely nothing without skill, talent, and LOVE for what you do.
My ask of you, therefore, is to stop looking up and down the food chain and focus on where you are in the current moment – be the best possible version of you today, do what you do with the deepest of love and respect and I can guarantee the labels that are given to you as society makes you believe that your status has heightened will become less relevant,you will live a happier life; and miraculously the thing that you are no longer focussing on will come into your reach with flow and pleasure – and maybe like me as they come to you with ease you may truly wake up and realise they were never what you wanted in the first place!
All a societal norm waiting to be broken…
If you want to chat more about challenging the “STATUS” quo, then drop me a message and let’s talk – emma@emmavincent.com
Emma Vincent, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Emma is a life coach and business mentor. After enjoying 25 years of Senior Leadership roles in the corporate world she now works with women to create a wave of change for future generations. Defining their own interpretation of success and helping women to live their lives on their own terms and on purpose – making this the norm globally is Emma’s mission
