PLS 595 JOURNAL ENTRY 3

If you ask most people to describe their strengths, like me, you will get a laundry list of positives that desribe in glowing terms everything right about them. For example, I am an excellent archer. Now, what I might not tell you is that I mean 1 time out of ten shots I am excellent--a sin of omission. However, there is no denying, in my own estimation, that I have made some excellent shots. That I am not William Tell is simply "extraneous" information. Of course, even the blindfolded may score a bullseye once in a while. Thus it is with many self-assessing candidates. Asking me my strengths is easy, even without much in the way of reflection:

• 20 years of professional experience in design and marketing
• Life-long learner
• Pleasant disposition
• Helpful and knowledgable
• Thorough and dilligent
• Highly-focused
• Ambitious
• Strong project management skills and planning abilities
• Strong technical skills
• Strong conceptual ability
• Abundant creativity
• Strong writing and verbal skills
• Strong research abilities
• Works well independently or in collaboration
• Logical and organized
• Well-educated
• Open-minded and fair
• Highly ethical and considerate
• Naturally inquisitive
• Strong intuitive problem-sovling abilities
• Big picture thinker
• Commited to improving self and lives of others
• Flexible and highly adaptive
• Enjoys challenges... and so on.
  

Less easy and, as a result, less exhaustive is an honest account of weaknesses. Let's face it. Would you really want your obvious weaknesses floating out there, possibly sinking ships that might otherwise come in? Am I some kind of Rainman, boasting about his own driving while not mentioning that whole autism thing? Myers and Briggs tell me that though I am certainly all of those wonderful things above, I also have problems:

• Feelings of inferiority
• Highly critical
• Skeptical
• Stubborn
• Argumentative
• Impulsive
• A tad quirky
• Distractable...and that is enough.

You see what I mean? Short list! That was a strain. Of course, there is much more, but the nature of my weaknesses is not deterministic. For sure, these may be stubborn traits, but they are not character flaws. Indeed, they are mostly unexpressed and may even be fully surrmountable. For a prospective employer, the question might be put this way: how might these strengths and weaknesses translate into workplace performance? However, from my perspective as a career seeker, it might be better put as: what is the best career for someone with my gifts? Is there an apple out there that I can hit again and again?

All of my professional career, I have worked in a creative capacity--that is my forte. People are frequently touched by my work. I have even make them laugh and cry from joy. That makes me feel good about myself and brings confidence for my daily challenges. I have even been told that I have the "gift of excellence," a thing not to be squandered. These compliments notwithstanding, I know that, just like anyone else, I have my unique limitations. Finding my place in the world, therefore, means acknowledging them, controlling for them and, if possible, using them to my advantage. Then my strengths will take care of themselves.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Okay, ALL weaknesses ought to be acknowledged. However, a few can ONLY be acknowledged. I can always try to improve my aim, but improving my vision might be impossible short of surgery, which I reject. Glasses offer correction, but I cannot do well without them. Therefore, a position in which I cannot wear corrective lenses would not be well-suited for me. The same may be said of my quirkiness. The leopard cannot put off his spots. I guess I'm just a little spotty sometimes and that is that. Nor would it be easy to repress my impulses, which are significant. My gut tells something and I listen. Others may take that as being unreasonable. I take it as an opportunity for honesty: to express myself in the moment. Being aware of that, however, provides me with power to cut through to the heart of the matter which can make some folks a little uncomfortable. Finally, I am always the skeptic. Call me Thomas, but I think doubt does present a deficit of faith. Knowing that, I seek evidence to make the leap, which because I am an incurable intuitive, I do gladly. Some may take that as a burden that I impose on others. I just think it's the right thing to do. I ask questions expecting straight answers. I may choose not to ask, but the doubt will persist. Perception is one of my clear preferences for reaching my conclusions about the world. Judgment I withhold. Others may assume, if I do not tell them, that they have already been judged. Selah!

CONTROL
More weaknesses can be controlled. I may be inferior in some situations, but that does not mean I will always be so. Elanor Roosevelt famously said that "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." No matter how degrading the situation, one can always excerise personal freedom. Furthermore, one can always improve one's situation, as in my case through education, hard work and so on. In addition, being stubborn cuts both ways. In some situations it is strength, others, a weakness. The trouble is knowing which is which.

Technical/Functional: Enjoy using core skills; skills don’t have to be technical in nature; can be a human resources worker or a secretary and enjoy using the skills needed for those positions; motivated by learning new skills and expanding current knowledge base.

Type of Work: What turns these types on is the exercise of their talent; satisfaction with knowing concepts. If it is not a challenge, technical/functional types feel bored and/or demeaned. Content of actual work more important than the context of the work. In other words, it is the actual work they are concerned with not the organization or the overall mission of their work; teaching and mentoring offers opportunity to demonstrate expertise.

General Managerial Competence: view specialization as limiting; primarily want to manage or supervise people; enjoy motivating, training and directing the work of others; enjoy authority and responsibility, and when someone strips of control it is “demotivator;” thrive in three areas of competence – analytical, interpersonal/intergroup, and emotional.

Type of Work: high levels of responsibility, varied, integrative, leadership.
Autonomy/Independence: need and want control over work and want to be recognized for achievements; can’t tolerate other people’s rules or procedures; need to do things their own way; independent consulting and contract work would be a good fit for these people; want to be left alone to do their work; just give them instructions on what you want, when you want it and let them “go to it!”

Type of Work: seek autonomous professions such as consulting, teaching, contract or project work, or even temporary work; part or full-time acceptable.

Service/Dedication to a Cause: motivated by core values rather than the work itself; strong desire to make the world a better place.
Type of Work: high concentration of service-oriented professions, motivated by pursuit of personal values and causes.