were aligned with what I do in my job. Although at the time I wasn’t in love with my job, I knew that I enjoyed about 50% of my job and that the other 50% was drudgery.I went through an exercise of identifying my strengths
(defined as “what I’m good at and enjoy”…need both of these!), then identifying roles/jobs that might satisfy those strengths
. That led me to change the direction of my career trajectory. Fortuitously, my next role was a great fit and I truly loved my job.When things changed at my workplace, having this knowledge helped me assess as much what I didn’t want to do, as those things that I did want to do. This was the first step in knowing that, ultimately, I’d have to make a step change in my life.
Marcus Buckingham’s “Trombone Player Wanted
” video is one that I strongly recommend to anyone who is searching about how to identify your strengths and then align them with what you do everyday. Only 2 of 10 people have this alignment in their jobs. The rest basically tolerate.
Wow- that 2 out of 10 stat floors me! Maybe it's changing with upcoming generations that are more interested in job satisfaction than material rewards. I hope so- tough to think of that many people just tolerating such a big part of their lives.
ReplyDeleteI feel strangely comforted that the stat is 2 out of 10. I think it's reassuring to hear that I'm not unlike so many people, who are struggling to find the a job that 'fits'.
ReplyDelete2 out of 10 is a scary stat, but I think part of the problem is that people don't take the time to assess their strengths as you did, or to think about what type of work, environment, etc. would make them happy. Also, I think people tend to get caught in the comfort zone and then find themselves years later "stuck" on a path they don't know how they ended up on.
ReplyDelete