Committed to Your Success Coaching & Consulting

In my last post, I discussed steps to take during the life-long process to successful career management.  I will discuss these in more detail during my next couple posts to further define the steps you can take in this quest.

 Self-assessment, or self-exploration, is a key factor in managing one’s career successfully.  It involves several factors that are essential to our career making decisions and influence our career path(s) and goals.  They help us to identify and understand what we want from our work roles, as well as our time away from work, and what knowledge, skills or abilities we bring to each of these roles.

Self-assessment includes honestly looking at:

1. Values - there are six values we all possess: theoretical, economic, aesthetic, religious, social, and political. It is imporant to assess what we value in each of these areas and how they impact us in our career choices.  For example, if you have high social values, you would do better to work in an environment where you have people interaction, such as in customer service.
2. Interests - This is the area of our likes and dislikes that we attribute to activities or to objects of what we like to do. Selecting a career path that is in-line with your interests will lead to satisfaction and success
3. Personality - What type of personality are you? There are a variety of tests to take, such as Myers-Briggs or Disc. One I like is the Keirsey Temperment Sorter www.keirsey.com. These can tell a lot about oneself in the areas of extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to new experiences (Greenhaus)
4. Talents - These can be the skills, proficiencies, or apptitudes that one possesses; it is important to assess the impact  further training or education can have to develop one’s talents.

It is essential to continually self-assess, to understand where we want to go and how to get there; this can apply to other areas of our lives and not just for our careers. We never know when unexpected situations may arise, that are either in - or not in - our control and we want to be ready for them. Knowing ourselves will help to better prepare us to take the steps we need to take to get to our ultimate success!