Ask a room of professionals in Accra what they do, and everyone will have an answer ready. “I’m a lawyer.” “I work in banking.” “I’m in HR.” “I do marketing.” The answers come quickly, and they are perfectly true.
Now ask a different question: what do you want to be known for? Watch the room go quiet.
Most of us can list what we do. Far fewer can say what we want our name to be attached to. That gap matters more than it seems, because a career built without a clear answer tends to produce a scattered reputation. Colleagues and clients like you, respect you, and still struggle to say what your particular strength is. When a good opportunity comes up, your name is not the first one that comes to mind, simply because nobody is quite sure what to call you for.
The Woman Everyone Calls for One Thing
Think of a communications consultant in Accra. Call her Abena. She is a composite of several professionals I have seen, not a real individual, but you will probably recognise her.
For years, Abena described her work as “PR and communications.” It sounded respectable and it brought in modest work, but she often lost pitches to bigger agencies that seemed to have more to offer. Then a friend, a banker, said something that stuck with her: “Whenever one of our executives is in trouble with the press, you’re the first person I think of. Why don’t you say that?”
She had never thought of it that way. Looking back over her years of work, the pattern was obvious. Her best results, the ones clients talked about, were all moments of pressure: a product recall, a leaked memo, a sudden headline on Joy News. She had a real gift for calm, clear communication when things went wrong.
Within two years, Abena was known as “the crisis communications person” for mid-sized Ghanaian companies. Her phone rang more, and her fees went up. She did not become better overnight. She simply became easier to describe, and so easier to recommend.
Why a Clear Answer Helps You
This is the part that feels counterintuitive. Many of us fear that choosing one thing means losing everything else. If I say I am a specialist in land title disputes, will I lose the family law clients? If I focus on one kind of audit, will the other work dry up?
In practice, the opposite tends to happen. Audiences, clients, and employers are quick to doubt anyone who claims to be excellent at everything. A professional who tries to be relevant to everybody often ends up memorable to nobody. Meanwhile, a clear and specific position gives people something to hold on to. It makes your name easy to pass along: “If it is a land title issue, call him.”
A clear position is also not a cage. Once people trust you for one thing, they usually start trusting you for adjacent things. It is far easier to expand outward from a recognised strength than to build recognition from a vague starting point.
Five Questions That Help You Find It
If you do not yet have a clear answer, do not panic. Most people have not been asked the question properly. These five prompts can help.
1. What do people keep coming to you for? Pay attention to the requests that reach you again and again. A colleague in a different department who always asks you to check their numbers. A friend who forwards you every contract before signing. The things people bring to you without being asked are often a better guide to your real strength than your job description.
2. What work still holds your attention after the novelty wears off? Everyone enjoys something at the start. The more telling question is what you are still willing to dig into on a difficult Thursday afternoon when nobody is watching.
3. What do your best results have in common? Look back over your proudest successes. Often there is a hidden thread: a type of problem, a type of client, a type of pressure. Abena found hers only by looking back.
4. What would a trusted colleague say? We are close to our own work, and what comes easily to us often feels ordinary, so we undervalue it. Ask two or three people you trust: “If someone needed help with something, what would you send them to me for?” Their answers may surprise you.
5. What problem could you take off someone else’s hands? Authority is ultimately judged by usefulness. People trust a professional not for what they know in the abstract, but for the specific difficulties they can reliably help solve. Name the problem, and you have the beginning of your position.
Turn It Into a Sentence
Once you have a few answers, try writing your position as one or two plain sentences. What do I do, for whom, and with what result?
“I help small and medium Ghanaian businesses protect their reputation when something goes wrong in the media.”
“I help first-time landlords in Accra avoid costly mistakes with their tenancy agreements.”
Do not expect to get it right on the first try. Say it out loud to a friend. If they look confused, or if it sounds too broad, adjust it. Test it against a few real conversations. A good position usually gets sharper over several rounds, and it will keep developing as you do.
You Are Not Choosing Forever
Some people hold back because the choice feels permanent. It is not. What you want to be known for at the start of your career will probably not be exactly what you want to be known for fifteen years later, and that is healthy. The point is not to lock yourself in. It is to give people something clear to remember you by right now, while you keep growing.
So take a quiet half hour this week, away from your phone. Ask yourself the question honestly: what do I want to be known for? Write down whatever comes, even if it is rough. The professionals who become trusted voices in their fields are almost always the ones who stopped and answered it.
This question is the starting point of the twelve-month plan at the end of my book, From Expertise to Influence: How Professionals Become Trusted Voices in Their Fields, available now at www.asarebediakoadams.com. You can also download free worksheets there to help you work through it.