Blog Archives

What is the value of personality tests?

9/1/2015

I always thought there was value in using personality testing tools and I was interested to read a critique, which I thought would be worth sharing.

I think it’s useful to use as many different diagnostic tools as you think appropriate to help you get a perspective on which direction your career could take.

This would ideally be made up of subjective self-assessment exercises as well as more objective tools like personality tests. I also value the thoughts of others either informally through colleagues and role models and more formally from mentors and coach counsellors.

It’s not a good idea to rely on any one form or tool and you definitely need to test the waters and get out there and act on the new idea so you are confident about making the commitment.

It makes sense to use standardized questionnaires to see how your personality type could match a particular career. I was interested to read the thoughts of the author Roman Krznaric in “How to Find Fulfilling Work” where he cautions users to not rely on personality tests, suggesting that there is evidence that people rely too much on tests raising expectations that are rarely met.

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the best known and most popular psychometric tests with over 2 million administered annually. Myers Briggs places the user into one of 16 personality

I’ve been able to take three MBTI tests in previous employment as part of management courses over that last 20 years and was fairly consistent over this time.

But Krznaric points to the criticism leveled at the MBTI including the ‘test-retest reliability’, which is basically that if you take the test again within a short period there is a high chance that you will fall into a different personality category compared to the first time you did it.

Of most importance is the critique about what I see as the main point of doing these tests from a career perspective, that is that it can guide you towards the kinds of work you could enjoy and be successful in. It is also worth noting that according to US psychologist David Pittenger there is “no evidence to show positive relation between MBTI type and the success within an occupation. Nor is there any data to suggest that specific types are more satisfied within specific occupations than any other types”.

He puts the popularity of MBTI down to “the beguiling nature of the horoscope like summaries of personality and steady marketing”.

So when using personality tests note they can help us if we are struggling in finding our strengths, though it is a valid and important point that we should not hand over responsibility on an important decision to someone or something else, such as an objective personality tool. At the same time these tests can offer us some insights, particularly when we are confused about roles that we may not have otherwise considered.

For more online tools go to www.careerredesign.com.au/free-resources.html

1 Comment

Changing Careers Means Changing Ourselves

3/1/2015

0 Comments

Guest post in I AM WOMAN

http://www.iamwomanmagazine.com.au/changing-careers-means-changing-ourselves/?utm_content=buffer4cd64&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Have you ever thought about what makes the difference between staying stuck in a job that is not inspiring and moving forward to a new and more meaningful career?

My sense is that it’s more than the associated fears that hold us back. We can’t talk about fear without also discussing our approach to risk. Risk taking means taking action without certainty of the outcome.

No career change will magically materialize out of the blue. It will take effort, extending into the unknown, living with uncertainty, and often experiencing confusion and mini realizations along the way.

It will also mean digging deeper and understanding that work provides women with more than money. It provides self-esteem, independence, a sense of identity and is closely tied with how we see ourselves.

In considering the issues of most relevance to women and career change, we reflect on how many successful women don’t make the move because of two significant issues: they have been defined by the success of their work and they need financial security.

Elizabeth Perle McKenna, author of ‘When Work Doesn’t Work Anymore: Women, Work and Identity’ believes “Meaningful work and a balanced life are deep rooted and genuine human needs. Like any needs they can be repressed or ignored for years at a time, but sooner or later they’re going to assert themselves”.

In the end women who have undergone a career change note that it was not painless, it was often messy, but more importantly the process was more about changing themselves than changing jobs.

So why is this so… why do most if us associate so strongly with our working identity?

Our working identity is made up of many factors reflecting our many selves. It may be tangible and defined by the things we do, our past experience and then further reinforced by the company we keep.

I believe that to have a successful career transition women must reflect not only on their desires, abilities, preferred working environments and assets. They must also take time to reflect on why they want the change and thus explore themselves and on the possibilities that change creates.

For midlife or mid career professional women the need for change can also be more to do with a natural psychological need for change during this period.

Carl Yung , Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist, refers to our development at midlife as ‘individuation’, where we start to understand our whole being, and bring together both our conscious and unconscious selves. As we move through this period we spend time reassessing our goals, becoming more aware of our Self and of the relationship between change and personal growth.

Robyn Vickers-Willis in ‘Navigating Midlife: Women Becoming Themselves” describes the distinct phases we move through from a time of insecurity and uncertainty to one where we create meaning and are more aware of an ease within ourselves and excitement about life.

In ‘Sweet Spot Careers’, I relate this directly to the value and need to explore, where exploring can turn into discovery when we dedicate time and effort into its pursuit. But above all, while reflection and planning are important, action is vital. By action I mean testing reality and different parts of ourselves, networking with different groups and trying on new versions of ourselves.

It’s also interesting that women who have made a successful career transition, have also recognised their close association between work and identity. In changing careers, roles or even jobs, for some, this is about letting go of how they have been defined by others and themselves.

Elizabeth Perle McKenna believes that “because success itself has become our identity, to diminish any part of our profession is equal to diminishing ourselves. We depend on work to define us”.

But as our priorities shift so too does the way we see ourselves. It becomes less about the identity we associate with on the business card and more about our values, families, friends and how we prioritise our time.

“Whether propelled by outer circumstances or inner turmoil, women are stopping and reassessing what is important to them, and what they can do about it before it’s too late” says Perle McKenna.

With this recognition for the need for change also comes the fear, as we realise that we’ll need to confront and even reject the value system we’ve lived with up until now.

Perle McKenna goes on to explain that we need to face the “demons of economic insecurity, loss of status and loss of identity. We have, after all, a world around us that exerts tremendous pressure on us to stay where we are and keep doing what we’ve doing”.

The importance we place on money and our relationship to it can hinder or advance our career change process. We can reflect on how we define the necessities in life that money provides. The effect of consumption distorts what we need, and we consume more, nearly double what we did forty years ago. If we spend more than we make, the debt keeps us in ‘need’.

For women, having money promises security and controlling money means freedom. In making career choices and in striving for peace of mind, we need to understand the significance and value we place on this association.

This dilemma does on one side take sacrifice and a willingness to make trade offs. On the other side it provides an opportunity to take stock of our lives and draw up a new agenda for ourselves.

Work will never work unless we change the way we value success and the way we judge our progress towards it. If we don’t start with our values, any changes are merely cosmetic.

As Perle McKenna so eloquently says “This is why it is so critical that women replace their emotional, psychological and even financial dependence on our work identities with a more porous, broad, and flexible system of identifying themselves. One that prizes balance over attainment, meaning over status, inclusion over hierarchy, the product over the process. Only by shifting to these values can we create a new picture of a successful life that allows for priorities to shift over time as needs dictate. One in which work plays a key role but not an exclusive one”.

References

Elizabeth Perle McKenna; When Work Doesn’t Work Anymore: Women, Work and Identity, Published by Hodder and Stoughton 1997

Robyn Vickers Willis; Navigating Midlife: Women becoming themselves, Published by Wayfinder Publishing 2002

Maria Simonell, Sweet Spot Careers: A Practical and Creative Guide to a Successful Midlife Career Transition”, 2014

0 Comments

Goal Setting .... Still put off? Part 4

2/1/2015

0 Comments

In the final post in this series, are you still put off by goal setting? Do you turn off when the thought of goal setting or SMART goals is mentioned?

There is no doubt that to design your future career you must begin by creating goals and turning these goals into projects.

So why does this turn you off? Lets explore the art of goal setting to help you appreciate the value of this process and understand how creating goals will assist to turn your desires into reality.

To start, re-think the following:

1. Consider what you want, that is, your desires. What promises can you make to yourself about your future? What commitments are you wiling to declare to help you define what you want as part of your future? If you’re still having difficulty with this, go back to the activities and reflection sections and use these to define your ideal future.

2. Setting goals will help you figure out a way of reaching these commitments, as well as prioritising which ones are worth keeping.

3. Side projects, while they’re a way for you to explore possibilities, they can also help you create and make goals happen.

Considering asking yourself “What is possible?” so that you can open up a world that may have never existed for you, rather than thinking about “What are my options?” which could limit you into potential choices that are within the range of your vision now.
There is no limit to what you can accomplish when you are willing to step beyond the options before you now, when you get clear about what you want most and when you commit to making this happen. It doesn’t make you a better person to set goals. By being clear about your goals, it makes it much more likely that you will achieve the future you desire.

Thoughts from author Nicholas Lore, from Pathfinder

Principles of Goal Setting

Nicholas Lore, author of ‘Pathfinder - How to choose or change your career for a lifetime of satisfaction and success’, provides guiding principles to help us create lasting and meaningful career goals.

1. Understand that there are three levels of goals

At the highest level are the Meta Goals, these are comprehensive, big and are expressed as ideas like health, pleasure, security, self-expression.

From meta-level goals flow the Specific Goals. So with a goal of prosperity, you might set a specific goal concerning your income that could include goals about your saving, retirement, buying habits etc.

Then this leads to the next and lowest level that is the Action Steps. These are the steps you take to achieve the higher order goals and act as milestones to enable you to track how you’re progressing.

The Meta Goals will get us asking WHY? If you want a lifestyle that includes a career that allows you time to spend with your young children, the why behind this could be answered by your own upbringing, or that you feel these are the most formative years for children and you want to be able to have more control over this.

Similarly, our Meta Goals could be you want a lifestyle that includes time outdoors or access to a place on the beach. So in asking WHY? This could be that you love the feeling you get when you can recharge yourself, providing you more energy for the rest of your commitments.

So the first step in goal setting is to be clear about your Meta Goals. In turn you will become clearer on your motivations, get you in direct contact with what you really want and help you with choices that arise.

“If your goal setting is simply focused on your to-do list or on specific goals, you will have more difficulty sticking with the plan than if you understand all three levels of goals…. The most conscious, evolved people create their own Meta Goals rather than just run the software program built into them… Living from a purpose is essentially surrendering to a Meta Goal that you invented, which you elevate to a higher position than the ones already programmed in, and which serves some purpose larger than your self- fulfillment”.

2. Make your goals correspond with what you really want
Align your goals with your deepest principles and values rather than what you think your family, company or cultures goals are. Your passions and desires will drive this and in turn help you be authentic when you turn this into goals that are meaningful for you.

3. Create goals for every important area of your life
By now you’ve understood that this course is not just about your career, it’s about finding a place that matches all your life’s desires with an architecture to get there. Create goals that help you succeed in these areas and this will help you be clearer about achieving your career goals and, at some stage, they will become interwoven with your life goals.

4. Understand that well- founded goals contain some specific ingredients that boost their effectiveness
This is where the acronym SMART can be used effectively-make your goals SMART - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound.

With some thought you can turn vague ideas into SMART goals that give you something specific to aim for.

“Goals are an active intention, not a prediction. They focus your energy and direct your attention towards things you desire to accomplish”.

5. Frame your goals so they communicate what you really want
Firstly consider whether positive or negative messages work better for you as a motivator. For example you could frame your career goal as ‘My goal is to quit this unworkable job within a month’. Or if your mind moves towards more positive statements, you could frame this goal, as ‘My goal is to move from this job to one more aligned with my career strategy’.

The key is to frame your career goals to fit your personality so that they more accurately communicate your real intentions.

6. Write them down
Like anything important in life, we need to ensure we manage it, so by writing down your goals you will be able to see how you’re tracking against them. Consider drawing, sketching or mind mapping your goals – the key is to put them down on paper rather than just relying on keeping them in your head.

7. Create both short and long term goals
Effective goal setting will enable you to consider your longer-term life’s intentions as well as what you need to this month, this week and today.

8. Manage and revisit your goals
There is so many ways to manage this step, from reviewing your long-term goals on an annual basis, maybe as part of your new year’s renewal, to a monthly tracking of your short-term goals. The key is to revisit your list often and ensure that the short-term goals are progressing towards achieving the longer term ones.

Don’t be afraid to reword them, thrown out ones that are not SMART or tick off the ones that you have succeeded in achieving. It is said that the most effective people do this daily.

9. Meta Goals can’t always be reached by fulfilling the lower level goals
Nicholas Lore says that while this might sound contradictory, the point is that we need to take care not to be overwhelmed by the abstract nature of Meta Goals. Keep on eye on ensuring your actions are consistent with your Meta Goals and your specific goals are well founded, to help you achieve these.

10. Set goals that take you as far as you can stretch
If you want to achieve your SMART goals, then make them reasonable goals. Then think about what ‘reasonable’ is.

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible”
Arthur C Clarke

Try This Activity
How far are you willing to stretch to have your dreams come true?

Start by finding paper and drawing a horizontal line across the centre of the paper. On the left hand side, write down your reasonable career goals. On the right hand side, write down what you really want, would go for if you didn’t need to be reasonable and if you weren’t constrained.

Then fill in the spaces in-between these two extremes with goals that represent a progression from your ‘reasonable goals’ to your ‘extreme goals’.

Think about how willing you are to stretch, what are you willing to do that could seem impossible to get to the right hand side goals? Then think about how you could make this happen.

In the end only you can decide how far you will go to make these goals come alive.

0 Comments

Goal Setting ... Tips on what to do when you get stuck Part 3

2/1/2015

0 Comments

Work out if you’re stopped or stuck. You could be taking a breather or adjusting the course of the project or career approach.
Motivate yourself – put up a sign on your fridge ‘When Stopped, Just Start’.
Do something different until it feels like you’re back on track.
Talk to someone, from a career buddy to a career coach.
Reframe the goal or question.
Ask yourself what benefits you’re getting from staying stuck. What’s the secret pay off that is more important than moving on with your project? Is it just easier to stay in this unsatisfying job?
Do you have a commitment problem? Then rethink your goals.
Does the side project or overall career option require you to consider gaining more skills? Then rethink your skills set and consider further study.
Is the bottleneck you don’t have the right tools? Then get access to what you need...is it the software or just hire that suit?
Are you going up a blind laneway? Ask yourself if you’re doing what is comfortable and a low risk or exploring a new approach that will progress your side project.
Embrace not knowing. Our nature is to explain everything because we are uncomfortable with uncertainty. So what do you need to let go of to move on?

and remember...
The trouble with mistakes or failures is not the event itself but the negative beliefs that they may generate - I’ve failed in the past, so I’ll fail again. Repeated failures are discouraging because they reduce our expectations of future success.

Developing self-efficacy, that is, the belief in our ability to achieve the things we want, involves more than recognising our strengths and achievements. It also involves acknowledging past mistakes without exaggerating or distorting their importance. The challenge is to learn from our mistakes and to use those lessons in our new endeavours, so we can increase our chances of future success.

Thoughts from Dr Sarah Edelman, author Change Your Thinking 2012

0 Comments

Goal Setting .... Whats Stopping Us ? Part 2

2/1/2015

0 Comments

In Part 1, we explored the 5 steps to problem solving. Let's now go further into what creates the obstacles to a creating a new habit, and more broadly in creating the change needed in career transition.
Author, Dr Sarah Edelman in Change Your Thinking, 2012, says that when we look at the obstacles that prevent us from getting what we want, they fall into two main categories- psychological and logistical.

Logical Obstacles
These stem from the realities of the situation
For example :

Limited time to do all that is needed,
Insufficient funds,
Low energy as a result of stress, illness or lifestyle,
Needs of others such as family or work commitments,
Conflicting goals that require us to prioritise goals even further,
Lack of skills or experience.

Psychological Obstacles
These stem from our thoughts, feelings and attitudes

Unclear of what the we want from a career, or poorly defined goals,
Fear or can’t deal with or embrace uncertainty,
Complacency and natural tendency to maintain current routines,
Lack of self discipline leading to frustration when things don’t go as we planned,
Loose site of goals and get side tracked by other demands,
Low self efficacy and lack of confidence,
Poor planning leading to an inability to achieve goals.

“Psychological obstacles, such as lack of confidence, fear of failure or criticism, inertia and low frustration tolerance, are often the most challenging of all. In addition, we need to confront logistical obstacles, such as other people’s needs, and lack of time, money, energy or skills. Although different, the two types of obstacles are interrelated. Confronting our psychological obstacles can clear the way for solving logistical problems.”

Confronting Obstacles
Once we’re clear about what’s stopping us, we need to plan strategies to overcome them.

Logical obstacles require us to think about what’s in the way and work out strategies that can enable us to move forward. Most of these problems will have a possible solution and our approach will depend on our circumstances and available resources.

What solutions can you apply when exploring logical obstacles to a side project or our careers more generally?

Consider:
·      What can you live without to save money for your side project?
·      What new routine do you need to find time for your side project?
·      Who do you need to gain agreement from to undertake a side project?
·      What do you need to do differently?
·      Which goals do you need to prioritise to make the side project happen?

While it may appear that the solutions to obstacles are the hard part, for many of us, follow through and persevering through the obstacles is the most difficult.

Psychological obstacles require us to look deeper at the underlying reasons for our resistance to change, or our approach to risk and fear. As with many of the themes explored in the Career Redesign Program, observing our inner state will provide an answer to why we behave as we do. In some cases we may need to challenge our thoughts and beliefs, particularly those that limit us and keep us stuck.

Dr Sarah Edelman believes “when we look at negative cognitions, we can often see the lack of logic in our thinking, and the beliefs that can be challenged. Our next step is to write statements that directly challenge our limiting beliefs… The process of writing and reading over these statements helps to increase motivation by challenging the cognitions that keep us stuck”.

Write a To Do List

If you’re stuck starting on your career design side project or the next steps, start with a weekly ‘to do list’. Include in this list the tasks that you plan to do each day as part of your side project. See how good you feel when you begin to cross off items each day.

Make the tasks realistic and create sub goals when the task requires breaking it down into chunks to make it more manageable. If you don’t achieve the goals, reflect on the reasons why and go back and re-examine the obstacles and your approach to overcoming them.

0 Comments

Goal Setting....Are You Over It? Part 1

2/1/2015

0 Comments

Continuing on the theme of setting and sticking to goals, the next 4 part post explore the barriers that could creep in once we start to consider career options and explore our side projects. From loosing momentum, having trouble with goal setting, or being overcome by the obstacles, these could all lead to staying stuck.

Are You Over It?... Then Let’s Problem Solve

By now you should be you’re buzzing with ideas you could try as part of your side project, or redefining what role, industry or approach you want to take with your new career.

But if you’re not buzzing and your career redesign has lost its shine, you might be becoming complacent or unable to take the next steps. Maybe it’s starting to feel like it’s a problem rather than an opportunity.

Dr Sarah Edelman, author of Change Your Thinking, believes that our approach to overcoming our problems or difficulties depends on both the situation we find ourselves in, as well as what personal resources we have to respond to it. These resources include many of the ideas covered so far like in this program, like our attitudes, beliefs, mindset strategies and problem solving skills.

In previous posts we’ve explored how we approach risk and uncertainty through the creative elements as well as why we’re afraid of change. We’ve also been asked to check if we have an ‘avoidance plan’ that’s stopping us making a decision about the next steps.

If you’re really stuck, let’s consider a problem solving approach to get you out of this mindset.

Dr Sarah Edelman writes that we must start from the premise that a solution exists. If we do this, then we are more willing to look for solutions and are more likely to apply them.

She also believes we must recruit the support of others to help us come up with more ideas, reinforcing the tribe and collaboration concepts discussed in the course program.

“Some situations lend themselves to problem solving more easily than others. Sometimes the solutions are obvious and, while we may not always be keen to make the effort, we know what we need to do…. But what about those tough ones - those difficult situations for which no obvious solutions exist? …. Brainstorming possible options and then narrowing down to a short list is the best way to work out what needs to be done”.

The 5 Step Problem Solving Process

In Change Your Thinking, Dr Edelman provides a structured problem solving approach to complex problems.

1.    Define the Problem Clearly

When we feel like the career directions are overwhelming, we need to define the problem. This will make the situation feel more manageable and help us define what the next steps could be.

2.    Brainstorm Possible Solutions

When solutions are not obvious we need to think creatively and brainstorming can help us explore a wider range of career options. Brainstorming allows us to write all our ideas down, regardless of how practical they are and if we do this with others, we can often get further creative ideas.

3.    Identify the Best Solutions

Now it’s time to cull the career ideas and eliminate the ones that are neither feasible nor realistic. This assists us to identify the most workable solutions to our redesign process.

4.    Set Clear Goals

From the list of best most workable solutions, now start to set some specific goals that can help you focus your future career or side project actions.

5. Break Down the Goals into Smaller Goals

For the more complex goals that could require more planning, break them down further and see these as stepping stones to your main goals. It will help to start a timeline with start and end dates.

This five-step process probably sounds quite simple, but it’s surprising how many of us don’t follow a logical process when confronted with what appear to be overwhelming problems.

Further to this, is staying focused on our desire for change and ensuring that as obstacles come along, we don’t loose hope or give up and loose the momentum for a new career.

0 Comments

Commonly Broken New Year Resolutions

2/1/2015

0 Comments

Still on the theme of creating and making new habits, a great piece on why so many people fail to keep resolutions and how to keep them.

Why is losing weight easier when you attach it to another resolution? ... or
Why saying ' I don't ' is more successful than saying 'I can't'... or
Why thinking someone is watching will help you keep that resolution....

Read more at
http://www.oprah.com/health/Commonly-Broken-New-Years-Resolutions/1

0 Comments

Creating a New Habit in 2015

2/1/2015

0 Comments

It's timely to consider what goals we want to set for 2015. It's also useful to think about what could be limiting in achieving these goals...so let's consider what we tell ourselves that keep us from reaching our goals.

I work on the basis that it takes 30 days to create a new habit and / or break an old habit. I've since discovered that this view has no real science to back it up and another study found it takes more like 66 days on average to establish a new routine.

So while it probably depends more on the person and the complexity of the habit to make or break the change, the bottom line is that it takes time to get into this new routine. So keep focused on the end game while you create the new pattern.

0 Comments

Author

I'm interested in how we find ways to bring passion and curiosity into everyday lives. Embrace being restless, be inspired by others journeys and just have a go.

Above all I value the awake, curious and creative mind that cross pollinates ideas to join the dots and build new ideas.

Author

Archives

Categories