In my early years in public relations, I was constantly reminded by reporters, editors and columnists that the cardinal sin of media relations was trying to pitch without knowing, reading or understanding the reporter’s work and beat. In their quest for a quick hit, wet-behind-the-ears PR newbies pitched stories and ideas that fell flat because the stories or ideas were either not related or just plain irrelevant to the writer’s interest. In the process these poor souls harmed their credibility and reputation, sometimes forever. 

The same thinking can be and should be applied to career search. Do the research required to understand the organization and the people involved in managing the company. If you see a firm or job that attracts your interest, prepare yourself well to pitch. Read everything that you can get your hands and eyes on. Bear in mind this simple axiom, if you want to get your letter and resume read, you better read. Consider these finer points of interest and insight.

1. When and if you see a position that fits your desires and skills, thoughtfully comb the company’s web site paying attention to exactly what it does, what it makes, the team involved and any cultural and environmental clues you pick up from its web site.

2. Carefully read the media that follow the company. Monitor, absorb and understand what is being written by reporters and pundits about the firm and its management.  

3. If you are able to identify who is the hiring manager, put on your scanners. Check sites like Google, Bing, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, ZoomInfo, Spoke, Pipl, Classmates, Naymz, Slideshare, etc. Look for profiles, blogs, articles, white papers, biographies and other information types that can give you a sense of the person’s interests, priorities, passions and preferences. 

4. Use what you have read and absorbed to craft your cover letter. Often, some insight that you pick up from reading about the company and its management can make a significant difference in whether you are selected or not for an interview with the firm. Bottom line: tailor your cover letter to the job spec and to the insight you have gained from your research about the organization, its management and the hiring executive.

Below is a chart that depicts the differences between a coach and consultant approach to the selection, administration, and review of assessments with a client. I encourage you to adopt the consultant approach in order for your clients’ learning to be enhanced which in turn will lead to their motivated actions.

Copyright 2005-2010. Nancy Branton, PCC, M. A.

Do your clients think about changing jobs?  The power to do so is right under their noses…well, behind their noses actually!  Stored in their brains are memories about events and activities they truly enjoyed in life since childhood.

Here are some tips for analyzing their life histories for key success factors that reveal work that is personally and financially rewarding.

Get them to do a quick inventory from childhood years (ages 6-12), then teen years (ages 13-19), then young adult years (ages 20-29), then their thirties, forties, and so on.  In each period, there are specific examples.  Ask them to create a shortlist of their top 10 most enjoyable events.

The power of those stories is in the facts, people, and events of their lives.  These stories are like veins of gold that run through each life.  Mining gold, however, involves moving a lot of ore with tools and equipment to get at that precious metal.

Similarly, mining the veins of gold in life stories is easier when you use the tool of writing.  Emphasize that it is important to write about what is important to them, not what they did to please others.  Help them identify those activities that gave them an intrinsic sense of pleasure and satisfaction.

Above all, encourage them to be brutally honest about what is they truly enjoyed, as opposed to what they are simply proud of.  They may be proud of certain accomplishments but there is often no real innate pleasure from the activity itself.

For example, many people get high grades in school in order to please their parents, not because they truly love math, or history, or truly enjoy studying and doing homework.

It actually makes it easier for them to tell the story if they stick to a proven  format. You may want to analyze or evaluate their stories for an accurate and reliable picture of their unique motivational pattern.  Or, you may want to turn the exercise over to a personal story analyst to really nail down the essence of who and what they are in terms of work when they are doing what you enjoy most and doing it well.

For example, their  stories can be analyzed to identify and define Key Success Factors. Please understand that the factors critical to success are very different than personality traits, or the results you get from Myers-Briggs and other personality assessments.

A personal story assessment can answer in very clear, concise and meanginful terms the questions: What are their natural talents that consistently bring satisfaction to them when they are doing what they enjoy most and doing it well? What is the subject matter that they gravitate to without even trying? What circumstances or conditions have to exist in the job environment to bring out the best in them?  How do they naturally build relationships with others? How do these success factors combine to create an essential motivation; that is, the thing they are best at and best suited for in terms of work?

This accurate and reliable picture of their right work can be developed into an Ideal Job Description and matched to specific opportunities in the world of work.  This opens up a new level of coaching and service for you as their career coach.

This article is dedicated to Jean Haldane who passed away last month and to her husband Bernard Haldane (deceased) for their lasting legacy of the Dependable Strengths® Articulation Process (DSAP). Today DSAP is in use worldwide in schools, colleges, churches, businesses, correctional facilities, human services agencies, and more.  The Bernards left behind two organizations that continue to carry out their work: Center for Dependable Strengths (CDS) in Seattle, WA; and Dependable Strengths Foundation in South Africa that fosters job creation, worker motivation, and enhancement of skills.

Bernard created the DSAP in 1945 to assist WW II Veterans transition to civilian life. Dependable Strengths® (DS) represent people’s special talents for excellence and are discovered through a peer-assisted group process. Participants identify good memories of what they did well and which gave them a sense of pride and/or accomplishment. In dyads and/or quads, they share their stories of what they did as they were making it happen. Then, their peers give them feedback. Through a process of prioritization, participants walk away with clarity and ownership of their DS—“a skill or talent that shows itself three or more times in the person’s top seven Good Experiences”—and know how to demonstrate their value to employers.

I interviewed Carmen Croonquist, a Dependable Strengths® facilitator and career coach. She said, “The main difference between DS and StrengthsFinder 2.0 is that DS are generated based on people’s memories of life experiences and to which they’re emotionally connected. Whereas, the StrengthsFinder 2.0 provides test takers with data on their top natural talents and provides them with further information to confirm them.” Carmen has applied her knowledge of DS with college students, career clients, and career workshops/classes. She feels it equips them to demonstrate their value to current and future employers.

CDS offers DSAP 5-Day Facilitator Training and public workshops. Through CDS you can purchase resources to learn more about DS. I have found the following three books authored by Haldane/s to be valuable:

1. Gifts: Dependable Strengths for Your Future is a great resource on DS and contains activities to discover one’s DS;
2. Job Finding Power is for lay leaders and has useful information for them to assist the unemployed; and
3. Ministry Explorations: A Total Ministry Support System is a total ministry support system.

CDS, along with Center for Learning Connections and WOIS/The Career Information System, just launched the initiative “Coming Home: Dependable Strengths for Veterans.” You can donate to this cause online.

Wishing you success as you assist your clients in discovering their Dependable Strengths®!

Copyright 2010. Nancy Branton.

— Determine Your Top 5, rank order them, focus on the top three, and be sure you know your #1 Core Value.

Discovering how to make positive life and work choices needs to begin with a person’s value foundation. Many people begin with skills, your natural gifts, or capabilities. This is recommended by many and is also important. My suggestion however is to begin with values. Determine your top 5 values, and rank order them. Be sure your purposeful work includes your #1 value. When people attend to all the other components of working their purpose and things still don’t feel like a fit, it is usually that values are not in alignment with important relationships, co-workers, management or the organization.

In the book, “What to Do Between Birth and Death”, Charles Spezzano speaks to the value of time. He says that people don’t pay for things with money; they pay for them with time. If you say to yourself, “In five years, I’ll have enough money to take the trip of a lifetime, then what you are really saying is that the trip will cost you five years — one-twelfth of your adult life. “The phrase spending your time is not a metaphor, “said Spezzano. “It’s how life works.”

Get energy back on your side by visiting and revisiting your values and core principles often. An easy to complete online Values Card Sort is provided compliments of the University of Minnesota, College of Continuing Education as an outreach to the community. Available for personal use, non-profit and pro bono activities you will find it at: http://oca.cce.umn.edu/prototypes/cardsort/values/

Leadership guru, John Maxwell, in his book, “The Maxwell Daily Reader”, encourages us to ask ourselves, “Are the tasks on today’s agenda worthy of your life?” What we spend our time on is what we value. After you complete the Values Card Sort you will want to check your top 5 values against where you have spent your time today, the last week, month, and year. What you spend your time on becomes your life.

In their book, “Be Your Own Brand, A Breakthrough Formula for Standing Out from the Crowd,” my friend, David McNally and his co-author Karl Speak say, “acting in concert with your values not only effects your relationships with others, it also has a highly positive effect on your relationship with yourself.”

Your clear values are your core relationship with yourself. Taking your core values to life and work develops your distinctive, relevant, clear and consistent vision creating authentic confidence. Once you respect yourself in this way others will respect you also.

What are your top 5 values? Is the time you are spending on activities in alignment with your values, particularly your top #1 core value? Knowing your values can be especially helpful and important in personal branding and career change.

What you say and how you say it matter significantly. Your words and the choice of the words you employ say much about you, your character, your integrity, your brand and the very essence of who you are and what you represent.

So as you write your resume, your cover letters, your social-platform profiles, your blog, your twits and other prose, pay critical attention to your words and how you use them.

Here are some thoughts to keep in mind to help you stay true to your character and resonate with your personal brand.

1. Write like you speak. Use words that are natural to your inner voice. Do not use vocabulary that does not fit your personality.

2. Use simple declarative sentences — a subject, verb and object. Keep it simple and succinct.

3. Tell a story. From our infancy, we are read stories to entertain, engage and educate. It is a form of communications to which we all have become accustomed. Use words that tell a story and paint a picture of the point of view that you hold, the achievements you have made, the opinions you have and the knowledge you possess.

4. Say what you know and believe. Speak from your experience, your knowledge, your research, your understanding, your premise. Forget invention unless fiction is your intention.

5. Be honest. Tell what is true. Do not lie, obfuscate, hide or distort. Human nature is savvy. People can often sense insincerity. Even if, in some cases, the insincerity is not obvious, the truth will out.

6. Use active voice. People often respond better to language that is energetic. So in simple terms make the subject the actor and the object the recipient of the action. An example: “The company benefitted greatly from my focus on return on invested capital” is passive. Instead use: “My strong focus on return on invested capital significantly improved the company’s financial position.”

7. Edit yourself. It is human nature that we can be our own worst critic. Yet, we can also be great editors if we give enough time and space in between writing and editing. So after you have written your latest blog or cover letter, sleep on it then edit.

8. Get other opinions. Sometimes the people who best know us can be authentic editors. They can tell us if our voice is stretched, out of tune or not in sync. Objective critics can sometimes be that final tuning fork that makes our words and word strings harmonize.

SkillScan’s Career Driver Online Assessment

This inexpensive assessment is geared for clients that are ready to embark on a professional career or desire to make a career transition. It is taken online.

Coaches can set up an administrative account to purchase, administer, and download reports for their clients. They can access a Counselor’s User Guide that provides complete information on how administer, interpret, and coach clients on their results. For each section of the report, it provides suggested strategies and sample questions to use with career launcher and career transitioner clients. Also, coaches can download many helpful materials.

It will take your clients approximately 25 minutes to complete this online assessment. They can select either a Career Launcher Report (for people that are new to a professional career) or a Career Transitioner Report (for people that have two or more years of professional experience). After they’ve completed the assessment, they can download their report as a pdf. Coaches can download their clients’ reports through their administrative account.

The SkillScan’s Career Driver report provides a report overview and has four sections.

1.    Your Skill Road Map: lists their top four (out of six) skill categories (analytical, communication, creative, management/ leadership, physical/ technical, and relationship) in rank order, along with their highest rated skill in these categories. Coaches can encourage their clients to review this information to determine how well it aligns with their current or anticipated career.

2.    Road Work: shows skills most critical to their career development, along with development tips. Coaches can work with their clients to create a development action plan.

3.    Road Closures: displays the skills they have little or no interest in using or developing. Coaches can ask their clients how many of these skills they use in their current position. If they’re using a lot of their least favorite skills in their current position, it will bring clarity about which aspects of their job are least enjoyable.

4.    Your Trip Guide: shows their strongest preferred skill sets (out of 18 skill sets), in priority order, with common traits and suggested career options for each of them. Coaches can encourage them to focus attention on their top 2-4 skill sets and identify which of the relevant career options are most appealing. Then, they can explore relevant options in their current or future organization.

5.    Driver’s Test (only in the Career Transition Report): provides focusing activities and actions for them to learn more about their skills, interests, values, and work environment. Coaches can ask their clients to complete these activities, and then, ask them questions to determine the main causes(s) of their career dissatisfaction. Next, coaches can suggest them to brainstorm careers that would better fit them.

6.    Side Trips and Resources: provides them with information and resources to further assess, explore, develop, and promote a future career direction.

In summary, coaching on flow, along with the use of the Knowdell™ Motivated Skills Card Sort or SkillScan’s Career Driver Online assessment, will enable clients to become more clear about the skills they most, and least, enjoy using. Then, the coach can guide their clients to identify a career(s) that will allow them to use their enjoyable skills and stay away from their least enjoyable skills. Finally, the coach can work with them to create a development plan in order to develop their enjoyable skills and move toward their ideal career.

Copyright 2010. Nancy Branton

Often, my clients say, I don’t like my current job and I want to find more enjoyable work.” It’s important for coaches to assist their clients in disentangling work activities that are intrinsically motivating to perform from those that are not.  Mihaly Csiksaentmihalyi’s concept of “flow” is a great one to introduce to your clients. Also, have your clients take one of these two assessments to discover skills they’re motivated to perform: 1) Knowdell™ Motivated Skills Card Sort, and 2) SkillScan™ Career Driver.

Coaching on Flow
Mihaly Csiksaentmihalyi, author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, conducted research on people and discovered that flow—enjoying what you’re doing and losing track of time—occurs when both the skills and challenge are high. Use some or all of the following questions with your clients to help them uncover work activities they most enjoy and the types of challenging situations they want to use them for.

• Think about a time when you were totally absorbed in what you were doing at work (or in life) and lost track of time? What were you doing? What was challenging about this activity and/or situation?
• When else can you remember being absorbed and losing track of time? (Ask this question several times to pull out various experiences.)
• What common threads do you see in these experiences?
• How could you have more of these experiences?
• What work roles include these activities?
• Where in your current company could you perform these activities?
• Where else you could you perform these activities and experience this same challenge?
• What’s your key takeaway about flow?

Knowdell™ Motivated Skills Card Sort

This is one of several card sorts developed by Dick Knowdell. You can order this inexpensive deck of cards and accompanying worksheets at Career Trainer. Or, you can order and administer this assessment online. Each card lists one activity with a brief definition, e.g., “Conceptualize: Conceive and Internally Develop Concepts and Ideas.” Cards are sorted based on two variables: 1) level of enjoyment, and 2) level of skill. The five levels of enjoyment range from ‘Totally Delight in Using’ to ‘Strongly Dislike Using.’ And, the three degrees of skill range from ‘Highly Proficient’ to ‘Lack Desired Skill Level.’

After your clients have finished sorting the cards, ask them to record their results on a “Motivated Skills Worksheet.” Next, ask them to review their motivated skills—highly proficient in and totally delight in using; burnout skills—highly proficient in and strongly dislike using; and skills to develop—possess little or no skill and totally delight in using their burnout skills. Then, use some or all of the following coaching questions to heighten your clients’ self-awareness about their skills:

• How frequently are you using these motivated skills at work? How could you increase your opportunity to use them?
• How frequently are you using these burnout skills at work? How could you decrease your use of them?
• How could develop the skills you enjoy using but aren’t skilled in? How else?
• What’s your most empowering insight from this card sort?

Note: Watch for Part II of this article during the week of May 24, 2010.

Copyright 2010. Nancy Branton

I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand —Og Mandino

Often clients say, “I want more meaningful work.” Yet, they don’t know what it is or how to find it.  With the use of assessments, tools, and coaching your clients will discover their passion and purpose.

A free initial measure for your clients’ that are working on purpose is a10-question online quiz, “Power of Purpose Quiz” (http://inventuregroup.com/Resources/Quiz.aspx). After completing it, your clients can compare their total score with the average score of other test takers. Then, coach them to explore their answers to the various questions in the quiz.

“Calling Cards – A Journey of Discovery” (http://www.inventuregroup.com/inventure-store/Calling-Cards-A-Journey-of-Discovery-P5.aspx) is an inexpensive and easy to use tool to help clients focus on what’s most important to them. It’s a deck of 52 cards and each card has two or three words on it, e.g., “starting things,’’ “getting things right,” “building things.” Ask them to quickly review all the cards and select 8 to10 cards they’re most drawn to. Next, ask them to select their favorite card(s). Then, coach them on that topic by asking questions such as:

• “What about that card makes it your favorite?”
• “Say more about that.”
• “What work experiences are closest to the words on the card?”
• “What other work activities tie to that the words on the card?”

Also, ask them to notice what Holland Theme is shown on that card, e.g., enterprising, realistic. If they’ve taken an interest inventory, encourage them to explore occupational areas that fit that both that Holland theme and the words on their favorite calling card.

To help your clients find their passions, start them out with a short passion quiz (http://www.thepassiontest.com/Offer/PTProfile/index.cfm). Ask them for feedback on their results. Coach them to brainstorm passions, and then, ask them to identify their top five. Continue to coach them to discover work that best matches those passions. If they desire further exploration of their passions, encourage them to take the full version of The Passion Test (http://www.thepassiontest.com). Or, they can take the Core Passion Assessment™ Tool (http://www.corepassion.com) online which provides people with a rank order of twelve core passions.

Discovering purpose and passion is an important step for your clients to find meaningful and enjoyable work. The discovery process can best be facilitated through coaching. Wishing you the best as you and your clients find purpose and passion!

Further Resources on Purpose and Passion:

• Authentic Happiness, by Martin Seligman.
• Beyond Halftime, by Bob Buford.
• Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance, by Bob Buford.
• Repacking Your Bags, by R. Leider and D. Shapiro.
• Something to Live For: Finding Your Way in The Second Half of Life, by Richard Leider.
• The Passion Test, by J. B. Attwood and C. Attwood.
• Wake Up…Live the Life You Love: Living on Purpose, compiled by Steven E. and Lee Beard.
• Whistle While You Work, by R. Leider and D. Shapiro.

Copyright 2010. Nancy Branton.

Do you have clients that are dissatisfied in their current job but express an interest in staying in the same occupational area? For example, Jane is a teacher with a high need for achievement and currently works with a severely retarded population. She expresses frustration in not seeing a great deal of improvement in her students on a day-to-day basis. Instead, Jane might derive greater satisfaction in working with high-potential students.

The best kept secret for a free and excellent career values assessment is the Work Importance Profiler (WIP). It is one of the O*NET™ career exploration tools. The WIP is based on the Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA) that was developed as a result of extensive research conducted by Dawis & Lofquist in 1984. According to the TWA theory, clients have work satisfaction when they possess the skills and abilities needed to perform the job well and the job satisfies their important needs and values.

The WIP assessment is designed for clients who are 16 years or older and read at, or above, the 8th grade level. This assessment highlights the test-taker’s top two work values, and gives scores for each of six career values and the work needs that underlies them. The six career values and the needs associated with them are as follows:

1. Achievement: ability utilization, and achievement.
2. Independence: creativity, responsibility, and autonomy
3. Recognition: advancement, authority, recognition, and social status.
4. Relationships: co-workers, ethics, and social service.
5. Support: company policies and practices, supervision – human relations, and supervision – technical.
6. Working Conditions: activity, compensation, independence, security, variety, and working conditions.

Here are instructions for your clients to take the Work Importance Profiler (WIP):

1. Go to http://www.onetcenter.org/WIP.html
2. In the drop down box, select Work Importance Profiler.
3. Click on Software tab and download the WIP-Software; it requires Microsoft Windows application.
4. Take the assessment.
5. Print out the two pages that provide scores: one page shows the values, and the other page shows the needs.

I have found that it is not necessary or particularly helpful for clients to finish the last portion of the assessment in which they select a job zone and review occupations in that job zone that match their values.

For further information about the WIP, download the WIP User’s Guide. It can be accessed at the same location as the WIP-Software, mentioned above.

After your clients gain awareness about their top values, encourage them to search occupations in O*NET™ OnLine at http://online.onetcenter.org/find and compare their values, and other descriptors, with occupations. Each occupation description includes relevant information for the following things: tasks, tools & technology, knowledge, skills, work activities, work context, job zone, work styles, work values, related occupations, and wages & employment.

With WIP results, your clients gain a greater understanding of what’s important to them in a job. Do your clients a big favor by asking them to take the WIP and coaching them in finding a job that matches their highest work values and needs.

Source: O*NET™ Work Importance Profiler User’s Guide