sharing this--- Harvard Business Review entitled Job Sculpting: The Art of Retaining Your Best People, by Timothy Butler and James Waldroop the real gem is the side bar. In it, they detail what they refer to as The Big Eight deeply embedded life interests that determine what type of job, role, or position truly gets you going. If your job, role, or position is not feeding one of these embedded interests, you may do well, even great, but you will never truly be satisfied in your work over the long term, and of course without this type of satisfaction, your performance, perhaps even your personal life, will suffer as you crave something that lies unfulfilled. Generally the authors believe that everyone possesses one to three of the following Big Eight: 1. Application of Technology Fascinated by the way things work, these folks believe that every problem can be solved by matching it up with the right technology. Always seeking the newest gadgets or applications, they will always find something to improve. They are the tinkerers. 2. Quantitative Analysis These are numbers people through and through. If it exists, it can be quantified and the trend is always your friend. They wax eloquently about slicing and dicing numbers and never tire of it. Look for folks who eat, sleep, and live Excel. 3. Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking To these folks, the abstract is their canvas. Always trying to place a framework around the why of things, they are much more interested in this than the how. These folks are often drawn to academia to get their fix. 4. Creative Production Out of the box thinkers, they enjoy the beginning of projects the most. Newness appeals to them and there is nothing better for them than a white board and some brand new Dri-erase markers. They tend to be product developers. 5. Counseling and Mentoring These are the teachers, coaches, and mentors. They derive satisfaction from the growth and development of others rather than their own. Fueled by the feeling that theyre needed, they tend to describe previous projects by the people theyve worked with rather than the technology they employed. 6. Managing People and Relationships Although similar to Counseling and Mentoring, the authors point out that managing people is an entirely different thing. Rather than enjoying peoples growth and development, they derive satisfaction by the use of people to accomplish goals and the individual relationships that result. 7. Enterprise Control This is really the macro level of # 6. Rather than individuals, these folks focus on teams and areas. They embrace the decision making process that set teams in motion. While being a control freak is unhealthy, they are often adept in running organizations, leaving the individuals to people excelling in # 5 and # 6. 8. Influence Through Language and Ideas These are the communicators. They love storytelling, persuasion, and negotiation. They live for the audience and languish unfulfilled when there isnt one. They tend to volunteer for writing assignments and are often found in PR and advertising. So the first thing to determine is which of these apply to you. Remember, it isnt what we think we want, its who we really are. There are a few reasons that this is important.
