Which career will free my superpowers?

time to harness your personality & natural talents for career fulfilment

One of my top takeaway’s from Janet Murray’s Content Live event this year was the importance of playing to our strengths.

In his memorable talk last week, performance coach Osmaan Sharif challenged us all to harness our entrepreneurial ‘superpowers’ to make our life as business owners easier and more productive. Using the Wealth Dynamics personality assessment it was ridiculously easy to see why as a CREATOR I simply love coming up with a torrent of new ideas and inspiring others that change is possible. Creators love nothing better than to develop and launch a new product! Equally clear were the challenges Creators face in completing projects before they’re distracted by the next amazing idea. This rang alarmingly true!

And this also got me thinking again about how personality impacts career fulfilment. If you’re a Creator like me, but your current work only allows you to work on the fine detail, it’s not surprising you career fulfilment will be strikingly low. Just as bad would be an Accumulator, whose defining personality traits include preparation, careful planning and reliability, being forced to give an ad hoc pitch for a new venture! We all have preferences - ways of working and interacting - that come most naturally to us. In this state, out natural talents are given full expression and the work feel effortless. Is it time to give this natural talent a free rein?

So how can you bring personality into your career choices?

Like any psychometric profiling tool, personality assessments can only reflect the information you submit in your answers when compared with a large sample of other people who have taken the assessment. Your answers will be analysed and grouped according to personality ‘types’. These describe broad tendencies in how you act, experience events and take decisions.

When you read through your results you may think some points are not very like you – and this may indeed be the case! Try asking someone who knows you well (and whose impartial judgment you trust) what they think about the accuracy of your results. If you find one of the other profiles is more ‘you’ it’s worth exploring that a little more.  

If these results leave you feeling confused, don’t worry - I can help!

Energy and drivers 

When you’re exploring new career options or trying to understand why your current work doesn’t fit too well, personality also provides clues about what energises and motivates you. If you choose a career where the work you do on a daily basis suits you personally, it’s likely that you’ll feel less stressed and anxious and start to enjoy greater fulfillment. You’ll be able to harness your natural strengths and work will flow more easily.

Personality tests also evaluate how you like to learn, how you prefer to make decisions and how you deal with the world. All of which are crucial to your career success!

Other factors that impact career satisfaction include how far you are able to use your favourite skills, whether you know that your work and the organisation matches your personal values, and that overall your career gives you a sense of meaning and purpose. Personality then is just one part of the equation – but a vital one!

There are many personality assessments available online, including: 

MBTI  (paid)

16personalities  (free)

Talent-dynamics-profiles  (paid)

Your results might look like this…

What the heck do they mean?

You have your results – now what?

Good questions to ask when you’ve received your personality profile results are:

1.    Does this sound like you? Pick out 3 things that really stand out as ‘you’.

2.    Which parts don’t quite fit? Write down a couple of things that surprised you and check them with a friend or coach whose opinion you value and trust.

3.    Which parts sound like strengths?

4.    Are these strengths you enjoy using? How much do you use these in your current career? What does this tell you?

5.    Which parts sound like challenges if they don’t fit your career?

6.    Are these part of your current work? How much? What does this tell you?

7.    If you’re considering an alternative career, would the new option allow you to play to your natural strengths and preferences?

8.    What do your results suggest about where you draw your energy? How is this significant to your career choice?

9.    What does your ‘type’ say about how you like to contribute to teams at work? Or how you prefer to work?

10. What do you need to do next?

Personality is power!

By completing a personality assessment, you’ll gain valuable insights, which will help you make future career decisions. There is no right or wrong, but you’ll be armed with more self-awareness to bring to the decision and greater understanding about why former careers may not have suited you as well as you’d hoped.

If you’ve taken a personality test and wonder what the results mean for your next career move,  get in touch. I’ll be happy to help you interpret the results in the context of what you’re looking for in your career.