Don’t try to change, reveal your true self!

At a time when careers are becoming less linear and the desire for personal fulfilment is increasingly pressing, executives can find their professional lives punctuated by periods of doubt. 

Many will experience moments where they crave new opportunities, a change of direction, even a renewed sense of meaning. There is certainly no shortage of guidelines for finding employment satisfaction – rather, the list is so long that it can be contradictory: one needs well-being and know-how, availability and flexibility, expertise and openness to innovation. Ultimately, these varying instructions fall far from their desired result: only 50% of France’s employees deem themselves satisfied professionally¹.

So even in a world that prizes immediacy above all else, taking the time to reflect on your career and self-development has become crucially important. Executives, moreover, should never stop considering their aspirations and ambitions. For 87% of employees, what matters most professionally is finding meaning in what one does. Still more interestingly, according to 85%, it is up to us to attribute that meaning to our work².

Aware of these broad changes and of the evolving expectations of employees, Sciences Po Executive Education also recognises the inherently personal nature of an individual’s professional trajectory. It is for this reason that the school is committed to offering much more than a set of educational programmes.

With its historical expertise in the training of executives and directors, and building on its roots in the humanities and social sciences, Sciences Po Executive Education has developed a series of programmes that act as a catalyst for sparking new opportunities. With the creative flair for which the school is known, its courses encourage student to think critically, challenge one another, assert themselves, expand their intellectual horizons and, in so doing, fulfil their potential… Or, to put it simply: reveal who they truly are!

For Sciences Po Executive Education, ‘revealing your true self’ is a two-step process in which you play the leading role.

Listen to yourself… and trust what you hear

Am I satisfied in my position? Is my work still meaningful? What do I need to thrive? Am I going in the right direction? How can I move forward? Where do I start if I do want to make changes? Am I ready to break out of a comfortable routine and plunge into the unknown? We have all had those moments of self-doubt: while out for a run, in the midst of a sleepless night, over the course of a business lunch, or upon returning from maternity leave or a sabbatical…

Which is why an executive programme can be the most logical solution for consolidating your professional profile, while giving yourself the time to reflect on next steps in your career. But how can a course support you in your search for meaning?

At Sciences Po Executive Education, we believe you’ve already covered the majority of the ground yourself: you have already reached a turning point. Now it is our turn to support you as you become “who you truly are”³. Before, during, and after your completion of the course, the teaching staff at Sciences Po Executive Education, its course managers and directors, will work alongside you to listen to your needs and guide you in your trajectory. 

Revealing your true self

‘Revelation’ signifies a moment of awareness, the sudden understanding of a fact that leaves a lasting trace⁴.

Aside from this unique opportunity for reflection on oneself and one’s career, the courses at Sciences Po Executive Education equip executives with tools that are far more than academic. The school’s pedagogic style and rootedness in the humanities and social sciences form a base to inspire and stimulate students. Its courses allow them the breathing space necessary to take a step back and regain professional perspective. The mission behind all this: helping executives to relearn how to learn and then seek out the place that is right for them.

This revelation is not purely a professional one; it is the promise of a powerful exchange, in which the legendary intellectual melting pot of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district, Sciences Po’s professors, researchers, alumni, and fellow students, together play the role of revealers. What happens outside of class is almost as important as what is taught inside. From course structure and content to learning expeditions, dissertations, and the diversity of participants: all this is put in place to give you the courage you need to reinvent yourself and reveal who you truly are.

Once in motion this revelation can take various forms. Whether it be helping you regain a sense of meaning day-to-day in your current profession, or guiding you as you launch yourself in a new direction entirely, we will hold our promise. Don’t try to change. Reveal your true self!

[1] “Baromètre National du Bonheur au Travail” produced by La Fabrique Spinoza, May 2017
^[2] “Sens au travail ou sens interdit. Un questionnement majeur pour les salaires”, study carried out in 2017 by Viadeo, in partnership with Deloitte
^[3] Simon Leys, essayist and literary critic: “University should be a place where a chance is given to people to become what they truly are”
^[4] Definition from the Larousse dictionary