A lot of good, smart people make the mistake of waiting until they're fed up or burned out by their jobs, and then jumping at the next good thing that comes along. Soon after, they're ready to jump again. How do you know if where you are is where you should be? Try out Career Anchors, a workbook developed by Edgar Schein, one of the world's leading thinkers in leadership and organizational behavior.
Schein argues that we all have a few distinct qualities that we look for in our careers. Some of these "anchors" include the freedom to make our own choices, opportunities to be creative, and the ability to make lots of money. (There are eight distinct career anchors.) Since few jobs will offer equal amounts of everything, we will be happiest -- and probably do best -- in jobs and careers that are closest to our career anchors. The workbook consists of a number of statements that ask for your response. Those responses determine what your career anchors are.
If you manage staff who continually underperform in their work, you can use Career Anchors to find out what would most motivate them. Or they can see whether they should stay in their jobs. (It's better to have a happy alum than a disgruntled employee.)
What if you find you're in the wrong job, wrong sector, or even the wrong career? That's ok. Plenty of people are career switchers. Frederick Law Olmsted. William Whyte. Ebenezer Howard. Catherine Bauer. If they had stuck to their first careers, you might have never have heard of them.
Learn more about Career Anchors
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