What are your personal strengths? Write them down on a piece of paper. What are your weaknesses or underdeveloped areas? Write them down on another piece of paper. What do you love doing in your current job and what drives you crazy about it? Write down your answers and compare the lists.
We spend our highest energy hours at work and our families get what is left of us after we've given the best of ourselves away during the workday. Life is short. It is important to do work that we like or even love.
Compare your lists. Hopefully, you will find that there is a correlation between your strengths and the work that you like to do. What you like and dislike has a lot to do with your personality style. Expressive personalities like people and are often in customer service or sales position. They are miserable if they are alone and stuck on a computer all day. Analytical personality styles like working alone and do not choose to be with people. They are happier handling details and paperwork. The amiable personality style enjoys helping and supporting others. They may be unhappy if they are in charge and have to make quick decisions. They want everyone to be happy and have a difficult time saying "no." The driver personality style has no trouble saying, "no" and is comfortable in a leadership position. They get bored and frustrated in a structured and predictable position.
If your personality doesn't fit your job, you may be unhappy at work. If your lists are out of balance, you may be in the wrong job. Take the initiative and talk to your boss. Let your boss know that you want to do an even better job and significantly improve your performance. It's much easier and less expensive to work with existing employees than it is to hire and train new people. You must to be willing to say, "Can we talk?"
Jane Boucher is an author and professional speaker with offices in Reno. Reach her at 853-0226 or jane@janeboucher.com.
