|
|
|
|
\\|//
|
"Burn-out is a learning failure. Handling ‘burn-out’ need not mean doing less but being more." When using the bottom skills do so strategically: only short term or in support of top skills. Work out the percentage of time spent in each quadrant: this correlates to your overall work satisfaction. The Four Quadrants Your Best Work Skills: Skills you Like to Use and Excel In: In the top left quadrant, list all the skills, competencies and qualities that you truly enjoy using and do well. Sometimes you might forget to include those that come naturally to you, easily discounting them. Others are easier because they involve areas about which you are passionate. These may be content related (specific technical skills such as marketing, sales, design, trading, etc.) or skills of workplace effectiveness (such as listening, problem solving, influencing, decision- making, etc). Whatever the areas, consider those you utilize in your work or business environment and any others fitting in this category that you might use in your at-home life or community, etc. You want to get a picture of your ‘whole’ self so that you can enjoy all of that whole self, or related possibilities, at work. Your Development Opportunities/ Where Would You Like to Grow?: In the top right quadrant, list all the skills and areas that you’d like to further develop or learn about. Some of these will be areas you’d like to enhance, such as your presentation skills, etc. Others will be gaps of skills and/or knowledge that you are now motivated to close in order to reach a new level in your work or business, or because it holds great interest for you. Examples include: develop web design skills, lead a large project management initiative, take on an international assignment, start a new business. Whatever the reason, there are many development gaps that exist for each of us; however we are only motivated to close specific gaps. The question to ask is: "Where would I like to grow next?" In your next role, or within the role you are in, your gaps become your next development opportunities and part of your development plan. Your Low-Fueling Skills/Areas You Don’t Want To Pursue, Not Highly Competent: In the bottom left quadrant list all the skills or competencies for which you have only low motivation. These are areas for which you have little interest or enthusiasm and do not excel in. For some people this might be presentation skills, or managing conflict, or handling details, etc. Of all the four quadrants, people often find the least to list in this area. You might think of a role or job from the past or something from your at-home life or community. If you can’t think of anything, you can re-visit it later. The goal of articulating in each of these areas is to clarify where you want to spend most of your time and energy and what you prefer to avoid. Your Potential Burn-Out Skills: Areas You Don’t Enjoy But Excel or Do Well In: Lastly, in the bottom right quadrant, list all the skills, competencies or qualities that you don’t like to use, but actually do quite well with. Sometimes these areas are an excess of the skills in the top left (Best Work Skills) quadrant; e.g., someone who is a good listener might enjoy helping others, but if this role is in excess it could be a potential burn-out skill. For other people, these are skills that others think you excel in, and may assign to you, or seek you out to do, but you find them limiting and (in excess) they are potential burn-out areas. An example would be an individual who is very good at speaking to large groups, but would prefer to do this once or twice a year. Yet they are sought out by their organization to give group presentations regularly. The individual begins to experience burn-out from using more energy presenting as opposed to creating and researching product information (which happen to be in the top left quadrant - Best Work Skills Area - for this person). Taking Stock: Where Are You Spending Most of Your Time? After you’ve completed the Matrix; review each area, estimate how much time you are currently spending in each quadrant (out of 100%). Often people are surprised to note that they are spending more time in their top left (Best Work Skills Area) than they had thought. Other people find that they are spending most of their time in the bottom right quadrant (Potential Burn-Out Skill Area), which validates their current efforts to find new roles or opportunities, or explains their dissatisfaction. For some, the role they’re in does not include enough opportunity for development (Development Opportunities Area). Some will use the information from the Development section to sharpen their job search strategy. The tool is a self-assessment guide to see where you are now, where you’ve been and where you’d like to go next. How to Make the Most of Your Matrix: As a career development planning tool, job search strategy tool, team building or workforce planning tool, the Motivation Matrix helps focus your attention on how and where you want to use your skills, qualities, competencies, style, values and interests and behaviors. Consider the following as you plan to take action on the information gathered. · The Best Work Skills area represents the qualities, competencies, skills, values and interests you want to lead with. Be sure to include examples of these in your communications with others, e.g., resumes, interviews, colleagues, new management, internal or external clients/customers, etc. For example, a results-oriented and competency-driven resume will demonstrate examples of these qualities. · The Development Opportunities area provides you with information to guide the creation of a development plan for your current role or business. You can use it as a guide during a job search campaign; given the information in that quadrant, where will you focus attention in your search? What questions will you ask of a potential employer? What actions will you take to further research on these areas? If 70% of learning is on-the-job and 30% through courses and reading, how will you focus your development plan activities to close gaps in these areas? · Lastly, the two bottom quadrants represent areas which should ideally be in use less of the time. In all roles and jobs, such skills and competencies are required some of the time. The goal of having the self-knowledge from the Matrix is to plan where and how to use these skills and qualities for best effect. In life and work, we want to be above the matrix line most of the time. When using those on the bottom, plan to do so strategically, short term and as a means to an end to support the top quadrants. The degree to how satisfied you are in your work or business depends in part on the percentage (%) of time you are spending in each quadrant. Knowing your strengths will help you focus on using and leveraging them with purpose. Planning for growth will ensure work satisfaction and engage those working with you (managers, co-workers, etc.) in supporting your on-going development. Understanding areas of lesser motivation will enhance use of your time, energy and resources. Several of our coaches specialize in adrenal fatigue and burnout issues and can help speed your recovery. Click on the contact box on this page to get in touch with us.
For the Top 10 reasons for not changing
jobs, send an email to
bs@futurevisions.org |
