In an interview on LinkedIn President Barack Obama suggested that people should worry more about what they want to do than who they want to be.

Interestingly this advice followed the one in which he shared the idea that his best advice for your people is to “get stuff done.” He described such a person as someone willing to step in and do the task at hand as well as become interested in what they do. He went on to explain that such a person is also someone who will get noticed.

That is also my experience.

The nuance that I believe he implied but didn’t highlight is that such a person decided who they want to be is a person who supports others and gets stuff done by being willing to step in when it is needed. It’s not someone who does things instead of others or for others, it is someone who does things with others.

Thus, this person did think about who they want to be, but the result wasn’t labeled with a role they want to have, a status they are seeking, or an objective they want to reach for themselves.

Who they want to be is described by an attitude these people embrace.