48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller: Chapter 5: Am I an Eagle or an Owl?

48 Days to the Work you Love by Dan Miller:  Book Review

This is a continuation of the in-depth review of the book:  48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller.  To read the Previous Chapter, follow this link: Chapter 4: Wheels, Goals, and Clear Action

Chapter 5: Am I an Eagle or an Owl?

 

The main premise of Chapter 5 revolves around discovering and knowing yourself.  The chapter opens describing the concept of “divine discontent” which is the state of knowing we’re not really living our lives the way we want, yet we keep on doing more of the same.  We punch in on the time clock, day in, day out.  

There are three main areas we need to evaluate in ourselves in order to be successful in our careers.  

• Skills and Abilities.  What’s interesting about this section, is the author reiterates the fact that one has to have the ability to do his job.  He then spends the rest of the section emphasizing that being able to do something isn’t enough, you have to want to do it.  
• Personal Tendencies.  This deals more of evaluating ourselves.  Do we like dealing with people or projects?  Are we expressive or analytical?  This ties in with the skills and abilities section.  Just because someone is skilled in fixing computers, doesn’t mean they don’t aspire to be a social worker.  The author breaks down the personality traits into 4 categories:
  • Dominance  (Driver) – Lion/Eagle:  This is the boss.  The guy who likes to manage.  He’s competitive, bold, and enjoys having authority.
  • Influencing (Expressive) – Otter/Peacock:  This is the Sales Team.  They’re great talkers, impulsive, and promoters. 
  • Steadiness (Amiable) – Golden Retriever/Dove:  I equate this to the worker bees or administrative assistant.  They like routine, and they’re reliable and avoid conflicts.
  • Compliance (Analytical) – Beaver/Owl:  This is the Development team.  They’re resistant to change, like to have their facts in order, and ask questions.

There’s a link in the book to take a test to see where we fit in the mix, but I’m too cheap to pony up the $28.  If I had to guess, I’d say I’m 25% Influencing, 25% Steadiness, and 50% Compliance.  I like talking to customers but I wouldn’t say I enjoy selling.  I’m a good listener, patient, understanding, and avoid conflicts.  Finally, I think I’m logical and diplomatic but I embrace change.  So I have certain aspects of those 3.  I don’t think I’m entirely dominant.  I have some of the qualities, such as determined, competitive, etc…but I don’t believe I seek out that role.

The author then tells a short fictional story about a group of workers who were forced into jobs they weren’t most skilled at.   They force a duck to climb, a rabbit to swim, and a squirrel to run.  (You get the idea.)  In the end, they work so hard trying to be good at jobs they weren’t skilled at, it ended up hurting them in the long run for the jobs they were skilled at.  (The ducks feet were injured which prevented him from becoming a good swimmer, the squirrel got exhausted from overxerting himself, and the rabbit had a nervous breakdown from swimming.)  The point the author is making is that we should make use of the abilities in which we are skillful at.  It is better to focus on those and do them well than to try to do everything only so-s0.  

The chapter closes on the point that employers aren’t looking for generalists, they’re looking for specialists.  This really drives home the point I’ve been thinking about in myself lately.  I worry that I have decent skills in a bunch of different areas, but am not focused in detail in any one specific area.  

If I were job searching, I would need to do a better job tailoring my resume to every single application.  Moreover, my cover letters should be customized for each application.  In the letter, I would be better off listing the requirements in the job posting, and describing how I have utilized my skills in past experiences to perform the required job functions.  This shows the potential employer why I am a good fit for them.  A little off topic from the book here, but I think it complements the author’s idea.

Continue to Chapter 6: 6 Job Offers in 10 Days

~ by Mark on March 22, 2009.