Today, why you should focus on those skills you are good at, and having listed those,

 

How you can narrow that skills list further to those you also enjoy using, 

 

and why if you focus on that narrower list of skills you are more likely to turbocharge your career happiness.

 

 

My name is Mark Crossfield, and I'm a Professional Career Coach helping you to love your job and build a great career. 

 

This podcast is about why your career matters.

 

how you can enjoy what you are doing day each day at work

 

And how to build a great career along the way.

 

 

Well, I did it! I reached my 10th podcast episode, a milestone I am really proud of.

 

Thanks for all of your support along the way.

 

And, I want to help as many people as possible to hear my podcast and benefit from the career topics we cover here.

 

So, please can I ask that you share this 10th episode with a friend, somebody you think would enjoy the content.

 

And it would really help me if you could leave me a fantastic review on Apple Podcasts. It's so easy, actually. Click on the Your Bravo Career Podcast, scroll down to the bottom you will see you can rate and review the podcast.

 

The review can be anonymous, you have to leave a name as such, but many people leave a pseudonym.

 

I would appreciate it if you could do that.

 

So,

 

 

You see, it turns out, that one of the main predictors of whether you are likely to enjoy your work or not is whether you are utilising skills that you are both good at and you enjoy using.

 

Identifying your skills set can also help you decide which jobs you are most suited to, prepare you for job interviews and get you ready for internal performance reviews.

 

So, let's start at the beginning …

 

By, backing up a bit first.

 

As a careers coach, when I'm working with my clients, one of the things I am often doing is helping them to become clearer about what it is they might want to do next, preferably something that brings them happiness, satisfaction and enjoyment 

 

or 

 

I am working with them to work out what they can do to change their current role to make it more enjoyable. 

 

To do this, we look back at their career so far - for clues about creating an attractive future, and we also look at things they are interested in, their interests and passions.

 

In fact, that was the focus of Episode 9, so if you haven't listened to that one, you might want to go back give it a listen after finishing this episode.

 

But in addition to reflecting on what you enjoyed about previous roles and focusing on your interests, another contributor to career clarity and, therefore, career success is understanding your skills.

 

It turns out that your skills are a big deal…

 

 

Because there is a lot of confusion about skills, strengths knowledge etc.

 

So, to be clear, when I talk about a skill, I'm not limiting the definition to say an area of expertise such as typing or an ability to use a particular piece of equipment.

 

In my world, 

 

Skills can be one of, or a combination of, three different things

• Ability – This is about being able to do an activity or job well, especially because you have practised it

• Strengths – A strength is something that is almost innate, a task you can do without thinking, something that comes easy to you. 

• Knowledge – what you know (about your industry or product or even about your clients) 

 

Ability, Strengths and Knowledge and a good way of remembering these is to think of the acronym ASK.

 

And what I've found is that most people tend to underestimate their skills.

 

I hear this a lot …

 

What this ability to make customers feel at ease? Anybody can do that, can't they?

or

Do you mean how I can listen well? That's not special, is it?

And,

My ability to come up with creative ideas? Is that a skill?

 

I'm sure there are lots of skills you have, and you don't think of them as a skill as such and probably don't see them as an asset to your career.

 

But you should.

 

Now skills get even more interesting when we begin to focus on those skills you enjoy using. 

 

These are called your Motivated skills.

 

Because, of course, even though you have a skill doesn't mean that you enjoy using it.

 

A good example here is conflict management. Many of my clients actually report a high skill level dealing with conflict management but, and here's the significant bit, they don't enjoy using the skill.

 

The same can be true of, say, managing budgets or managing teams.

 

So, you are managing your teams, your budgets, and dealing with conflict with aplomb. At least, from the outside looking in. But, on the inside, you're not particularly enjoying using those skills.

 

Your motivated skills are, therefore, critical.

 

When you use your Motivated Skills, you are usually energised and invigorated and quite often totally absorbed, particularly when there is just the right amount of stretch in the activity. This state of 'flow' is good for happiness and wellbeing.

Evidence shows that when you are working in a position that is suited to your motivated skills, you are happier and less likely to feel stressed. Conversely, feeling like you are under using your motivated skills is linked to low job satisfaction and reports lower wellbeing levels.

 

 

So, for you to leverage your motivated skills, you first need to identify them.

 

And to do this, I will talk you through an exercise that I have created for you.

 

I have provided a link to this exercise in the show notes.

 

 

In the first column, make a list of the jobs or positions of responsibility you've had and any voluntary work you've done.

 

Remember, you can also get skills from activities such as:

 

•           playing sports or belonging to teams

•           taking part in school, college or university events

•           extra-curricular activities you take part in

And, other

•           responsibilities you might have away from work

 

So, write these down in the first column as well.

 

To give you an example, you might have something like this in your first column:

 

Sales Manager

Project Manager

Assistant Project Manager

Youth Worker

Editor of university publication

 

 

List the man focus areas for each of the positions you have listed. 

This only needs to be a few bullets describing your main tasks, duties or responsibilities.

 

So, for example for the Project Manager, you might write, civil engineering, project delivery, client management

 

And for the Youth Worker, you might write – Working with young people, working in schools, helping people

 

And, then

 

List the things you remember doing in those jobs or roles, but using words that end in ing, such as planning, managing, writing, presenting and so on.

 

Now, underline all these skills that you are good at. Don’t be modest, see if you can underline as many as possible.

 

And finally, once you have done that, go back over the list and looking at the underlined skills, highlight or circle all those that you enjoy using.

 

Great, so all the words you have highlighted or circled are your motivated skills. Well done for putting that list together.

 

You might want to pause the podcast here and make a note of your thoughts, reflections and ideas.

 

Because 

 

 

In the first section, we looked at what skills are and why identifying your motivated skills is crucial to having an enjoyable and successful career.

 

And in the exercise, you made a list of your motivated skills.

 

So, we are now going at three ways to use this information, your list of motivated skills, in support you in your career.

 

And the first way you can use this information is to find a career that is better aligned with your motivated skills. Remember, these skills are portable. You can take them with you.

 

Quite often, I see that people have chosen a career path based on extrinsic factors such as how well the job is paid, the image of the industry or even what jobs friends are working in. 

 

Rather than "what is it that I am interested in doing", and what role would suit my motivated skills. 

 

This can often lead you down a career path that doesn't play to your interests and skills. And whilst in larger organisations there can be room to manoeuvre to get into a role that is better suited to you and your motivated skills,  in smaller organisations, this is harder, and career confusion can quickly set in.

 

So, instead, with your list of motivated skills, ask yourself what roles and what type of work would benefit from using these skills.

 

Let's say your motivated skills include:

 

•           Planning

•           Motivating and encourage others

•           Problem solving

•           Communicating

•           Managing budgets

•           IT skills

 

You might want to consider project management roles

 

Or, if your motivated skills include:

 

•           Communicating

•           Relationship building

•           Decisiveness

•           Empathy

•           Responsibility

•           Motivating

 

This list might lead you to consider roles as a team leader.

 

 

Another thing you can do is to combine your motivated skills to see if this gives you other career insights.

 

For example, combining IT skills with problem-solving might lead you to consider IT Systems Analyst's role.

 

Or, if you combine planning and communicating it might lead you to consider the role of an event organiser or wedding planner.

 

Clearly, when you are considering these options, you will also consider your interests and your career reflections so far, which we covered in Episodes 5 and again in Episode 9. Re-listen to those episodes if you need further inspiration.

 

Ok, so how else can you use your motivated skills? 

 

Well, having refined the roles you are interested in, you can now use your Motivated skills during the job application/interview process.

How do you do this?

 

Well, first of all you can check for alignment between the job posting and your motivated skills. 

 

Does there seem to be a good overlap with your motivated skills? Or could there be a good overlap? 

 

I know this can sometimes be challenging as many job descriptions and person specifications have an endless list of skills and competencies which are listed as being required. 

 

My advice here is, if you can, try to discern what seems to be the standout requirements, as opposed to maybe some of the standard items that get thrown in there in the interests of comprehensive.

 

Does this much shorter list align with your motivated skills?

 

And, if you do decide to apply for the role, you can include your list of motivated skills on your job application, CV and even on your cover letter.

 

And, if you are invited to interview, make sure that you discuss your motivated skills providing examples of how you have used these and what the outcome was. This will give your interview both authenticity and impact.

 

And finally, the third way you can use your motivated skills relates to their application in your current role. What do these skills mean for the job you are in?

 

Well, firstly, you can review the alignment between your current role and your motivated skills.

 

And you might want to discuss your motivated skills with your manager to see if there is scope to use even more of these in your current role.

 

Are there any ways that your role could be amended to include more of your motivated skills?

 

You could also discuss with your manager how you could progress within the organisation by using your motivated skills. And your manager can help you to spot internal opportunities that better match your skills, rather than signposting you towards each of the latest job postings that spring up.

 

 

 

 

 

All that will bring you even closer to happiness and career satisfaction.

 

So, thanks for listening. Please, let me know how you get on doing this work.

 

And, let me know what you thought about the content for this 10th episode.

 

Feedback really helps me shape future episodes and make the content as relevant and helpful.

 

You can email me at mark@bravocoaching.co.uk, and you can find the show notes at bravocoaching.co.uk/podcast

 

If you are interested in working with me, you can book a free discovery call, here: 

 

And to remind you that you can download your free Should I stay or should I go guide at https://www.bravocoaching.co.uk/go

 

If you have enjoyed the podcast, I would love for you to share the episode with a friend or share it on your social media. It would also really help me if you could leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your episodes. Currently, I have Ten 5-star reviews on Apple podcasts, and it would be great to have your honest feedback. It does help me to find more listeners.

 

And if you haven't already subscribed, why not do that now before you forget.

 

That way, you won't miss an episode, and my podcast will arrive on your podcast player automatically, ready for you to listen to.

 

Have a wonderful week, and I will speak to you again in a couple of weeks.

 

Bye for now.