Developing skills for your future as well as for today
How will your job be different five years from now? Indeed, will your job even exist in its present form in five years, or in 10 or even 20 years time? And over this time, what will happen to the company and industry you work for?
We really don't know what the future holds. What we do know for certain is that change is a constant in the workplace. This means that what we are doing now will be different in the future.
How can you predict and prepare for this workplace of the future? What should you be doing now to make sure you don't find yourself facing a dead end in your career?
This article gives you some strategies you can begin pursuing now. They will help you keep your skills current and your opportunities open. Pick and choose from among them to build your unique Future Proofing Kit. And remember, as your own circumstances change, your kit may need to adapt as well. Refer back to this list often and take inventory of what you should be doing either differently from, or in addition to, what you are doing now.
Future Proofing Kit
Find an "Academy" company. If you're early in your career, get a job at a company renowned in its industry for developing its people (traditional examples are GE, Toyota and Mars.) When you work for this kind of company, you are enrolled in a continuous development program that goes well beyond the technical skills you need for your current role. This forms a great foundation for a successful career.
Get and remain tech-savvy. Much of the change we see has to do with new technology. We keep finding faster and leaner ways to do things. Force yourself to keep your technical skills current, even if new developments don't seem directly related to your current job. Otherwise, you'll get left behind and may have to catch up a huge amount before you can head off in a new direction in the future. If that means learning the newest online tools like blogging and web conferencing, do it. If you're in a highly technical field of work, be proactive and stay current - even when your company does not.
Develop your competencies, skills and experience. Along with technical skills, it is critically important to continue your professional development, so that you remain in demand in the marketplace. You need to develop the transferable skills that are universally sought by employers. Leadership, communication, innovation, stress management and interpersonal skills are all fundamental requirements of the jobs of today and tomorrow. Here are some ways to do this:
Choose two competencies or skills to improve each year. Monitor and track your progress.
Develop a five year learning plan to acquire the knowledge and education you need.
Develop cross-functional skills. Beyond a certain stage in your career and in uncertain environments, specialization is no longer the route of choice. It can pay off for some; however, it has high risk of obsolescence attached.
And yes, consider joining our Career Excellence Club to learn these skills.
Your specific technical skills may get out of date. That's why you see nurses with business skills and technology experts with financial experience. A broad range of competencies, skills and abilities can help you secure a new job or may even open the door to working in a new industry.
To maximize your chances of success, use the tips found in the Personal Goal Setting article to help you set development goals effectively, and if you have our Personal Development Plan Workbook, make sure you use it to plan your skills development.
"Think global." In many industries, geographical barriers to business are getting less and less relevant. Your co-workers, clients and stakeholders now and in the future can be from anywhere in the world. You need to acquire the ability to work within the international marketplace by:
Learning about working with diverse cultures.
Asking for assignments that require international exposure.
Learning another language.
The more experience you get, the more confidence you will have when working in the global marketplace. This will make you much more attractive to employers in the future.
Create and maintain a success journal. The time to start thinking about your accomplishments and skills is not when you are looking for a new job. You need to be proactive and take continuous inventory of what you do really well, the accolades you have been given and the noteworthy results you've been responsible for. Employers want to know what you will do for them. When you have a ready list of things you have done, it is much easier to recall your most relevant achievements and skills.
Track your duties, projects and results.
Keep a list of professional development activities you've participated in.
List the training you've completed.
Note your volunteer work.
File your performance reviews and the written letters and emails you receive that note your performance.
Use this success journal to track your strengths and successes and also to affirm your wonderful qualities as well. All of us need to boost our confidence and self esteem from time to time. Having a list of objective strengths and accomplishments can do a lot to improve your motivation and belief in your abilities.
Build and maintain a professional network. Make sure that you develop good relationships with people both within and outside your organization. These people will be invaluable as the landscape of work changes. They can bring you along with them as they weather changes, and can provide opportunities when your current position looks uncertain. When you add a mentor or two to your network, you have the added bonus of learning new skills, technologies and strategies that will help you move your career in the direction you want.
Collect business cards.
Keep track of former bosses and colleagues.
Join professional networking associations.
Participate in a wide range of activities and build relationships beyond your current career or industry.
Scan the environment. Be aware of changes and trends in the economy, your profession and the industry you are in. No one can accurately predict the future; however stay ahead of the crowd by keeping yourself informed, and choosing to work in industries - and for employers - that have long-term sustainability.
Keep track of business trends by reading a good newspaper and the industry press.
Complete a PEST analysis for your industry and others you are interested in.
Analyze the attractiveness of your company using Porter's Five Forces and USP Analysis.
Back your hunches and analysis with action. If you think your company or industry is in trouble, it's best to get out while the going's good!
Overall, avoid industries and companies that are on a downward slide. Being an expert in a dying field may provide a niche strategy into the medium term; however, you will eventually have to leave. It is better to prepare now.
Keep a clear career path open. You may be fortunate enough to be in an organization where there's a clear and attractive career path ahead of you. For many, this will not be the case.
This may not be a problem if you're in a fast growth industry - if you're good at what you do, opportunities will most-likely appear with alarming regularity. However if you're in a slow growth industry or are one in decline, then this is a problem: There may be no onward path, and development may be blocked, however hard you work. This will lead to frustration, boredom and, in the long term, failure to achieve your potential.
This is where you need to review your options and take action to unblock your career, even if it means a job- or career-change. See our article on Career Planning to find out how to do this.
Develop resilience. Because the future is uncertain, you will probably encounter setbacks no matter how much you prepare and plan. People who will be successful are those with the ability to bounce back and consider such setbacks as learning experiences.
Evaluate and affirm your strengths on a regular basis.
Develop realistic and achievable goals, monitor your progress and identify what is holding you back.
Build your flexibility and maintain your enthusiasm despite what is happening around you.
To learn more about resiliency, listen to the Expert Interview with Cal Crow.
All of these techniques can be very useful as you begin to plan and prepare for your future. And they all have in common the elements of risk management and career planning. You need to become good at both to secure your future career.
Key Points:
While your job description may not be relevant in the future, you can ensure the skills you bring to the table are. With some forethought and planning, you can take control of your future career today. The key is not so much in how skilled you are at predicting what will happen, it is in how attuned you are to the early indications of change.
When you realize that change is constant and you are constantly planning so you stay ahead of the game, you will find yourself in a great position to recognize and capitalize on the opportunities that present themselves.
Job Crafting
Shaping your job to fit you better
Have you ever noticed something like this going on at work? It's now about six months since the arrival of a new Program Office Administrator, and the focus of the job has changed subtly.
The previous post-holder, Rebecca, did a great job, using her competence in finance to develop new procedures for checking the monthly financial reports for all of the projects in the program. Her successor, Stephen, however, has a particular flair for graphic design. He's now enhancing the different progress reports to make key information stand out more effectively. Overall, though, they've both been really good performers, making a big contribution to the efficiency and organization of the team.
So, what's going on? The answer is that both Rebecca and Stephen have been using the concept of job crafting. The idea here is that many jobs are actually quite flexible, meaning that their focus can be adjusted to fit the skills and preferences of the current job-holder. By subtly redesigning your job like this, you can play to your strengths, improving both satisfaction and performance. You shift the emphasis of the job towards things that you can do really well, and away from those where your performance is likely to be weaker.
Job crafting may seem like a simple idea, but what makes it a really powerful tool is that it allows you to increase the control you have over your own professional life, while "wowing" your employer at the same time. Practically any job can be crafted, at least to some extent, and you can start whenever you want, without necessarily consulting managers or having to wait for their approval.
How to start crafting your job today
To "craft your job", follow these steps:
Decide what you want to change.
Evaluate how the change will impact you and your work environment.
Act to put positive change in place.
Check on progress, adjust and continue.
Let's look at each of these steps in more detail.
Step 1: Decide what you want to change by crafting your job
You can make changes in one or more of the following areas to craft the way you work, so that it's closer to your "ideal" job.
Task content: This involves improving the way that things are done, using skills that you already have; or using your knowledge to change working methods, so that you can generate better results. The ways that that Rebecca and Stephen crafted their work as Program Office Administrators fell into this category.
In short, it's about creating opportunities to play to your strengths. (If you're not sure what your strengths are, use the Reflected Best Self™ exercise to explore them.)
Relationships: Here, you might look for ways to have more satisfying interactions with other people during the course of your work each day. In our example, Stephen might volunteer to mentor new hires.
Purpose: You can also redefine your existing work to reflect what you see as being the real impact of what you do at work. For example, a programmer working in the IT department of an airline could reframe his or her work from "writing code" to "helping people enjoy trouble-free travel". For more on this, read our article on Creating Job Satisfaction.
Note: Crafting job purpose doesn't involve any actual changes in the content of your work, and while this can certainly add to your enjoyment of your work, it won't help you to expand your skills or affect your output greatly. So look for things you could change in the first two categories to get the most out of job crafting.
Step 2: Evaluate how crafting your job will impact you and your environment
Next, you need to assess the potential impact of these possible changes on your wider work environment. Here, you should take into account your clients, your colleagues, your supervisor or manager, and the organization as a whole.
Remember that effective job crafting usually depends on finding a win-win solution. For example, you may have significant experience in using your organization's internal accounting system. You could volunteer to train new-hires on the system, or provide updates on system changes for your colleagues. What you get out this could be simple enjoyment because you enjoy teaching people things, or a boost to your own self-esteem, or more interaction with people from other departments. What your organization gets from this is a better-trained, more effective workforce.
Avoid any temptation to turn a job crafting exercise into a win-lose situation. For example, if you dislike having meetings with your supervisor, you might be tempted to craft your job so that you spend more time in the test lab, where she's less likely to find you! You might achieve your short-term goal of avoiding these meetings, but the overall impact may well be negative.
So make sure you're headed for a mutually beneficial outcome, or at least that your job crafting is compatible with your work environment. If this isn't the case, go back to Step 1, and see if other job crafting changes might work better!
Also, if you have any managerial responsibilities, you need to take them into account when you consider any job crafting. When you have a number of other people to supervise, even small changes in how you work can have significant effects on the people who depend on you.
Step 3: Act to put positive job crafting change in place
At this stage, the key is to get rid of any symptom of what psychologists call "learned helplessness". This is the phenomenon whereby people have become so accustomed to indifference to their contributions that they believe that no matter what they do, nothing will come of it.
Job crafting gives you the chance to turn this situation around. By refocusing your job in this way, you decide what's going to make you feel better valued and more productive, and you decide to make the necessary changes. The only condition is that your decisions must have positive outcomes for your organization, as mentioned in Step 2.
Step 4: Check on your job crafting progress, adjust and continue
Having gone through Steps 1, 2 and 3 above, it's time to put your job crafting into practice, check that it gives you what you want; ensure that your boss and clients are happy with what's going on; and make sure that it really is compatible with your wider work environment. If everything checks out, and you feel good about what's happening, you can let your changes become a habit.
What job crafting can do for you
The benefits of job crafting can include:
Giving you greater enjoyment from what you do at work.
Helping you approach your work with more energy and enthusiasm.
Encouraging real personal development by improving skills.
And of course, perfecting the skill of job crafting can, in itself, lead to career enhancement opportunities.
Tip 1:
You can always ask your manager's opinion about how you're crafting your job. But don't wait for, or expect, managerial input or approval before you start. In job crafting, you take the initiative!
Tip 2:
Don't expect to be able to redefine your job completely. After all, your employer wanted someone to carry out your duties, and you accepted that when you were hired! Make absolutely sure that, within your recrafted job, you're fully meeting the objectives you've been set.
Tip 3:
For pointers on how you might set about job crafting, compare notes with other colleagues who are appreciated at work and who clearly enjoy their jobs. By categorizing their experiences according to the list in Step 1, you may uncover some interesting ideas, and so find out what might also work for you.
Key Points
Job crafting is something that you decide to do, in order to change aspects of your current job, so that it suits you better. There are four basic steps: you decide what you want to change, you look for a win-win solution, you put the changes into practice, and then, having checked they're having a positive effect, you make sure they become a habit.
An important element of successful job crafting is that it's you who takes the initiative: you don't need to wait for your manager or supervisor to give you instructions. The benefits you can get from crafting your job include boosting results, increasing enjoyment, building skills and increasing your general ability to cope with your work. Start crafting today!
Shaping your job to fit you better
Have you ever noticed something like this going on at work? It's now about six months since the arrival of a new Program Office Administrator, and the focus of the job has changed subtly.
The previous post-holder, Rebecca, did a great job, using her competence in finance to develop new procedures for checking the monthly financial reports for all of the projects in the program. Her successor, Stephen, however, has a particular flair for graphic design. He's now enhancing the different progress reports to make key information stand out more effectively. Overall, though, they've both been really good performers, making a big contribution to the efficiency and organization of the team.
So, what's going on? The answer is that both Rebecca and Stephen have been using the concept of job crafting. The idea here is that many jobs are actually quite flexible, meaning that their focus can be adjusted to fit the skills and preferences of the current job-holder. By subtly redesigning your job like this, you can play to your strengths, improving both satisfaction and performance. You shift the emphasis of the job towards things that you can do really well, and away from those where your performance is likely to be weaker.
Job crafting may seem like a simple idea, but what makes it a really powerful tool is that it allows you to increase the control you have over your own professional life, while "wowing" your employer at the same time. Practically any job can be crafted, at least to some extent, and you can start whenever you want, without necessarily consulting managers or having to wait for their approval.
How to start crafting your job today
To "craft your job", follow these steps:
Decide what you want to change.
Evaluate how the change will impact you and your work environment.
Act to put positive change in place.
Check on progress, adjust and continue.
Let's look at each of these steps in more detail.
Step 1: Decide what you want to change by crafting your job
You can make changes in one or more of the following areas to craft the way you work, so that it's closer to your "ideal" job.
Task content: This involves improving the way that things are done, using skills that you already have; or using your knowledge to change working methods, so that you can generate better results. The ways that that Rebecca and Stephen crafted their work as Program Office Administrators fell into this category.
In short, it's about creating opportunities to play to your strengths. (If you're not sure what your strengths are, use the Reflected Best Self™ exercise to explore them.)
Relationships: Here, you might look for ways to have more satisfying interactions with other people during the course of your work each day. In our example, Stephen might volunteer to mentor new hires.
Purpose: You can also redefine your existing work to reflect what you see as being the real impact of what you do at work. For example, a programmer working in the IT department of an airline could reframe his or her work from "writing code" to "helping people enjoy trouble-free travel". For more on this, read our article on Creating Job Satisfaction.
Note: Crafting job purpose doesn't involve any actual changes in the content of your work, and while this can certainly add to your enjoyment of your work, it won't help you to expand your skills or affect your output greatly. So look for things you could change in the first two categories to get the most out of job crafting.
Step 2: Evaluate how crafting your job will impact you and your environment
Next, you need to assess the potential impact of these possible changes on your wider work environment. Here, you should take into account your clients, your colleagues, your supervisor or manager, and the organization as a whole.
Remember that effective job crafting usually depends on finding a win-win solution. For example, you may have significant experience in using your organization's internal accounting system. You could volunteer to train new-hires on the system, or provide updates on system changes for your colleagues. What you get out this could be simple enjoyment because you enjoy teaching people things, or a boost to your own self-esteem, or more interaction with people from other departments. What your organization gets from this is a better-trained, more effective workforce.
Avoid any temptation to turn a job crafting exercise into a win-lose situation. For example, if you dislike having meetings with your supervisor, you might be tempted to craft your job so that you spend more time in the test lab, where she's less likely to find you! You might achieve your short-term goal of avoiding these meetings, but the overall impact may well be negative.
So make sure you're headed for a mutually beneficial outcome, or at least that your job crafting is compatible with your work environment. If this isn't the case, go back to Step 1, and see if other job crafting changes might work better!
Also, if you have any managerial responsibilities, you need to take them into account when you consider any job crafting. When you have a number of other people to supervise, even small changes in how you work can have significant effects on the people who depend on you.
Step 3: Act to put positive job crafting change in place
At this stage, the key is to get rid of any symptom of what psychologists call "learned helplessness". This is the phenomenon whereby people have become so accustomed to indifference to their contributions that they believe that no matter what they do, nothing will come of it.
Job crafting gives you the chance to turn this situation around. By refocusing your job in this way, you decide what's going to make you feel better valued and more productive, and you decide to make the necessary changes. The only condition is that your decisions must have positive outcomes for your organization, as mentioned in Step 2.
Step 4: Check on your job crafting progress, adjust and continue
Having gone through Steps 1, 2 and 3 above, it's time to put your job crafting into practice, check that it gives you what you want; ensure that your boss and clients are happy with what's going on; and make sure that it really is compatible with your wider work environment. If everything checks out, and you feel good about what's happening, you can let your changes become a habit.
What job crafting can do for you
The benefits of job crafting can include:
Giving you greater enjoyment from what you do at work.
Helping you approach your work with more energy and enthusiasm.
Encouraging real personal development by improving skills.
And of course, perfecting the skill of job crafting can, in itself, lead to career enhancement opportunities.
Tip 1:
You can always ask your manager's opinion about how you're crafting your job. But don't wait for, or expect, managerial input or approval before you start. In job crafting, you take the initiative!
Tip 2:
Don't expect to be able to redefine your job completely. After all, your employer wanted someone to carry out your duties, and you accepted that when you were hired! Make absolutely sure that, within your recrafted job, you're fully meeting the objectives you've been set.
Tip 3:
For pointers on how you might set about job crafting, compare notes with other colleagues who are appreciated at work and who clearly enjoy their jobs. By categorizing their experiences according to the list in Step 1, you may uncover some interesting ideas, and so find out what might also work for you.
Key Points
Job crafting is something that you decide to do, in order to change aspects of your current job, so that it suits you better. There are four basic steps: you decide what you want to change, you look for a win-win solution, you put the changes into practice, and then, having checked they're having a positive effect, you make sure they become a habit.
An important element of successful job crafting is that it's you who takes the initiative: you don't need to wait for your manager or supervisor to give you instructions. The benefits you can get from crafting your job include boosting results, increasing enjoyment, building skills and increasing your general ability to cope with your work. Start crafting today!
Making the Most of Your Talents and Opportunities.
"Chance favors the prepared mind."
– Louis Pasteur
You are most likely to succeed in life if you use your talents to their fullest extent. Similarly, you'll suffer fewer problems if you know what your weaknesses are, and if you manage these weaknesses so that they don't matter in the work you do.
So how you go about identifying these strengths and weaknesses, and analyzing the opportunities and threats that flow from them? SWOT Analysis is a useful technique that helps you do this.
What makes SWOT especially powerful is that, with a little thought, it can help you uncover opportunities that you would not otherwise have spotted. And by understanding your weaknesses, you can manage and eliminate threats that might otherwise hurt your ability to move forward.
If you look at yourself using the SWOT framework, you can start to separate yourself from your peers, and further develop the specialized talents and abilities you need to advance your career.
How to Use the Tool
To perform a personal SWOT analysis, print out our free worksheet, and write down answers to the questions in each area below.
Strengths
What advantages do you have that others don't have (for example, skills, certifications, education, or connections)?
What do you do better than anyone else?
What personal resources can you access?
What do other people (and your boss, in particular) see as your strengths?
Which of your achievements are you most proud of?
What values do you believe in that others fail to exhibit?
Are you part of a network that no one else is involved in? If so, what connections do you have with influential people?
Consider this from your own perspective, and from the point of view of the people around you. And don't be modest or shy – be as objective as you can.
And if you have any difficulty with this, write down a list of your personal characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths! You can also learn more about identifying your strengths in our article on "Your Reflected Best Self™".
Tip:
Think about your strengths in relation to the people around you. For example, if you're a great mathematician and the people around you are also great at math, then this is not likely to be a strength in your current role – it may be a necessity.
Weaknesses
What tasks do you usually avoid because you don't feel confident doing them?
What will the people around you see as your weaknesses?
Are you completely confident in your education and skills training? If not, where are you weakest?
What are your negative work habits (for example, are you often late, are you disorganized, do you have a short temper, or are you poor at handling stress?
Do you have personality traits that hold you back in your field? For instance, if you have to conduct meetings on a regular basis, a fear of public speaking would be a major weakness.
Again, consider this from a personal/internal perspective and an external perspective. Do other people see weaknesses that you don't see? Do co-workers consistently outperform you in key areas? Be realistic – it's best to face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.
Opportunities
What new technology can help you? Or can you get help from others or from people via the Internet?
Is your industry growing? If so, how can you take advantage of the current market?
Do you have a network of strategic contacts to help you, or offer good advice?
What trends (management or otherwise) do you see in your company, and how can you take advantage of them?
Are any of your competitors failing to do something important? If so, can you take advantage of their mistakes?
Is there a need in your company or industry that no one is filling?
Do your customers or vendors complain about something in your company? If so, could you create an opportunity by offering a solution?
You might find useful opportunities in the following:
Networking events, educational classes, or conferences.
A colleague going on an extended leave. Could you take on some of this person's projects to gain experience?
A new role or project that forces you to learn new skills, like public speaking or international relations.
A company expansion or acquisition. Do you have specific skills (like a second language) that could help with the process?
Also, importantly, look at your strengths, and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities – and look at your weaknesses, and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating those weaknesses.
Threats
What obstacles do you currently face at work?
Are any of your colleagues competing with you for projects or roles?
Is your job (or the demand for the things you do) changing?
Does changing technology threaten your position?
Could any of your weaknesses lead to threats?
Performing this analysis will often provide key information – it can point out what needs to be done and put problems into perspective.
A Personal SWOT Example
What would a personal SWOT assessment look like? Review this SWOT analysis for Carol, an advertising manager.
Strengths
I'm very creative. I often impressing clients with a new perspective on their brands.
I communicate well with my clients and team.
I have the ability to ask key questions to find just the right marketing angle.
I'm completely committed to the success of a client's brand.
Weaknesses
I have a strong, compulsive need to do things quickly and remove them from my "to do" list, and sometimes the quality of my work suffers as a result.
This same need to get things done also causes me stress when I have too many tasks.
I get nervous when presenting ideas to clients, and this fear of public speaking often takes the passion out of my presentations.
Opportunities
One of our major competitors has developed a reputation for treating their smaller clients poorly.
I'm attending a major marketing conference next month. This will allow for strategic networking, and also offer some great training seminars.
Our art director will go on maternity leave soon. Covering her duties while she's away would be a great career development opportunity for me.
Threats
Simon, one of my colleagues, is a much stronger speaker than I am, and he's competing with me for the art director position.
Due to recent staff shortages, I'm often overworked, and this negatively impacts my creativity.
The current economic climate has resulted in slow growth for the marketing industry. Many firms have laid off staff members, and our company is considering further cutbacks.
As a result of performing this analysis, Carol takes the bold step of approaching her colleague Simon about the art director's maternity leave. Carol proposes that both she and Simon cover the job's duties, working together and each using his or her strengths. To her surprise, Simon likes the idea. He knows he presents very well, but he admits that he's usually impressed by Carol's creative ideas, which he feels are far better than most of his.
By working as a team, they have a chance to make their smaller clients feel even better about the service they're getting. This takes advantage of their competitor's weakness in this area.
Key Points
A SWOT matrix is a framework for analyzing your strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats that you face. This helps you focus on your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available to you.
"Chance favors the prepared mind."
– Louis Pasteur
You are most likely to succeed in life if you use your talents to their fullest extent. Similarly, you'll suffer fewer problems if you know what your weaknesses are, and if you manage these weaknesses so that they don't matter in the work you do.
So how you go about identifying these strengths and weaknesses, and analyzing the opportunities and threats that flow from them? SWOT Analysis is a useful technique that helps you do this.
What makes SWOT especially powerful is that, with a little thought, it can help you uncover opportunities that you would not otherwise have spotted. And by understanding your weaknesses, you can manage and eliminate threats that might otherwise hurt your ability to move forward.
If you look at yourself using the SWOT framework, you can start to separate yourself from your peers, and further develop the specialized talents and abilities you need to advance your career.
How to Use the Tool
To perform a personal SWOT analysis, print out our free worksheet, and write down answers to the questions in each area below.
Strengths
What advantages do you have that others don't have (for example, skills, certifications, education, or connections)?
What do you do better than anyone else?
What personal resources can you access?
What do other people (and your boss, in particular) see as your strengths?
Which of your achievements are you most proud of?
What values do you believe in that others fail to exhibit?
Are you part of a network that no one else is involved in? If so, what connections do you have with influential people?
Consider this from your own perspective, and from the point of view of the people around you. And don't be modest or shy – be as objective as you can.
And if you have any difficulty with this, write down a list of your personal characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths! You can also learn more about identifying your strengths in our article on "Your Reflected Best Self™".
Tip:
Think about your strengths in relation to the people around you. For example, if you're a great mathematician and the people around you are also great at math, then this is not likely to be a strength in your current role – it may be a necessity.
Weaknesses
What tasks do you usually avoid because you don't feel confident doing them?
What will the people around you see as your weaknesses?
Are you completely confident in your education and skills training? If not, where are you weakest?
What are your negative work habits (for example, are you often late, are you disorganized, do you have a short temper, or are you poor at handling stress?
Do you have personality traits that hold you back in your field? For instance, if you have to conduct meetings on a regular basis, a fear of public speaking would be a major weakness.
Again, consider this from a personal/internal perspective and an external perspective. Do other people see weaknesses that you don't see? Do co-workers consistently outperform you in key areas? Be realistic – it's best to face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.
Opportunities
What new technology can help you? Or can you get help from others or from people via the Internet?
Is your industry growing? If so, how can you take advantage of the current market?
Do you have a network of strategic contacts to help you, or offer good advice?
What trends (management or otherwise) do you see in your company, and how can you take advantage of them?
Are any of your competitors failing to do something important? If so, can you take advantage of their mistakes?
Is there a need in your company or industry that no one is filling?
Do your customers or vendors complain about something in your company? If so, could you create an opportunity by offering a solution?
You might find useful opportunities in the following:
Networking events, educational classes, or conferences.
A colleague going on an extended leave. Could you take on some of this person's projects to gain experience?
A new role or project that forces you to learn new skills, like public speaking or international relations.
A company expansion or acquisition. Do you have specific skills (like a second language) that could help with the process?
Also, importantly, look at your strengths, and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities – and look at your weaknesses, and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating those weaknesses.
Threats
What obstacles do you currently face at work?
Are any of your colleagues competing with you for projects or roles?
Is your job (or the demand for the things you do) changing?
Does changing technology threaten your position?
Could any of your weaknesses lead to threats?
Performing this analysis will often provide key information – it can point out what needs to be done and put problems into perspective.
A Personal SWOT Example
What would a personal SWOT assessment look like? Review this SWOT analysis for Carol, an advertising manager.
Strengths
I'm very creative. I often impressing clients with a new perspective on their brands.
I communicate well with my clients and team.
I have the ability to ask key questions to find just the right marketing angle.
I'm completely committed to the success of a client's brand.
Weaknesses
I have a strong, compulsive need to do things quickly and remove them from my "to do" list, and sometimes the quality of my work suffers as a result.
This same need to get things done also causes me stress when I have too many tasks.
I get nervous when presenting ideas to clients, and this fear of public speaking often takes the passion out of my presentations.
Opportunities
One of our major competitors has developed a reputation for treating their smaller clients poorly.
I'm attending a major marketing conference next month. This will allow for strategic networking, and also offer some great training seminars.
Our art director will go on maternity leave soon. Covering her duties while she's away would be a great career development opportunity for me.
Threats
Simon, one of my colleagues, is a much stronger speaker than I am, and he's competing with me for the art director position.
Due to recent staff shortages, I'm often overworked, and this negatively impacts my creativity.
The current economic climate has resulted in slow growth for the marketing industry. Many firms have laid off staff members, and our company is considering further cutbacks.
As a result of performing this analysis, Carol takes the bold step of approaching her colleague Simon about the art director's maternity leave. Carol proposes that both she and Simon cover the job's duties, working together and each using his or her strengths. To her surprise, Simon likes the idea. He knows he presents very well, but he admits that he's usually impressed by Carol's creative ideas, which he feels are far better than most of his.
By working as a team, they have a chance to make their smaller clients feel even better about the service they're getting. This takes advantage of their competitor's weakness in this area.
Key Points
A SWOT matrix is a framework for analyzing your strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats that you face. This helps you focus on your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available to you.
Shaping a career that suits your personality.
You know when you are in a job you like. You also know when the task you're doing just isn't right for you.
What lies behind our feelings of work satisfaction or dissatisfaction are our fundamental work interests: These are the things that we enjoy doing, whatever the industry or the job title. The trick to finding career satisfaction can be to identify those core interests and match your job to them.
For example, if you’re a science person, you may not be happy working in a job that needs quick decisions, or where you need to use your “gut” to guide you. Likewise, artistic people would be driven mad in a profession that has lots of rules and procedures, or which demands a lot of number crunching.
In a perfect world, we would all choose careers that suit our core interests. However this is not a perfect world: For all sorts of reasons, we can find ourselves in positions where what we’re doing just doesn’t suit our natural interests and abilities. This is where understanding how job and personality fit together can help you change the situation for the better.
Ability and personality are the two main things contribute towards job satisfaction. You’re likely to find that jobs that suit your ability and personality are much more rewarding than those that don’t. Here we look at your work interests – an important part of your work personality.
Understanding the Theory: Holland’s Codes
In the 1970s John Holland developed a popular theory of interest development based around these six personality types:
1. Realistic (R):
These are people who like well-ordered activities, or enjoy working with objects, tools, and machines.
Realistic people:
See themselves as mechanically or athletically talented, but may not be good with people.
Value concrete and tangible things like - money, power, and status.
Avoid "social" activities, those that need interaction with other people.
Common traits:
Hard-headed, inflexible, persistent, materialistic, practical, and genuine.
2. Investigative (I):
Investigative people like activities that involve creative investigation of the world or nature.
Investigative people:
See themselves as highly intelligent, but often lack leadership skills.
Value scientific endeavors.
Avoid activities that seem mundane, commercial or "enterprising".
Common traits:
Analytical, curious, pessimistic, intellectual, precise, and reserved.
3. Artistic (A):
Artistic people like unstructured activities, and enjoy using materials to create art.
Artistic people:
See themselves as talented artists.
Value aesthetics.
Avoid "conventional" occupations or situations.
Common traits:
Idealistic, complicated , introspective, sensitive, impractical and nonconformist.
4. Social (S):
Social people enjoy informing, training, developing, curing and enlightening others.
Social people:
Perceive themselves as helpful, understanding and able to teach others.
Value social activities.
Avoid activities demanded by "realistic" occupations and situations.
Common traits:
Generous, patient, emphatic, tactful, persuasive, and cooperative.
5. Enterprising (E):
These people enjoy reaching organizational goals or achieving economic gain.
Enterprising people:
See themselves as aggressive, popular, great leaders and speakers, but may lack scientific ability.
Value political and economic achievement.
Avoid activities demanded by "investigative" occupations and situations.
Common traits:
Extroverted, adventurous, optimistic, ambitious, sociable, and exhibitionistic.
6. Conventional (C):
Conventional people enjoy manipulating data, record keeping, filing, reproducing materials, and organizing written or numerical data.
Conventional people
See themselves as having clerical and numerical ability.
Value business and economic achievement.
Avoid unstructured or "artistic" activities.
Common traits:
Efficient, practical, conscientious, inflexible, defensive, and methodical.
The Model
Holland then arranged these six personality types into a hexagon (see figure 1, below) organized according to people's preference for working with different stimuli at work: people, data, things, and ideas. Holland's theory is that people with different personality types prefer working with different work stimuli, and that the distance between work personalities indicates the degree of difference in interests between them. For example Artistic people are least like Conventional people and most like Social and Investigative people.
Holland's conclusion was that for any personality type, the career most aligned with that type is most likely to be enjoyable and satisfying. For example, a Realistic person would be best suited for a Technical job and least suited for Social job. Jobs with Conventional or Operational characteristics would be the next best choices.
The way that this works in practice is that people use a personality test to identify their three top personality types. This gives their Holland's code (for example, ESA). This is then matched against the Holland's codes of people typically found within particular careers.
How to Use Holland Codes Career Model:
There are two good ways of using this model – either in helping you choose a career that suits you, or in helping you shape your existing job so that you maximize your fulfillment. To find your ideal career according to this approach, just complete steps i and ii below. To shape your job, use our complete process.
Using Holland's Codes is a straightforward process, which is made all the easier by some useful online interest evaluation sites.
Part One: Identify your Work Personality
Step i: Read through the brief descriptions given above and find the one you most identify with. You may want to take an official Holland Code Assessment. There are many of these, costing different amounts – you can find them by typing "Holland Code Assessment" into Google.
Try one: Does the assessment say what you thought it would? If they aren't, ask yourself why: Often we choose a personality type that reflects who we want to be, not who we really are. (If so, learn from this!)
Tip 1:
Do try the online tests – they're not expensive (for example, one costs US$9.99) and a good one will show you the careers and professions that most suit your code once you've completed it. This can save you a huge amount of painstaking research!
Step ii: To further explore your "true" work personality, ask yourself, "How would my spouse, family, and friends categorize me?" Show some of your friends and co-workers descriptions of the types and ask them to categorize you. Here again, explore any differences between your assessment of yourself and theirs.
Part Two: Analyze your job in terms of your interests
Step iii: Look at your main tasks and responsibilities. Are they aligned with your work personality?
Step iv: List those responsibilities that are aligned in one column and those that are not in another. Use this to decide whether your job is a good fit for your interests or not.
Step v: For each of the job roles where your interests are not well matched, work out at least one way of bringing the two sides together. For instance, if you are a "Conventional" person working in an administrative position, many of your roles will be in-line with your interests. However, if you were asked to organize the Christmas party, you might be very uncomfortable about deciding about decorations, entertainment, and so on. These are more Artistic responsibilities, which are directly opposite to your Conventional ways. One strategy to deal with this is to delegate the Artistic tasks and assume responsibility for making sure the tasks get done. You maintain the Administrative duties and get rid of the Artistic ones.
Part Three: Set Goals to Bring Your Interests and Responsibilities in line
Step vi: The best way of making sure that something gets done is to set a specific, time limited goal. Identify two or three of the most important problem areas, and set realistic goals to change things.
Tip 2:
Remember that this is a model – it's a useful way of looking at things, but it can't possibly capture all of the complexities of the ways that people behave at work. Make sure that you interpret any conclusions with common sense.
Tip 3:
Also bear in mind that as you develop in your career you'll need to extend your skills into new areas. In particular, as you take responsibility for people and then move upwards within an organization, you need to develop the "Social" ability to work with other people, as well as other skills that normally go with other personality types (if you're going to be a CEO, there's a lot of "Conventional" work that you just have to do, and do well.)
Key Points
Holland’s Career Codes provides a useful framework for exploring your personal interests and the careers most likely to suit you.
Every occupation requires a particular set of characteristics. By identifying your particular interests you can quickly uncover the parts of your job that give your satisfaction. Likewise, you can identify areas of dissatisfaction and help you plan how to address these. This helps you develop your career in the right direction – one that will be a source of long-term fulfillment.
If you're thinking about your career, and the way it fits with the future shape of your life, look at our Life Plan Workbook. This helps you think about what you want to achieve with your life, and set the goals that will lead you there
You know when you are in a job you like. You also know when the task you're doing just isn't right for you.
What lies behind our feelings of work satisfaction or dissatisfaction are our fundamental work interests: These are the things that we enjoy doing, whatever the industry or the job title. The trick to finding career satisfaction can be to identify those core interests and match your job to them.
For example, if you’re a science person, you may not be happy working in a job that needs quick decisions, or where you need to use your “gut” to guide you. Likewise, artistic people would be driven mad in a profession that has lots of rules and procedures, or which demands a lot of number crunching.
In a perfect world, we would all choose careers that suit our core interests. However this is not a perfect world: For all sorts of reasons, we can find ourselves in positions where what we’re doing just doesn’t suit our natural interests and abilities. This is where understanding how job and personality fit together can help you change the situation for the better.
Ability and personality are the two main things contribute towards job satisfaction. You’re likely to find that jobs that suit your ability and personality are much more rewarding than those that don’t. Here we look at your work interests – an important part of your work personality.
Understanding the Theory: Holland’s Codes
In the 1970s John Holland developed a popular theory of interest development based around these six personality types:
1. Realistic (R):
These are people who like well-ordered activities, or enjoy working with objects, tools, and machines.
Realistic people:
See themselves as mechanically or athletically talented, but may not be good with people.
Value concrete and tangible things like - money, power, and status.
Avoid "social" activities, those that need interaction with other people.
Common traits:
Hard-headed, inflexible, persistent, materialistic, practical, and genuine.
2. Investigative (I):
Investigative people like activities that involve creative investigation of the world or nature.
Investigative people:
See themselves as highly intelligent, but often lack leadership skills.
Value scientific endeavors.
Avoid activities that seem mundane, commercial or "enterprising".
Common traits:
Analytical, curious, pessimistic, intellectual, precise, and reserved.
3. Artistic (A):
Artistic people like unstructured activities, and enjoy using materials to create art.
Artistic people:
See themselves as talented artists.
Value aesthetics.
Avoid "conventional" occupations or situations.
Common traits:
Idealistic, complicated , introspective, sensitive, impractical and nonconformist.
4. Social (S):
Social people enjoy informing, training, developing, curing and enlightening others.
Social people:
Perceive themselves as helpful, understanding and able to teach others.
Value social activities.
Avoid activities demanded by "realistic" occupations and situations.
Common traits:
Generous, patient, emphatic, tactful, persuasive, and cooperative.
5. Enterprising (E):
These people enjoy reaching organizational goals or achieving economic gain.
Enterprising people:
See themselves as aggressive, popular, great leaders and speakers, but may lack scientific ability.
Value political and economic achievement.
Avoid activities demanded by "investigative" occupations and situations.
Common traits:
Extroverted, adventurous, optimistic, ambitious, sociable, and exhibitionistic.
6. Conventional (C):
Conventional people enjoy manipulating data, record keeping, filing, reproducing materials, and organizing written or numerical data.
Conventional people
See themselves as having clerical and numerical ability.
Value business and economic achievement.
Avoid unstructured or "artistic" activities.
Common traits:
Efficient, practical, conscientious, inflexible, defensive, and methodical.
The Model
Holland then arranged these six personality types into a hexagon (see figure 1, below) organized according to people's preference for working with different stimuli at work: people, data, things, and ideas. Holland's theory is that people with different personality types prefer working with different work stimuli, and that the distance between work personalities indicates the degree of difference in interests between them. For example Artistic people are least like Conventional people and most like Social and Investigative people.
Holland's conclusion was that for any personality type, the career most aligned with that type is most likely to be enjoyable and satisfying. For example, a Realistic person would be best suited for a Technical job and least suited for Social job. Jobs with Conventional or Operational characteristics would be the next best choices.
The way that this works in practice is that people use a personality test to identify their three top personality types. This gives their Holland's code (for example, ESA). This is then matched against the Holland's codes of people typically found within particular careers.
How to Use Holland Codes Career Model:
There are two good ways of using this model – either in helping you choose a career that suits you, or in helping you shape your existing job so that you maximize your fulfillment. To find your ideal career according to this approach, just complete steps i and ii below. To shape your job, use our complete process.
Using Holland's Codes is a straightforward process, which is made all the easier by some useful online interest evaluation sites.
Part One: Identify your Work Personality
Step i: Read through the brief descriptions given above and find the one you most identify with. You may want to take an official Holland Code Assessment. There are many of these, costing different amounts – you can find them by typing "Holland Code Assessment" into Google.
Try one: Does the assessment say what you thought it would? If they aren't, ask yourself why: Often we choose a personality type that reflects who we want to be, not who we really are. (If so, learn from this!)
Tip 1:
Do try the online tests – they're not expensive (for example, one costs US$9.99) and a good one will show you the careers and professions that most suit your code once you've completed it. This can save you a huge amount of painstaking research!
Step ii: To further explore your "true" work personality, ask yourself, "How would my spouse, family, and friends categorize me?" Show some of your friends and co-workers descriptions of the types and ask them to categorize you. Here again, explore any differences between your assessment of yourself and theirs.
Part Two: Analyze your job in terms of your interests
Step iii: Look at your main tasks and responsibilities. Are they aligned with your work personality?
Step iv: List those responsibilities that are aligned in one column and those that are not in another. Use this to decide whether your job is a good fit for your interests or not.
Step v: For each of the job roles where your interests are not well matched, work out at least one way of bringing the two sides together. For instance, if you are a "Conventional" person working in an administrative position, many of your roles will be in-line with your interests. However, if you were asked to organize the Christmas party, you might be very uncomfortable about deciding about decorations, entertainment, and so on. These are more Artistic responsibilities, which are directly opposite to your Conventional ways. One strategy to deal with this is to delegate the Artistic tasks and assume responsibility for making sure the tasks get done. You maintain the Administrative duties and get rid of the Artistic ones.
Part Three: Set Goals to Bring Your Interests and Responsibilities in line
Step vi: The best way of making sure that something gets done is to set a specific, time limited goal. Identify two or three of the most important problem areas, and set realistic goals to change things.
Tip 2:
Remember that this is a model – it's a useful way of looking at things, but it can't possibly capture all of the complexities of the ways that people behave at work. Make sure that you interpret any conclusions with common sense.
Tip 3:
Also bear in mind that as you develop in your career you'll need to extend your skills into new areas. In particular, as you take responsibility for people and then move upwards within an organization, you need to develop the "Social" ability to work with other people, as well as other skills that normally go with other personality types (if you're going to be a CEO, there's a lot of "Conventional" work that you just have to do, and do well.)
Key Points
Holland’s Career Codes provides a useful framework for exploring your personal interests and the careers most likely to suit you.
Every occupation requires a particular set of characteristics. By identifying your particular interests you can quickly uncover the parts of your job that give your satisfaction. Likewise, you can identify areas of dissatisfaction and help you plan how to address these. This helps you develop your career in the right direction – one that will be a source of long-term fulfillment.
If you're thinking about your career, and the way it fits with the future shape of your life, look at our Life Plan Workbook. This helps you think about what you want to achieve with your life, and set the goals that will lead you there
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Creating Job Satisfaction
Getting the most from your job.
"Find a job you like, and you add five days to every week."
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
For many of us, the idea of having a job that is truly satisfying - the kind where work doesn't feel like work anymore - is pure fantasy. Sure, professional athletes, ski patrollers, and golf pros may have found a way of doing what they love and getting paid for it. But is there actually anyone out there who dreams of sitting at a desk and processing paper, or watching products fly by them on conveyor belts, or working to solve other people's problems?
Career dreams are one thing; practical reality is often another. When they happily coincide, seize the opportunity and enjoy it! Luckily, when they do not, it's good to know that it is possible to get job satisfaction from a practical choice of career. Job satisfaction doesn't have to mean pursuing the ultra-glamorous or making money from your hobby. You can work at job satisfaction, and find it in the most unexpected places.
The heart of job satisfaction is in your attitude and expectations; it's more about how you approach your job than the actual duties you perform. Whether you work on the farm, a production line, in the corner office or on the basketball court, the secret is to understand the key ingredients of your unique recipe for job satisfaction.
Identify Your Satisfaction Triggers
There are three basic approaches to work: is it a job, a career, or a passion? Depending on which type of work you are in right now, the things that give you satisfaction will vary.
- If you work at a JOB, the compensation aspects of the position will probably hold more appeal than anything else, and have the greatest impact on whether you stay or go.
- If you work at a CAREER, you are looking for promotions and career development opportunities. Your overall satisfaction is typically linked with your status, power, or position.
- If you work at a PASSION, the work itself is the factor that determines your satisfaction, regardless of money, prestige, or control.
Inevitably, these are generalizations, and you will probably find that you get satisfaction from more than one approach to work. Being aware of the type of work you are doing, and the things you need for job satisfaction, will help you to identify and adjust your satisfaction expectations accordingly.
Building Job Satisfaction
Once you have identified the blend of status, power, or intrinsic enjoyment that need to be present in your work for you to feel satisfied, you then need to work on some of our seven 'ingredients' for a satisfying job. These ingredients are:
- Self-awareness
- Challenge
- Variety
- Positive attitude
- Knowing your options
- Balanced lifestyle
- A sense of purpose
Self-Awareness
The first step in the search for job satisfaction is to know yourself. If you're to be happy and successful, you need to understand your strengths and weaknesses. This will help you identify what types of profession will allow you to build on those strengths, and minimize those weaknesses. A useful framework for conducting this type of analysis is a Personal SWOT analysis.
It is difficult to feel satisfied with something you aren't very good at, so rather than spend time beating yourself up about it, take a long hard look at the things at which you excel, and try to find a position that uses some of those skills too.
Another important component of self-awareness is to have a good understanding of your personality traits and your preferred style of working. A useful tool for this is Schein's Career Anchors, which helps you understand what you value and what motivates you in your career, (and also what you do not value, and what de-motivates you).
| For more information on some of the most commonly used personality and behavioral typologies, the MindTools site has articles on Myers Briggs and Holland's Codes. These also provide links to assessment tools such as the MAPP assessment as well as a suite of assessment tools at Analyze My Career. |
By increasing your self-awareness, you can work towards the ideal blend of compensation, status, and intrinsic reward that suits you, and that you can realistically achieve. Knowing this will help you to set appropriate goals, and manage your own expectations.
The greater the match between your preferences and the requirements of the job, the more potential for job satisfaction you have. The remaining six 'ingredients' determine how much of that potential you actually achieve.
Challenge
Some days you may deny it, but we all thrive on interesting challenges. Does this mean your job has to be the head of engineering at NASA? No, different things challenge different people at different times. You just need to figure out what you can do to make sure you don't allow yourself to go stale at work.
Even if the job itself is not all that challenging, you can make it challenging. Some great ideas here include:
- Set performance standards for yourself - aim to beat your previous record, or set up a friendly competition among co-workers.
- Teach others your skills - nothing is more challenging, or rewarding, than passing your skills and knowledge on to others.
- Ask for new responsibilities - these will give you opportunities to stretch yourself.
- Start or take on a project that uses skills you would like to use, or want to improve.
- Commit to professional development - take courses, read books or trade magazines and attend seminars. However you do it, keep your skills fresh and current.
Variety
Closely related to the need for challenge is the need to minimize boredom. Boredom is a common culprit when it comes to job dissatisfaction. When your mind is bored you lack interest and enthusiasm and even a well-matched job becomes dissatisfying. Some common methods to alleviate boredom at work include:
- Cross train and learn new skills.
- Ask to be moved to a new assignment or department requiring the same skills.
- Ask to work a different shift.
- Volunteer to take on new tasks.
- Get involved with committee work.
- Go on an extended leave, or take a sabbatical.
| Tip 1: Tip 2: |
Positive Attitude
Attitude plays a huge role in how you perceive your job and your life in general. If you are depressed, angry or frustrated, you're much less likely to be satisfied with anything. Making a change to a positive attitude is a complex process that requires a lot of work and a strong commitment. However, over time, you can turn your internal dialogues around and start to see most events in your life as positive and worthwhile. Here are some tips:
- Stop negative thoughts from entering your brain.
- Reframe your thoughts to the positive.
- Put the events of the day in the correct context.
- Don't dwell on setbacks.
- Commit to viewing obstacles as challenges.
- Accept that mistakes are simply opportunities to learn.
- Become an optimist.
To help you with your quest to become positive, MindTools has a useful article titled Rational Positive Thinking, which helps you to identify and change negative and unhappy thinking patterns
Know Your Options
When you feel trapped, you can start to get anxious. At first you wonder what else is out there for you. This progresses to the point where you become convinced that anything other than the job you're doing has got to be more satisfying. To combat this, continuously scan your environment for opportunities. When you feel you have options, you have more control. When you make a positive choice to stay with a job, that job has much more appeal than if you feel forced to stay because you feel you have no alternative.
- Keep a list of your accomplishments.
- Update your resume on a regular basis.
- Keep up to date on employment trends.
- Research other jobs that interest you.
- Adopt an 'I'm keeping my options open' approach.
Maintain a Balanced Lifestyle
You'll have heard many times that you need to keep your life and work in balance. When you focus too much on one at the expense of the other you risk putting your whole system in distress. When work takes over your life, it is easy to resent it and lose your sense of perspective: Suddenly everything about your life is clouded with negativity.
The Life Career Rainbow and The Wheel of Life are two great tools to use when seeking to attain and maintain an appropriate work life balance.
Find a Sense of Purpose
Last, but certainly not least (for many people) is the need to find a sense of purpose in the things you do. Even if you have a boring job, it helps a lot if you can see the real benefit you're providing for people.
Even the most mundane job usually has purpose if you dig deep enough. And if it doesn't, should you be wasting your life doing it?
If you're struggling to see the value in what you do (or if you want to sharpen your image of it) see our article on mission statements and vision statements: Unleashing the Power of Purpose.
Key Points
Work plays a significant role in our lives. In our quest to be happy and productive, having a strong sense of job satisfaction is important. When you are dissatisfied with your job, this tends to have an influence on your overall outlook on life. While you may not be in the career of your dreams right now, it is still your responsibility to make sure that what you are doing is satisfying to you.
By knowing the key elements that go into job satisfaction, you can choose to take control and make the changes you need to feel really satisfied and motivated by what you do. Make one small change at work today that makes you feel good or different - build on that change and create a satisfying environment for yourself.
Finding Career Direction
Discover Yourself and Your Purpose
How long has it been since you asked yourself what you want to be when you grow up?
If you haven't considered the idea since high school, then you may have settled into a job that is not fulfilling your professional aspirations, or your purpose.
| |
Each of us has particular talents that, when expressed or exercised, make the world a better place. Most likely you enjoy doing these things, and you find that people respond well to you when you do them. Perhaps they're things you gravitate towards during out-of-hours activities, and that people respect you for.
When you develop these talents as far as you can, you can make your greatest possible contribution to the world, and enjoy personal and professional satisfaction that goes along with this.
Your Career Direction Journey
The process of uncovering what you are meant to do, that is finding career direction, is a journey. It starts with discovering the essential "you": the person who truly resides behind the facades, defenses, and stresses of everyday life.
Once unmasked, your journey continues with specific career exploration and identification of a career that allows you to make good use of your talents. And it moves on with a focused job or career move, in which you identify the jobs you want and put yourself in the best possible position to get them. In fact, this journey never really ends because work itself is all about change, growth, development, and reinvention.
By taking a talent-based approach to your career search right from the start, you keep yourself heading toward the right career even when the actual direction shifts over time. This approach consists of sequentially answering three questions:
- Who Am I?
- What Do I Want to Do?
- How Do I Get Hired?
1. Discovering Who You Really Are
The first question to answer is "Who am I?"
We'll take two approaches to answering this - firstly asking you to explore your talents, and secondly using psychometric tests to explore your preferences.
Exploring Your Talents
First of all, consider your answers to the following questions:
- When have you been most committed, passionate and enthusiastic?
- When have you been most creative?
- When have you been most sure of yourself and your decisions?
- What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
- When have other people considered you to be most successful?
- When have you enjoyed your work most?
- What talents were you relying on, and using, in these situations?
- For what would you take a very strong stand?
- What about the world puzzles or disturbs you that you could make an impact on?
- What jobs do you like to do at work when you have a choice?
- What activities are you drawn towards out of work?
- If money were no concern, what would you be doing?
Brainstorm each of these questions, and then use your answers to identify the top three talents that you most use when you're successful. Rank these in order.
| Tip: |
Personality Inventories
Next, we'll look at using personality inventories as a way of looking at your preferred way of working relative to other people.
There are many typologies available including Myers-Briggs, DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness) and the strength finder evaluation in "Now Discover Your Strengths".
| Tip 1: Tip 2: Tip 3: |
With personality testing you learn what you have in common with other people. You also discover potential points of friction with people of other personality types. While no personality type is good or bad, it does help you discover what motivates and energizes you. This in turn empowers you to seek those elements in the work you choose to do, and avoid the things that frustrate and demotivate you.
As you explore your personality you come to realize that who you are is really determined by the choices you make. You choose to react one way over another, or to prefer one thing to another. You can take this self-awareness one step further by examining why you make the choices you do. In psychological terms, what is your payoff for making the choices you make?
When you know the "why" it is easier to see how you can become fulfilled through the work you do.
Write a "Who I Am" Statement
Now draw this together into a simple written statement of who you are. This is an important step toward self-discovery and defining your purpose. Use it to answer the following questions:
- What your talents and strengths are.
- The talents you achieve most with.
- The activities you get most satisfaction from.
- The type of activity the psychometrics you've completed guide you towards.
| Tip: |
2. Finding Out What You Want to Do
Now that you know who you are, the next stage is to think about what you want to do.
For your life to be balanced and fulfilled, your career must be aligned with who you are: Otherwise you'll be unhappy with work, and you'll probably underachieve. After all, ill-fitting jobs demand different talents from the ones that you have. If you try to pursue a career path that is at odds with your values, your beliefs, and your way of seeing the world, then you'll struggle constantly and be under a great deal of stress and pressure.
The starting point is to do some brainstorming on the jobs that you think would suit who you are. We'll then confirm this with some different psychometric tests, and then extend this list with some more brainstorming.
You then need to spend some time researching the top careers you've identified.
i. Exploring the Options You Know About
Starting with your "Who I Am" statement, start thinking about all of the jobs you can see that would suit you someone with the talents and interests in that statement (by depersonalizing it in this way, you help to avoid "being too close to the issue.")
Starting here is particularly important if you're already established in a career: It's important to capitalize where you can on the experience and contacts you've already built up, compared with ditching everything and starting completely afresh (while this sounds glamorous and enticing, it puts you in the position of competing equally with other career starters, who may be much younger than you. On the other hand, if you're profoundly unhappy with your company, industry and profession, a radical career change may be the best thing...)
So start by asking yourself if your current role can be adapted to suit you much better; if there are other roles within your existing company that would be worth trying; or whether similar roles in other organizations might be more rewarding.
Once you've done this, extend out and brainstorm the other options available.
ii. Using Career Tests
The next stage is to use online career tests to explore options that you might have missed.
Useful ones are:
Free, but limited career selection advice:
Chargeable (but inexpensive, and with good selections of possible careers):
http://www.self-directed-search.com
http://www.assessment.com
iii. Thinking Further
The unavoidable flaw with these career tests is that they're based on backward-looking data, and can only cope with the major career types. Because of this, they can't recommend new careers, nor do they know about less well-known careers.
Using the test results as a starting point, do some brainstorming to see if there are new technology careers which demand similar personality types, or if there are more obscure careers that may also be open.
iv. Pulling This Together.
You'll now have identifies a wide range of possible careers open to you. Now's the time to cut these down and prioritize them. We're not asking you to choose one now, but to cut down to your top 5 or 6 choices (the reason being that when you start researching these careers, some of them may turn out to be quite bad!)
Again, if you're having trouble prioritizing, use paired comparison analysis to rank your choices.
v. Perform Career Research
Armed with a solid understanding of how you can participate in fulfilling work, you now need to research the various options you have to make money doing so. Career research is not something many people relish, but it is necessary in order to eliminate choices that seem to be great fits on the surface but really won't align with your mission and purpose.
Yes, this is quite tedious. But think about the consequences of getting things wrong! Surely it's worth spending time exploring your options, rather than a lifetime kicking yourself for making a bad choice!
Methods for researching careers include:
- Researching the career using sites like Acinet.org, so that you can understand industry trends, job pay levels, qualifications needed, job availability, etc.
- Conducting your own PEST Analysis to confirm your own view of likely career trends.
- Reading industry/career magazines and get a sense of how "happy" the industry is, who the major players in it are, and what the issues and problems within it are. Also, looking at job vacancies to see if the career is in demand.
- Understanding what talents and personalities make people successful in the career, and mapping these back against your own talents and personality.
- Attending professional and trade shows.
- Participating in job fairs;
- Visiting company websites, and keep an eye on how companies are talked about in the press.
- Understanding where organizations are based, and deciding if you're prepared to travel to interviews, and perhaps to move.
- Volunteering.
- Working part time and/or seasonally in the industry.
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By the end of all of this research, you may have rejected several possible careers. Now's the time to narrow down to one! Again, Paired Comparison Analysis may be useful here, however so can Grid Analysis which helps you make comparisons where many variables are involved.
3. Answering "How do I Get Hired?"
In this last phase you answer, "What am I going to do to get hired?"
With your "Who I Am" statement and your research as your compass, now you need to actually map your progress. Many people tend to move from their purpose right into job search mode. This is a mistake because unless you have a plan, it is far too easy to get derailed by a lucrative job offer, an opening that Uncle Vinny has, a job that sounds really glamorous, or a whole host of other distractions.
Develop your plan first and you're more likely to get where you want to go, faster.
- Start by writing down the career you want. What is your long-term vision for yourself in terms of your career?
- Write down the steps you need to take or the things you need to accomplish, in order to get there. What qualifications should you get? What experience should you build? Which organization will give you the best start?
- For each of these steps create a detailed implementation plan.
- These are your short term goals.
- Be sure to express as SMART objectives.
- These are your short term goals.
- Go back and identify contingency plans
- Do a "what if" analysis on your goals "If you don't get accepted to grad school this year, what will you do?"
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Now you are free to pursue your dream career with confidence. There are certainly no guarantees but with the right amount of planning and a sufficient dose of reality, the career that you are meant for will materialize.
| Signs a career direction evaluation may be in order:
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Key Points
Finding career direction is a process. The more effort you put into the planning stages the better your results. Uncovering your true self and your purpose is heavy, emotional work and you may have to go through this process a few times in the span of your working life. The effort however, is certainly worth it when you end up with a clear sense of the direction your career should be taking.
Getting a deeper understanding of your strengths
Think of your national athletics team at the Olympics. All the individuals in it are exceptionally talented – but at different things. The javelin thrower is able to throw his javelin powerfully and release it from his grasp at exactly the right time; the marathon runner has phenomenal endurance; and the sprinter has powerful leg muscles so that she can explode out of the starting blocks.
No team manager would encourage the sprinter to start throwing javelins, nor would he assign the endurance athlete to the 100 meter race. If he did, he'd be ignoring their strengths, and expecting them to deliver results from an area of weakness.
Yet managers do this every day in business! If you're not convinced, think back to your last appraisal. Did your boss praise the way that you carried out various key aspects of your role? Or do the "areas for improvement" he or she identified stand out more clearly in your mind?
The chances are that the criticisms are most memorable. And what this means is that, at best, you're working on your improving your weaknesses, and you're ignoring your strengths.
Why Strengths Matter
Of course, managers clearly need to point out areas of team members' performance which are not up to standard, if that area is an essential part of the job. But there are two good reasons why ignoring people's strengths can fail to yield the results that managers want: i.e. increased performance.
First, focusing on weaknesses often doesn't encourage people to work on those weaknesses: negative feedback generally puts us on the defensive. And, for many, it's natural to deny that the observations are true, or to dismiss them as irrelevant, by telling themselves that that aspect of their work isn't important anyway. Either way, they're not motivated to do much about it.
On the other hand, most of us respond well to praise. We realize that what we're doing is appreciated, so we try to repeat the positive behavior, in the hope of getting more praise.
Second, there's good evidence that our strengths and weaknesses are, to some extent, fixed (for more on this, listen to our Expert Interview with Chuck Martin entitled "Are we hardwired for success?", or read our article on Benziger's Personality Types).
But are you clear about what your strengths are? The traditional appraisal system offers only so much help in identifying them. What we need is a way of finding out what they are, and also of figuring out what we should do to "play to our strengths". The Reflected Best Self™ exercise helps us do just that, and this article gives our interpretation of the exercise.
How to Use the Tool
This is an overview of the steps in the Reflected Best Self™ technique:
Step 1: Survey others about your strengths
Identify ten or so individuals who are in a position to give you accurate feedback about your strengths. This group should include current colleagues, but also, ideally, former colleagues, friends and family members.
Then, ask them to think about what your strengths are, and to give an example to back up every strength they identify. The strengths don't need to be specifically work-related. In fact, if you're unhappy in your current job, it's particularly important that you get feedback from people who know you from outside a work context, as they may identify real strengths that you have which you're unable to display at work.
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Step 2: Identify themes
Once you have all of the responses in from your survey group, start to group the responses together into themes. Some of the themes may reflect strengths you were aware of, but they may also identify things that you hadn't realized were strengths because they come so naturally to you.
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Step 3: Write Your Strengths Profile
Next, draw together the key strengths that have emerged from your analysis, and tie them together in a few paragraphs that summarize what you're really good at.
When you're writing this, bear in mind that you'll use this in the future in two ways: first, to guide future actions and choices, and second to shore up your confidence when times get tough.
Step 4: Identify how you can play to your strengths
With a clear idea of your strengths, take a long, hard look at your current role. Are you playing to your strengths? If not, can you adapt the focus and nature of your work to make more of your strengths?
For example, are you really a "people person" who's spending half a day a week compiling reports? Is there someone in your team who would be better suited to this kind of work, and be grateful for the extra responsibility, while you spend the extra time coaching team members?
Or maybe you're a Sales and Marketing Manager who has come to the role from a sales position. You have a great knowledge of your products and understanding of what your company's customers need, but you also have a real weakness when it comes to copywriting. Here, hire a copywriter to turn your enthusiasm into words for your brochures.
If you do this, not only will your marketing materials read better, but you'll also free up time to spend with the product development team, letting them know what customers are telling you about the product range.
Key Points:
The Reflected Best Self™ exercise is a simple, structured process that helps you identify, and make the most of your strengths. It is not a replacement for the traditional appraisal approach which identifies areas for improvement with respect to your job description. Rather, playing to your strengths is an opportunity to raise your overall performance levels, by focusing on areas where you can excel, rather than simply being competent.
In order to have a clear head to consider the outcomes of Reflected Best Self™ analysis, it's best to carry it out at a different time of year from your appraisal.
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