“I know my strengths. I know my skills. I match them well to market demand.”
“Veni, vidi, vici (I came. I saw. I conquered.)”
Conquering something sounds cool. Yet what about conquering yourself — and reaping career success?
Let’s try adapting this quote to what we’re trying to achieve:
“I know my strengths. I know my skills. I match them well to market demand.”
We know our strengths. Our job aligns with our strengths. Our market value soars by excelling in this sweet spot. Ikigai is a helpful philosophy for helping you reveal your career sweet spot.
Ikigai speaks to your physical and emotional wellbeing and your sense of purpose. Give your well-being and sense of purpose by finding the intersection of four things:
- You love what you do
- You are great at it
- The world needs what you do, and what you’re great at
- Your industry rewards you for what you do
Is introspection an uncomfortable luxury? Yes. Yet how often do you analyse your skills and their market value over time?
Consider your strengths and weaknesses.
Your career may have been a series of stops, starts and failures. How wasteful was your former experience? Not likely. Could you have picked up a range of above-average skills? Mixing skills leads to new insights, career successes and even industries.
Where is the nexus of your skills, strengths and industry demand?
Strengths and values tests give you the first part of the puzzle. Here’s a startling revelation: this puzzle piece helps you find the second piece. The strengths and values revealed serve as food for thought. The beginning of your career introspection. We then have a way for you to assess your strengths. Your second puzzle piece fits with the first.
With the first two pieces, your unique contribution to the world is clearer. Both pieces serve as a platform for you to find the third puzzle piece: industry demand.
You can focus on “what’s good” about you with these tests. I wrote an article about the following tools years ago. My original article was intended for anyone who worked on projects in large organisations. Yet the value of these tools is available to you, no matter your job.
What are your values?
The VIA survey asks powerful questions about your values. Your results show 24 character strengths and of these, your top five. Your top five strengths will likely flow through to your work.
How would you describe your personality?
The Big Five personality assessment is well-known by psychologists. This brief assessment refers to five major personality qualities. OCEAN stands for “Openness to Experience,” “Conscientiousness,” “Extraversion,” “Agreeableness” and “Neuroticism.” Your score for each display on a continuum. One hundred questions later, you will know where you stand on these five key personality dimensions.
What are your strengths?
Clifton Strengths and StrengthsFinder both examine 34 strengths in four areas. This test determines your priorities. Four categories divide strengths. Implementation, influence, relationship-building, and strategic thinking are key. Your top five strengths are likely to be ones you use often at work. Examining how your strengths relate to the four categories above can be eye-opening.
How do you prefer to contribute to teams?
You can usually play two or three positions on a team. The Belbin team roles inventory might assist you to determine your contribution. Find out which of the nine team roles in this quiz you prefer.
What types of work do you prefer?
You can also take a test to determine your prefered work. Holland’s RIASEC test is a useful way to find out. RIASEC stands for Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional. Your top two or three choices can help you locate work.
We’ve concentrated on your own strengths so far. Let’s examine your villainous side. Shadowy faction ignores clinical problems. How does your personality affect your work?
What are your potential career derailers?
We’ve all made career-harming decisions in dark times. Stress, fatigue, or sleep deprivation may bring out your dark side. The Hogan Development Survey may help you delve into your darker side. HDS can help you explore your darker side. Some “career derailers” are listed on the HDS website.
How others see us is often a far cry from how we see ourselves. Seeking frank feedback from your team is an alternative to formal assessment. There is so much of ourselves that we don’t know about. The Johari Window is a valuable depiction of the unknown side of us:
Hearing and adapting to feedback takes humility. Yet where else can you get such incredible and inexpensive career-building insights? What could you do better or differently?
Have to, Ought to, Want to or Love to?
You now have six tools at your disposal. Here’s a seventh (kind of) — it’s a valuable way of thinking. HOWL is an easy, memorable lens for auditing what parts of your work drain or energise you.
What hobbies and activities give you energy or drain you? The concept of ‘have to, ought to, want to or love to?’ (or HOWL) is powerful. Looking at work tasks through the HOWL lens clarifies how each task contributes to your sense of energy. HOWL may help you calibrate your sense of purpose, thinking back to Ikigai. Which tasks do you find draining or obligatory- these are your ‘have to’ or ‘ought to’ tasks. Which gives you energy — your ‘want to’ or ‘love to’ tasks? Of course, context about your work environment, mood and other factors influence HOWL.
So you know your strengths. This was your first puzzle piece. You know your skills. That’s the second piece. How about linking the first two to the third? Can you now match them well to market demand?
These assessments and clarifying questions help you with two pieces of the puzzle. Insights about yourself serve as your first step toward your career metamorphosis. Good luck!
Please take a minute to have a look at my book — The Change Manager’s Companion. You can also check out my online course on Change Management.