Career Values: Part 4

Newsletter 11/21/07

Identify Your Strengths and Talents

This week, I am guiding you through the process of defining your career "sweet spot."
Working in your "sweet spot" means your job is in alignment with your values, skills and passions.

The final step is to identify your top professional skills. A big part of working in your "sweet spot" is doing what you are good at. This allows you to be in a job that comes naturally to you, rather than a position in which you have to try way too hard to make things work. (Been there, done that!)

Instead of feeling like heaving a huge boulder up a mountain, working in your "sweet spot" feels like rolling a rock down a mountain with momentum - joy in what you do and the rewards it brings you - easing you along. On a typical workday, if you feel like a square peg being pounded into a round hole, you owe it to yourself to explore other career options either within or outside your current profession.

The following written exercise will help you identify your top skills:

Review all of the jobs you have held, including your current position. Go all the way back to your first job - maybe it was in high school. Take out a separate sheet of paper for each position and write your title at the top of the page. Then, brainstorm what you liked about each job.

Ask yourself questions such as:

- What did I enjoy about this position?

- What assignments did I like working on?

- What elements of this position gave me the most satisfaction?

- What tasks were easy for me to accomplish?

- What types of projects elicited the most compliments from managers and clients?

There are no right or wrong answers in this exercise. Let your brainstorm flow and do not censor yourself. This document is for your eyes only, so there is no risk of judgment. I recommend you work on this a few days in a row for about 15 minutes each day. Give yourself enough time for all ideas and observations to surface.

Schedule time in your calendar to complete this exercise in the next seven days. Next week, I will guide you through the process of analyzing your results.

~Maret~

Career Values (Part 3)

Newsletter 11/14/07

Identify Your Professional Passions

This week, I am guiding you through the process of defining your career "sweet spot." Career Values Part 3
Working in your "sweet spot" means your job is in alignment with your values, skills and passions.

The third step is to identify your passions. Your passions are the concepts, topics and issues that really get you pumped up. They are the things in life that most interest you and always grab your attention.

For example:

- Do you love everything about fashion or the entertainment industry?

- Are you crazy about movies and want to write your own screenplay?

- Do you get joy out of conceptualizing and designing new software?

- Are you passionate about environmental conservation?

- Do you get energized advocating on behalf of children?

The following exercise will help clarify your passions:

Think about your favorite magazine. This is the publication you look forward to reading each month. It inspires you and sparks creative ideas you can't wait to put into action.

Now, put yourself on the cover of your favorite magazine! That's right, your smiling face will be smack dab on the cover. This month, the featured topic is you!

Let your creativity flow. Do not put any restrictions on this imaginative exercise. For example, say O Magazine is your favorite publication. It's true that Oprah is the only person ever featured on the cover. However, for the purposes of this exercise, you are on the cover this month. Or if your favorite magazine is PC World, which typically doesn't put people on the cover, that's okay. Let your imagination take over and forget the rules.

Envision you are being interviewed by the magazine's top features reporter. The topic is: "The greatest achievement of your career." This is the achievement you feel completely excited about. It gives you goose bumps just to think about it. The goose bump factor is very important here! That's when you know you're on to something big!

Visualize yourself throughout the interview. What questions are asked? How do you respond? Here are some sample questions to get you started:

- Tell us about the greatest achievement of your career.

- How does it feel to have achieved this accomplishment?

- Once you determined your goal, how did you create your success plan?

- What obstacles did you face along the way?

- How did you overcome these challenges?

- What advice would you give to other women who want to pursue a similar career path?

- What's next for you?

A key step in successfully reaching a goal is to visualize yourself achieving it. You want to create a vivid mental picture of success and allow yourself to experience the positive feelings - pride, happiness, satisfaction, etc. - that go along with your accomplishment. The more you can "see" your success in your mind's eye, the more likely you will be to make it a reality.

After your visualization is complete, examine your experience. Here are some questions to ask:

- What did you discover about yourself?

- What success strategies were revealed?

- What tactics for overcoming obstacles were uncovered?

- What surprised you?

Schedule time in your calendar to complete this exercise in the next seven days. Next week, I will guide you through the process of identifying your strengths and talents - the final step toward discovering your career "sweet spot."

~Maret

Career Values (Part 2)

Newsletter 11/7/07

Identify Your On-the-Job Values

This week, I am guiding you through the process of defining your career "sweet spot."
Working in your "sweet spot" means your job is in alignment with your values, skills and passions.

The next step is to identify your work values. It is extremely important to identify what you value in work. We all want a job that fits with who we are and allows us to truly be ourselves. When we have a position like this, we are happier, more fulfilled and have a greater chance of success.

This brief exercise will help you identify and clarify your personal set of work values:

Research shows the following to be the main values people have in work. As you review the list, identify your top three.

Work Values

Social Affiliation

This means you need a social atmosphere in which you have lots of interaction with others, be it co-workers, colleagues at other organizations, or the public.

Autonomy

This is a desire for self-determination. For example, control over how you carry out your assignments and how you schedule your time.

Mission

A desire to make a difference and "do good" for your community and the world as a whole.

Money

This can mean a desire for stability and security, or it may mean a desire for status, keeping up with your peers, etc.

Recognition

A position that allows your efforts to be acknowledged by others on a regular basis.

Power

This is a desire for large-scale influence over others and formal power. For example, you want to be the Director, President or CEO.

Creativity

You highly value having a creative outlet to express yourself.

Intellectual Stimulation

You thrive in an intellectually stimulating environment, however you define such an environment.

Balance

You value free time to spend with your friends, family, hobbies, etc.

Fun

This speaks for itself. Fun is defined by you, whatever fun at work means for you.

Review this list carefully and identify your top three work values. Next, rank them in order of importance and write yourself a paragraph on each value and why it is important to you.

Having a clear idea of your most deeply held values is a key step in defining your ideal career fit. Such awareness will greatly increase your chances of working in a truly fulfilling position that meets your unique set of parameters.

Schedule time in your calendar to complete this exercise in the next seven days. Next week, I will guide you through the process of identifying your passions - another key element to discovering your career "sweet spot."

~Maret~

Career Values: Part 1

Identify Your Life Values

One of my favorite quotes is by Confucius: "Find work that you love and you'll never work another day in your life." This is about doing what you are good at rather than expending energy shoring up your weaknesses. I call this working in your "sweet spot."

If you're a golfer, you may be familiar with the concept of the "sweet spot." In golf, the "sweet spot" is the very center of the golf club head. When the ball is hit from this place, you get the most power, distance and control in your swing.

Isn't that what you want in your career as well? When you work in your "sweet spot," you are well positioned with the power and control to take your career as far as you wish. When you're in this zone, it doesn't feel like work. Your job feels like the right fit for you, and success - both internal and external rewards - comes easily.

Everyone can have the job of their dreams if they're willing to take the time to discover their greatest aptitudes and what truly makes them happy. It's all about identifying the highest and best use of your gifts and talents as well as your greatest interests and passions.

This month, I will guide you through a four-part process of discovering your career "sweet spot." We will start by exploring your life values. I suggest you use a folder or notebook that appeals to you. This will serve as your designated career book.

Life Values

Identifying what's most important to you - your life values - is the first step in designing a fulfilling life and career. Once you know what's most important to you, you can design your career around those things. That way, your career will fit into your life, rather than forcing your life to somehow fit into your career.

Values are unique to each individual. And, of course, there are no right or wrong value choices. For example, the following could be the top values for three different women.

Person One

Family
Security
Community Service

Person Two

Independence
Adventure
Fun

Person Three

Professional Success
Monetary Success
Status

As you can see, each woman has a different set of core values. Again, there is no judgment; each woman's individual choices are respected.

Now, let's get you on the road to discovering your core values. The following exercise will start the process:

Brainstorm and write down the things that are most important to you in life. Remember, there is no right or wrong. Take as much time as you need to create your list. Many women find it helpful to work on their list for a few minutes a day. Ideas often surface over the course of a few days. Once you have completed your initial brainstorm, identify your top three or four values. Narrowing down your list allows you to get very clear about what is most essential to you in life.

Idea Sparkers

The following exercises will help you kick-start your life values brainstorm:

Exercise One
What are the highlights of your days? Identify the things that you enjoy most throughout a typical day. They could be certain types of interactions you have, contributions you make, activities you engage in, etc.

Exercise Two
Imagine you are independently wealthy - you never have to work again in your life. You are financially set. How do you choose to spend your days? What do you do with your time?

Exercise Three
Imagine yourself at 100 years old and surrounded by your descendants and/or descendants of your friends. You are in a warm and relaxed atmosphere (such as around a fireplace). What would you say to them is important in life?

Schedule time in your calendar to complete this exercise in the next seven days. Next week, I will guide you through the process of identifying your work values - another key element to discovering your career "sweet spot."

The Rewards of Self Promotion

Newsletter 10/24/07

My definition of self-promotion for professional people is: Discussing your gifts and talents in a tactful way, when the time is right.

The rewards of promoting yourself in this manner are manifold. The people I work with have reaped considerable rewards from developing and honing this skill. These rewards include:

• Salary increases
• Better work assignments
• More respect from managers and colleagues
• Cash bonuses

For example, one of my clients is a marketing consultant at a public relations firm. She felt as though her bosses did not fully recognize her achievements and contributions to the company. Through our coaching, she realized she does not speak up enough in meetings and this was why her colleagues were unaware of all the great work she was doing.

Therefore, we created a strategy that allowed her to comfortably talk about herself in group settings. As a result, at the annual company retreat, she took the opportunity to sing her own praises and discuss a new account she had recently landed. This led to her receiving a sizeable cash bonus as well as a great new work assignment! Not too shabby.

Take the time to identify opportunities when you can discuss your gifts and talents in a tactful way with your colleagues. Create your personalized self-promotion strategy and reap the professional rewards awaiting you!

~Maret~