2
THE WALLFLOWER IN FULL BLOOM
In today's marketplace, the competition for securing a good job is steep, and demonstrating high performance is a must for advancing one's career. Introverts can rely on strengths such as creating calm and using a thoughtful perspective to enhance their position in the workplace, but it is equally important that they express what makes them unique and competent. This can be challenging to introverts if they are asked to say more about who they are or to go into detail about their strengths. This chapter takes the self-assessment process a few steps further by providing exercises to help articulate in greater detail who you are and what skills you bring to your industry or profession.
What Color Is My Personality?
Personality plays a strong role in how an employer or professional contact views your ability to work with managers, colleagues, customers, and clients. As an introvert, you might freeze up when faced with questions that feel personal because you don't like to reveal too much about yourself to a stranger or you might come across as a braggart. However, if you defer too much to the cautious and shy side of your personality, you won't come through in full color.
Ask yourself if you can answer this question quickly with four to five adjectives or phrases: “If I had a group of your colleagues here and asked them to describe you, what would they say?” Don't fret if you found this challenging. You're going to complete a simple personality characteristics exercise, and once you finish it, you'll end up with several adjectives for your job search toolbox.
Personal Characteristics Exercise
Pick ten to twelve words from the following list on pages 24 and 25 that you think best describe your personality. Similar to the choices you made in the values exercise, this exercise summarizes and articulates what you believe to be your strongest personality traits via an interview, resume, or LinkedIn profile. Essentially, this method forces you to think about which combination of characteristics paints the most accurate picture of you that is also the most compelling to employers. In addition to the terms listed here, feel free to add any others that you consider most fitting.
You might want to take this exercise one step further and ask three people, such as a friend, a colleague, and a relative, to select ten to twelve adjectives that they think best describe you. Their lists will give you insight into how other people perceive you in comparison to how you see yourself. You may discover that others observe strengths you don't realize you have. Now when an employer asks you to describe your personality, you'll have at least ten words at your fingertips.
Some of the terms you selected may have a negative connotation (such as “inconsistent”). You obviously don't want to share this with a networking contact or employer, but it's still valuable to be aware of areas that need improvement. For our purposes, we will be focusing on adjectives that describe you in a positive way.
Let's take look at Joan, a successful but introverted woman who was flustered at the challenge of going back to work after a long hiatus.
The Reentering Wallflower: Joan's Story
Joan owned and managed a successful retail business for fifteen years, however, she sold it when her elderly parents started to have health issues. She monitored their medical and living situation while balancing quality time with her husband and children. During her ten-year gap from the traditional workplace, Joan became a dedicated volunteer, raising money for a community association and serving on the board of a nonprofit organization. After receiving an award for her bold fundraising efforts, Joan decided to pursue opportunities in fundraising and development and came to me for help.
Joan had not written a resume in ten years and was nervous about what to include. As we began, she downplayed her experience and personal attributes (as introverts tend to do). Though successful in fundraising, she had trouble asserting herself to a potential employer. So I had her complete the personal characteristics exercise to build her confidence and generate words to describe herself in the job search process. When it came time to draft a profile, or “summary” (see Chapter 3 for a full discussion on resume writing), we selected terms from her results like “Ambitious,” “Decisive,” “Creative,” and “Intelligent.” We also plugged some of these key terms into her LinkedIn profile (see Chapter 4 for more on social media profiles), as this is now a common practice to incorporate a few personal characteristics. Here is what we came up with for Joan's profile:
Dynamic business professional with substantial experience in management and fundraising. Expertise in event planning, researching and soliciting donors, proposal writing, and project management. Talent for cultivating and maintaining strong relationships with colleagues and donors. Ambitious, creative, and decisive.
Because she completed the personal characteristics exercise, Joan felt she was able to better articulate who she was not only in cover letters and resumes, but also in person. Consequently, she obtained a great opportunity in fundraising at an arboretum. In this position she plans and organizes events, as well as researches and develops strategies for attracting prospective donors.
Skills: Put Your Competence on Display
Employers want to learn more about your areas of expertise in their field or industry, but they are equally interested in finding out which skills you bring to the job, from how you communicate with others to your knowledge of social media and your ability to manage projects. For most introverts, extracting skills from your experience is the easiest part of this self-assessment process because it doesn't feel particularly personal. But don't minimize the importance of digging deeper and exploring further into your experience to offer a wider picture of your talents and skills.
Start by reviewing a description of your current job responsibilities or a recently posted job opportunity and then make a list of your related skills. Here are two examples of tasks and the skills they require.
Task: Creating and Delivering a Presentation
Skills: Researching, Writing and Editing Content, Organizing, Technical (PowerPoint), Visual Design, and Public Speaking
Task: Overseeing Company Budget
Skills: Quantitative, Analytical Thinking, Problem-Solving, Collaborating, Writing Reports, Projecting Revenues and Expenses, Enforcing Policies and Procedures
To feel fully confident about what you have to offer, complete this exercise, as well as the following inventory, to generate a comprehensive list of your skills.
Skills Inventory
Select from this list any skills that you believe reflect your strengths, and add any additional ones specifically related to your field or industry.
Communication
Proficient or fluent in other languages
Write or edit articles, blogs, or social media content
Persuade or influence others
Create effective presentations
Collaborate with teams and groups
Cultivate and build relationships
Write proposals and reports
Debate
Listen
Negotiate
Marketing/Selling/Promoting
Creative
Create websites
Graphic design
Production/AV skills
Brainstorm new ideas and strategies/Inventive
Build from scratch
Creative writing
Visual arts
Compose music
Perform in theater, dance, or film
Financial
Manage and monitor budget
Oversee organization's finances
Project expenses and revenue
Calculate or reconcile expenses and revenue
Compare or evaluate costs
Succeed in work with strong quantitative focus
Support
Teach/Train
Counsel/Advise/Support
Mediate/Conflict resolution
Advocate for individuals, special populations, causes
Facilitate group discussions and meetings
Organization/Management
Generate solutions for organizational issues
Understand and enforce policies and procedures
Navigate complex bureaucratic environments
Plan, organize, and implement events and programs
Use timelines, checklists, flowcharts, outlines, or other organizational tools
Work effectively under pressure and meet deadlines
Build organizational systems and procedures
Leadership
Oversee small and/or large groups comfortably
Delegate work
Listen to ideas and help reach consensus
Evaluate team members' performance and provide professional development
Manage projects from beginning to end
Identify goals and/or tasks to be accomplished and completed
Motivate groups or individuals to meet goals
Technical
Assemble components
Handle instruments
Knowledge of software systems and computer languages
Manage and input data
Learn and adapt to new technologies
Understand how to operate equipment
Construct or build physical materials
Research/Analysis
Identify problems, research goals, and reach conclusions
Understand, evaluate, and synthesize data
Design and analyze surveys
Locate and assimilate new information quickly
Now that you completed the self-assessment exercises, where do you go from here? James, a typical, quiet introvert with a successful career in law and finance, shows us one path forward.
The Mid-Career Wallflower: James's Story
James is a soft-spoken, intense Ivy League graduate who earned both an MBA and law degree. After completing his graduate studies, he accepted an associate's position at a large law firm. However, James predicted that his career would not advance unless he could generate new clients by joining in the firm's social events. He wasn't incapable of meeting these expectations; rather, as an introvert, he simply disliked the pressure to socialize and network for clients.
After five years at the firm, James left for an an economics and law position at a financial service firm working in compliance and regulatory affairs. He enjoyed the tasks as well as the occasion to work alone for a portion of the day even though he was part of a larger team. The laser-sharp focus required for success in this job appealed to him, too.
Even though the position was well suited to James, he wasn't advancing to higher levels of management, so he asked me to help him find a new job. When I first met with him, James was able to articulate his major responsibilities and what he liked about his work, but offered little information about results or positive outcomes of his efforts. When I asked him if his supervisor and senior executive team were aware of his accomplishments and success in meeting performance goals, he said he believed his colleagues and managers should know he was a strong performer simply by observing him in the workplace. It was clear that if James learned to be more vocal in promoting his achievements and skills to his supervisors, he wouldn't need to look elsewhere for a job; he could just land a promotion. James needed to learn how to market himself.
After James completed the self-assessment exercises, I worked with him to come up with some strategies for moving beyond the “quiet and diligent worker” (as he described himself), and demonstrate directly and strongly the value of his work to his employer. These strategies focused on the following areas.
Enhance Visibility
Some of the key skills on James's self-assessment included “Analytical thinking,” “Problem-solving,” and “Writing reports.” He used these skills to complete an in-depth analysis of how to reduce risks and client costs that would favorably impact his division. I suggested that he make an effort to showcase this analysis to upper management since it represented a significant achievement. Based on our discussion, James put together a PowerPoint presentation of his findings from the analysis and asked to present this report to the senior executive team. Because he had time to carefully develop and think through the report, James's presentation was successful as his supervisor and senior executives witnessed his skills in use and, ultimately, his value to the department.
Demonstrate High Performance
In the past, James took a passive role regarding his annual evaluation, hoping that his performance would speak for itself and would earn him positive results. This time, just before his upcoming evaluation, I had James pull out a few more work accomplishments from his self-assessment to plan in advance what he wanted to say about his performance during his review. One of his more impressive accomplishments was taking on a leadership role for a team compliance project. This required James to use a variety of skills to mediate conflicts among team members, organize timelines, delegate tasks, and motivate the team to generate productive results. Not only was the project a success, it also supported some of James's key values: “Challenge,” “Knowledge,” “Building relationships,” and “Integrity.”
James was confident and well prepared for his performance evaluation, and with several examples, he showed how his compliance project, risk analysis report, and other accomplishments contributed to both the division and the company overall. As a result of his presentation, James received a promotion within six months. His clear understanding of his accomplishments, values, and skills supported James in letting go of his familiar role as the competent but invisible professional. Most important, it also gave James the power he needed to speak up and demonstrate to his employers both the degree of his capability and the difference his work made to the company.
Additional Self-Assessment Information
You should also generate a list of your outside interests or volunteer activities. Some employers like to break the ice by asking what you enjoy doing outside of work. Or you may discover that you share similar interests, such as running marathons. During an interview I was once asked, “Who is one of your favorite authors?” As an avid reader, I was able to offer a quick reply: “Richard Russo” (who happens to be from my hometown). This led to an interesting exchange, as the interviewer was familiar with Russo, and then volunteered a few of her own favorite authors. This conversation about books helped build a good rapport, while the interviewer learned something about me and my tastes. Our common interest served to make a positive connection during the interview.
The following questions are designed to help you get in touch with your own personal interests, aspirations, and more.
What types of activities and hobbies do I enjoy?
What are my natural talents?
What did I like to do as a child or adolescent?
What principles, causes, or issues are important to me?
What are some of my favorite books, TV shows, and movies?
What characteristics do people compliment me on?
What would I do if I had all the money in the world?
What training or class would I like to take if I had more time?
What dreams have I postponed?
Self-Assessment Summary
To help keep all of this information organized, create a chart or a list that summarizes your self-assessment work in the following categories:
Achievements
Values
Skills
Personal characteristics
Interests
Outside activities
Hold on to the summary, as you'll pull information from your self-assessment as we progress through the book. The summary will take you all the way from the initial phases of the job search to establishing a strong presence in your current or new job.
When Tom, Joan, and James stepped back to carefully examine their accomplishments, strengths, personal qualities, and values, they discovered they each possessed a strong voice. Having completed the exercises in these first two chapters, you know more about how you relate to the world of work, and have a voice that speaks the language of competence and confidence.