Last week in our What’s Next? post, we reflected on your feedback about this past year and asked, “What is the post-COVID life you desire?
In response to our question, many of you wrote that you had a difficult time answering some of the questions; you’re used to doing your job and haven’t reflected much on what skills you love to use or the type of work environment you find supportive.
So, this week we’re going to give you an abridged version of the work that we do with our Career Strategy clients when we’re helping them think about what’s next.
Top Skills
- Identify 3 peak experiences you’ve had in your life. These are typically very satisfying work or non-work activities, projects, roles, or jobs. In general, you enjoyed doing them, you feel you did them well, you feel proud of what you did, and/or you had a quiet sense of accomplishment.
- Think through each experience from beginning to end and list all of the skills that you used in each one.
- Add any other skills to the list that you really enjoy doing. (Feel free to ask a friend, loved one, or child what you do well!)
- Go through your list one by one and rate each skill with how much you enjoy doing it:
- 1 = I love doing it.
- 2 = I like doing it.
- 3 = I don’t like doing it.
- Next, go through your list a second time and rate each skill with how well you do it:
- A = I do it really, really well.
- B = I do it well enough.
- Circle all of your 1As. These are the skills that bring the best of you to the world. You love doing them and you are really, really good at them.
Working Environment
- Now spend some time identifying those things from your current (or previous) work environment that have created satisfaction and greater meaning in your work.
- Consider the following questions:
- What type of people do you work with best? For?
- Would you be happier in a small, medium, or large company? Describe the size that fits you best.
- Do you prefer to do work that’s high stakes or low stakes? Intense or calm? Fast-paced or slower-paced?
- Do you prefer starting and developing or implementing and maintaining?
- Do you want to be responsible for your work, only, or for the work of others?
- Do you prefer a support role or a leadership role?
- Would you like to work in a young and growing company or one that’s more established?
Now summarize the top 3 – 5 skills you want to offer in your work and the top 3 – 5 components of the environment in which you thrive. See what you learn about yourself.
Hold these up to your current work or a job you’re considering and explore the steps you can take to create a post-COVID work life that allows you to contribute at your best and to thrive.
We hope this exercise helps you kickstart your career strategy thinking.
Let us know how it goes!
How can we support you?
If you’d like to take a more detailed look at your skills and working environment, contact us today about our Career Strategy Coaching.