Passion Revisited Part 2: My Journey into Rediscovering My Passion

I continue my journey into rediscovering my passion by sharing resources I used in understanding my motivation.

If you’d rather read about this topic, the transcript is a little further down, so keep on scrolling.

Transcript:

Passion Revisited Part 2:  Understanding My Motivation

I want to welcome you back to another Tips Tuesday for Leaders.   Last week I was talking to you about the journey that I began undertaking around finding my passion.  I’m calling it Passion Revisited. It’s not that I didn’t have a passion it’s that I feel it is evolving.  Over the course of the summer I started giving thought to what is the next step – where do I see myself in the next 10 years; how do I want to make that passion real.  I started reflecting on the skills that I have, what I enjoy, what kinds of things get me really excited, and what things I’d really like to be able to let go of.  It brought me back to a few of my favorite resources as well as introduced me to a couple of new resources as I moved through my undertaking. I want to share with you some of the resources I have used in the past with my participants but also used as I reflected in the last couple of months about my passion, my talents, and my skills.  The first is one that I speak a lot about in the Great Supervision Training Series – First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. It’s not a new book. However, it is one of my favorites.  It really looks at what skills, what talents, what things great managers do differently from the norm.  In fact, when I was an executive director, my senior leadership team actually undertook the studying of this book as a group, and we looked at what concepts from within it we could actually implement within the organization.  There was a number of things we did and could see doing differently within the organization. From First Break The Rules came the second book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, which is about talents that make us unique in a certain way,  how to use those talents to the organization’s benefit but also enables us to remain engaged and really love work.   Talents are those areas or things that we get really excited about, that we’re passionate about, that in fact, we may find really easy to do when other people are struggling with the very same thing. To give you an example I get really passionate and excited when I’m able,  believe it or not, to stand up and talk in front of groups of people.   Now, for other people that would be the last thing they would get excited about, or they would want to do. It would actually be something that would zap their energy instead of energizing them.  When in fact for me, being able to do that brings energy to me and then it doesn’t seem like work.  At the end of the day, I am rejuvenated and go home feeling really good.   On the other hand numbers/mathematics is not a strength of mine.  Even in grade three, I struggled when we started learning the times’ tables.   I struggled more than other kids did.  It’s not that I didn’t get it, but I really had a hard time learning it; there was a certain level I reached and attained, but beyond that, there wasn’t a lot more than I could do that would increase my capacity to be able to do it really well.  

We all have strengths, and we all have areas that we’re not so good at.  One of the things I took away from this book is that as supervisors, as managers, as organizations, at times of performance,  we tend to focus on what people aren’t doing well.   We continue to look at goals and ways that we can help to improve in those areas that they seem to be struggling in.   If you believe what Coffman and Buckingham are saying then likely they’ve plateaued. They’ve gone as far as they can go in those areas and it’s less of an enjoyment when we have to focus on those areas than it is  when we are going to put our strengths to work which is the third book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work.  I really encourage you to take a peek at these books.   They provide some great information if you are a leader or manager of an organization.  

Now, as part of my journey, I was thinking about strengths and knowing that there are areas that I have strengths in.   I began reflecting back on what came from this work and the Gallup research they had done.  Clifton (Don Clifton) had looked at this and pulled together what is called StrengthFinder 2.0 and some of you may have heard of this.   As a result of the work done by Buckingham and Coffman, he identified 34 strengths that people potentially possess.     Strengths are those things that when focused on, gives you energy and you are really good at.  During interviews, strengths are identified through the top of the mind responses.  For example, when you ask questions like “Describe a time when you undertook something that you found really easy to do and were surprised by it” (then listen for the response which gives you information about the person’s strengths).  The answer indicates the times a person is working to his strengths.  Ideally, if you are able to work your strength every day, you’re going to be satisfied in your work.  Of course, your strengths play a major role in finding and having your passion working for you. 

I took a look back since I completed the StrengthsFinder assessment some time ago, and I have been fortunate to be working in my strength areas.  If you complete the StrengthFinder, you basically get the top five strengths, which are those areas if you are able to give more attention to them, they will be areas where you’ll be able to excel.   So, I’ve been very fortunate to be able to work in my areas of strength.  

Now, since the time that I completed that, another book has been written by Marcus Buckingham.  I completed that as well.  It’s called StandOut 2.0.  It about assessing your strengths and finding your edge at work, so it takes the next step and identifies key areas that again if you are able to take a look and really move forward, describes what you should undertake and how you should undertake (tasks).   It’s not 34 areas;  they really narrowed it down to a few areas.  What I found really interesting is again,  it made sense.  It made sense in terms of the kinds of things I am doing and the kind of things I should be doing.  Now, to share a bit on what that looks like for me.   Two areas that were described were:  one was a Stimulator and the second was a Pioneer.  The Stimulator is someone who can get people excited about things – really pays attention to the energy and what’s going on with energy.  Actually, it was encouraged through this book that I spend time exploring the different ins and outs of energy,  so that’s part of what I’ve been doing by taking a look at that.  But it’s something like –  I can go into a room and inspire people and get people excited about stuff just because of the energy I bring to it.   The second is Pioneer.   I thought pioneer – huh, history kind of stuff?   No, the pioneer piece of it is about being on the leading edge, being willing to move forward; to be one of those early adopters.  To encourage people around me to be able to adapt to change and to help guide people and take people through change and offer a more positive and enlightening type of experience.  So,  within the book itself, it kind of describes that.  Again, you take a sort of assessment, and you get a bit more about who you are, and the kind of things you might be thinking about, or that I should be thinking about as I continue my journey in terms of revisiting my passion and what that might look like in the next 10 years.

I want to share more with you, so stay with me and come back next week and we’ll talk about my journey.   I’ll share more about assessments and different kinds of things that you can be doing in terms of your own personal exploration.

Until we meet again,  remember success is yours, 

Bye for now