Accurate Self-Assessment VV#6

Hey All ~ thanks so much for an engaging time yesterday. Loved that ya'll were good sports about putting your artist talents on display. Next week will be song & dance, so get ready! (jk)

In Chapter 3 of On Becoming a Leader, Warren Bennis is going to elaborate for us on 'knowing thyself' which is a phrase taken from Greek philosophy and I'll post on that in a few days after you've had a chance to read it  yourselves.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself)

While some ways of 'knowing ourselves' must be revealed from God (PURPOSE), there are a lot of things we can do to discover more about our PERSONALITY, PERFORMANCE and the PERCEPTIONS of others. I've updated the Model of Knowing Self to include some other ways that we often try to define ourselves: POSSESSIONS, PARTICULARS and PEDIGREE.

Next time, we're going to talk in detail about knowing self through PERSONALITY. We will take an in depth look at the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment - the world's most popular personality assessment.

         Here are some ideas of other ways you can further 'self-assess'. You might want to cut/paste these in a permanent file to come back to when you have time to do them.

   Life Stories – think back on the situations that have shaped your life so far. Observe yourself in those situations as a reporter might. What do you see? Why do you think you felt the way you did? How did you act? Why did you act that way? What impact did you have on others in that situation because of how you were feeling and acting? What does this story tell you about yourself? What changes would you like to make based on this reflection? (Bennis also talks about this in Chapter 3).

·      Assessments - Take as many psychometric assessments as you can get your hands on and then cross-reference them to identify patterns of strengths (or functions/responsibilities to avoid)

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    Occupations Research – look into various occupations on O*Net website (www.onetonline.org) which lines out the tasks, tools, technology, knowledge, skills, abilities, work activities and work context related to a wide variety of jobs.  See which descriptions seem to be most appealing or exciting to you and identify why that job cluster or specific job description is appealing to you.

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   Hire a career or life coach - work with a professional that can help you to continue to explore your unique design through other means and tools (www.thumbtack.com).

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   Ongoing Study - Go through a self-paced career development workbook, read books, attend developmental workshops, conference, seminars.

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   Trigger words – what  words catch your attention, stoke your curiosity and you seem to resonate with them. For instance, Organize? Structure? Completion? Create? Develop? Your attraction to these words can be clues to your design.

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     Frustration & Friction – what are those ongoing sources of frustration & friction in your job or life? These can be an indication that you are not aligned.

   Dream - how do you envision your best and authentic self operating in the world (do not let finances, time, relationships or other constraints block your creativity)

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     Pray over spiritual/holy literature to inform you of your PURPOSE and identity according to your faith beliefs.