Episode #88 – Marc works with “Juan,” (not his real name) to pivot his career, in the third of four episodes featuring “Juan.”
Description:
In Part 3 of this series, Marc covers the second feedback session with Juan for his personality assessment.
Key Takeaways:
[1:40] Marc welcomes you to Episode 88 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast (the intro of which he is recording inside his closet in Ajijic) and invites you to share this podcast with others. Please subscribe, share it on social media, write an honest iTunes review, or tell your neighbors and colleagues so Marc can help more people.
[2:31] Next week’s episode is an interesting interview with Jeanne Yocum. Jeanne has been self-employed as a public relations consultant and ghostwriter for over 30 years. This Spring, Jeanne published her first solo book, The Self-Employment Survival Guide: Proven Strategies to Succeed as Your Own Boss. This book really resonated with Marc.
[2:58] This week is the third episode of the four-part series “Can Juan Repurpose His Career?” Juan is in his mid-fifties, a former school teacher, technology trainer and educator, adjunct professor, and multipotentialite. Juan is figuring out what is next.
[3:19] If you have not listened to the first two parts of this series, please stop now and listen to Episode 83 and Episode 84 before listening to this third part. You will find all the reports for the series to download at Careerpivot.com/Juan. Marc added more reports for this Episode 88.
[4:00] Marc has already gotten feedback from a number of people about how this series resonates with them.
[4:09] Marc introduces Juan. This episode is the second feedback session for Juan.
Now on to the podcast…
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[4:17] Juan reports on his homework from the first feedback session. Juan recalls the stress of leaving a union teaching position to going to a freelance situation, and what that meant to him. The security and convenience of benefits are alluring but Juan felt unchallenged and stagnant in a protected job.
[6:01] Juan learned a lot about his personality and natural predispositions in the first feedback session. He says the Birkman Assessment was on the spot. Juan wants to be high-challenged. He was happy doing freelancing. He enjoyed traveling a lot.
[7:37] Marc introduces the Preferred Work Styles (PWS) report. This covers Juan’s natural management style, how he fits into the corporate work environment, social adaptability and social responsibilities, and how Juan makes decisions.
[8:40] Juan is a global conceptual thinker.
[9:03] Juan’s knowledge specialist rank is 7/10. This is common for Marc’s clientele. Juan reads the knowledge specialist description. Juan leads by example.
[9:59] Juan ranks 3/10 in directive management. Juan reads the description. Juan doesn’t lead by telling.
[11:00] Juan ranks 2/10 in delegative management. Juan is not interested in a VP or CIO position.
[12:37] In the PWS document, Juan’s work motivation is ranked at 2/10. He needs to see value in his work to get motivated. Just having work is not motivation enough.
[13:59] Marc shares an example of someone who goes crazy with assignments given without explaining their purpose. Marc and Juan apply the rating to Juan’s experience in the public school system. Juan needs work he believes in.
[15:57] Juans ranks 4/10 in corporate adaptability. Juan reads the description for the level of commitment to the organization. Someone with a score of 3 or lower does not participate in organizational politics. Juan was proud to work for the organizations where he was given a lot of freedom and flexibility.
[1718] Juan identifies more with the good managers he has had than with the corporations where they worked.
[18:55] Juan ranks 7/10 in self-development. Juan reads the description. A rank of 7 shows he learns a job best in a structured onboarding process. Being left on his own is uncomfortable for him.
[21:26] Juan ranks 6/10 in social adaptability. This is about his opinions of other people in general, relating to trust. A low-trust individual would make a good policeman. A high-trust individual tends to get burned. Marc always recommends, in a new job situation, regardless of your trust ranking, to find ways to let people earn your trust.
[23:36] Juan ranks 5/10 in social responsibility. He is right in the middle. Juan reads the description. A rank of five and above shows a willingness to go along with the rules and conform to social expectations. Juan was a good corporate citizen. Juan, as a Latin-American, has bucked the traditional cultural trend to marry and have a family.
[28:00] Juan ranks 5/10 in public contact and 6/10 in detail. Juan reads the public contact and detail descriptions. Being in the middle of both areas means Juan doesn’t want to be around people all the time, but some time is good.
[29:45] Juan ranks 7/10 global and 4/10 linear. Juan reads the global and linear descriptions. Juan follows a relational and holistic approach to solve problems. Low-middle linear means Juan is not mostly logical but uses intuition as well. He thinks big. By contrast, Marc is a 10 linear. For Marc, everything is a process.
[30:37] Juan ranks 8/10 conceptual and 3/10 concrete. Juan reads the descriptions. Conceptual utilizes abstract information, experience, intuition, and knowledge to find fresh solutions. Concrete uses analysis and facts to solve problems. Juan prefers to use intuition and experience before facts.
[31:24] In combinations of problem-solving, Juan is a conceptual global thinker. Juan reads the description. Juan is a strategic thinker and is comfortable with ambiguity. He is open to new ideas and will consider all facets of an issue before taking action. His approach is more intuitive than fact-based.
[32:10] The priority of a conceptual global thinker is to make sure a problem has been fully identified and defined. Then they move to take action to solve the problem. Juan sees this as 100% on-target.
[32:41] Marc gives Juan some homework to use this as a framework to consider how he solves problems and find three problems he solved at work and three problems he solved in his personal life and report back to Marc how he did it. Marc wants Juan to be able to see a pattern and explain it.
[33:07] Marc is a linear concrete thinker. A linear concrete thinker and a conceptual global thinker can either complement each other or “kill” one another. They think very differently. Marc asks Juan to observe how his own brain works. If he can explain that in a job interview the hiring manager will have a better idea if Juan will fit in.
[34:03] One of the big problems a hiring manager has is thinking everyone thinks like them. We are all different.
[34:48] The Birkman Map Summary shows what Juan likes to do. “You may like to innovate or create, plan how to do things, consider the future, create new approaches, and look at things theoretically.”
[35:21] Juan self-describes as “You prefer to be enthusiastic and flexible, assertive and competitive, logical and objective, energetic, direct, and open.”
[35:43] In the next feedback session, Marc will discuss in detail with Juan his stress report and how he wants to be treated. In short, Juan wants people to show they appreciate him, are interested in his feelings, as well as logic, give him time for complex decisions, give him time alone or with one or two others, and not overschedule him.
[36:18] Marc observes that Juan wants to be around a small number of people he likes and who like him. He doesn’t want to be rushed on decisions. He wants some alone time and wants to manage his own schedule.
[36:39] Marc points out that how Juan behaves and how he wants to be treated are very different. Juan is a closet introvert. He has learned to behave differently because he is expected to.
[37:06] Last, are Juan’s primary stress behaviors. Marc gives Juan an assignment to cut them out and place them where he will see them frequently. If he catches them early, he can change the behavior. Juan’s stress behaviors are withdrawing, fatigue, indecisiveness, pessimism, over-sensitivity to criticism.
[37:49] Juan recognizes withdrawing as a career pattern after completing an assignment or being laid off. He also recognizes fatigue in the office, and indecisiveness while a freelancer.
[38:48] Marc gives Juan a homework assignment to translate 8-15 of the usual behavior phrases into ‘Juan-talk,’ figure out his problem-solving style, and fill out a career reflection worksheet about the times he was the happiest with his boss, his team, and when he felt valued, with the right level of activity.
[40:16] When Juan understands what are the best conditions for him, and what are the worst conditions, he can run to the good stuff, instead of running from the bad stuff. Marc just wants Juan to make sure he doesn’t go back to a bad circumstance. If he stays a freelancer he has fewer constraints; if he goes to teaching he has security.
[41:26] Marc talks about relapsing and uses himself as an example. He went back to something — a tech startup — that was familiar. It wasn’t healthy for him.
[42:05] Juan tells how grateful he is for Marc’s insight and helping him find the right course.
[42:33] Marc describes why Juan, being a multipotentialite, has bounced around in his career. He thought with enough education he would be recession-proof. He wanted to do something different every few years. In his mid-fifties, with no clear direction, the goal is to steer to a path of success.
[44:38] Check back next week, when Marc will interview Jeanne Yocum.
Mentioned in This Episode:
The Self-Employment Survival Guide: Proven Strategies to Succeed as Your Own Boss, by Jeanne Yocum
CareerPivot.com/Episode-83 “Can Juan Repurpose His Career? Part 1”
CareerPivot.com/Episode-84 “Can Juan Repurpose His Career? Part 2”
Reports used in the Feedback Session with Juan Doe
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CareerPivot.com/Episode-88 Show Notes for this episode.
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