Tuesday, April 27, 2010

How Your Personality Impacts Business & Your Career

Imagine working in a career that matches your personality preferences to the work you do. You would be happy and productive in your career. Instead of being hired because a position opened up and you would be doing the same thing every day- for many that would be boring or too routine- you actually work in a job you love because it fits you.

Before working your first job, you were probably told that if you work hard, follow the rules and stay focused you will be successful. Wait a minute. Most of the working world does basically the same and hate what they do for a living. Everyone has certain preferences and attributes that affects their likes, dislikes and motivation. When you pursue a career that does not fit your personality type, no matter how strong your skills may be you will eventually struggle to stay motivated.

If you work in a career that does not suit your personality type and provide some sense of personal fulfillment, you will constantly struggle to stay motivated and enthusiastic about your job. In other words, you may perform your job in a satisfactory manner, but you probably hate it and to force yourself to meet your job requirements.

On the other hand, if you work in a career that fits your personality type, you will have far fewer difficulties staying motivated, fulfilling your responsibilities and feeling satisfied with your job.You may even love what you do.

Michael Farr and Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D., authors of the "50 Best Jobs for Your Personality", stated, "A person's personality type play one of the most indicative roles in how much he or she will enjoy their job and get along withtheir colleagues."

Shatkin goes on to say, "People who have a certain personality feels more capable of doing certain things; they feel more accepted when they are among people with personalities similar to their own. People want to feel that they fit in with the people and activities where they work."

Some people use their personality preferences in their careers while at the same time are matched well for the work they do.

The Mcfletcher Corporation, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, consult using their Work-Style Patterns Inventory (WSP) that is a self-scoring assessment tool that helps clarify individual preferences that determines what makes work worthwhile for individual members. The WSP affirms each employee has a preference approach to work and each work environment requires a certain approach to attain team and organization goals. By bringing these approaches into alignment, organizations and their teams increase efficiency and individual employees enjoy greater fulfillment.

Knowing your personality type, as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is another way to understand where your personality preferences fit within careers. It is designed to identify your personality preferences and how you relate to the world around you. The result of taking this assessment gives you a 4 letter code either starting with "E" for Extrovert or "I" for Introvert. From there it is to "help you improve your work and personal relationships, increase productivity, and identify leadership and interpersonal communication preferences. (Some prefer to use the Jung Typology Test found on www.humanmetrics.com)

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