(no subject)
Don't fix what ain't broke.
A leopard can't change his spots
That's just the way he is.
Hogwash.
I remember being a young professional back in the Stone Age, and taking the Meyers Briggs personality survey, and being told that I now had self knowledge about how I would always be. Then I took it again a few years later, and the results were quite different.
I had a boss who was a nice enough guy, I guess, but a terrible boss. I have to say a lot of what I know about project management I learned from watching him and doing the exact opposite (within the bounds of PMP's little black book and all). He sent me to various soft skills training and had our team do several rounds of interpersonal communication exercises, and I began to feel first like he thought we weren't performing, then decades later realized its because he wasn't.
Anyway, one of these classes or whatnot had a MB type survey and my results came back saying I had the personality of a secretary or something, which sounded a bit off to me. I asked the instructor, "ok, I can see some of these traits in me, but I'd rather do project management, so how do I change?" I was told that this was who I was, and it wasn't something that could change.
I kinda checked out at that point. People change, and they change dramatically. Sometimes it's on purpose, and they backslide, and then change more. Sometimes it's imposed upon them. People change from being drunks to being Nobel laureates, or the other direction. People practice skills and if rewarded by them, change their confidence and desire to do more of the skill. What makes you happy and content today is not the same thing that is the boundaries of your comfort zone tomorrow.
For instance, as a kid, I was the last person picked for sports teams - nerdy, bad hand-eye coordination, slow. I did like doing things *with* people, so I got on a rec soccer team and practiced and played (and got glasses, which helped) and was eventually captain of the girls team in high school. I was never pro team material, but here I am decades later and I am still playing, and my team mates seem to think I'm an asset.
For all the soccer, I was not a runner - I played fullback, which meant mentally figuring out what the opposition was going to do and blocking them - smarter, not faster. But in my 40's, I took up running with the Couch to 5k program, and sucked at it for a year, but this morning, I was out on a 6 mile run through the neighborhoods, listening to TEDtalks on earphones for company, and came across this presentation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc&sns=em
I stuttered and hated giving class presentations, but now I volunteer to give training at work, and am good at it. How did I get there? Practice, and a desire for change. Fake it til I make it, until I am who I wanted to be.
Who do I want to be next?
A leopard can't change his spots
That's just the way he is.
Hogwash.
I remember being a young professional back in the Stone Age, and taking the Meyers Briggs personality survey, and being told that I now had self knowledge about how I would always be. Then I took it again a few years later, and the results were quite different.
I had a boss who was a nice enough guy, I guess, but a terrible boss. I have to say a lot of what I know about project management I learned from watching him and doing the exact opposite (within the bounds of PMP's little black book and all). He sent me to various soft skills training and had our team do several rounds of interpersonal communication exercises, and I began to feel first like he thought we weren't performing, then decades later realized its because he wasn't.
Anyway, one of these classes or whatnot had a MB type survey and my results came back saying I had the personality of a secretary or something, which sounded a bit off to me. I asked the instructor, "ok, I can see some of these traits in me, but I'd rather do project management, so how do I change?" I was told that this was who I was, and it wasn't something that could change.
I kinda checked out at that point. People change, and they change dramatically. Sometimes it's on purpose, and they backslide, and then change more. Sometimes it's imposed upon them. People change from being drunks to being Nobel laureates, or the other direction. People practice skills and if rewarded by them, change their confidence and desire to do more of the skill. What makes you happy and content today is not the same thing that is the boundaries of your comfort zone tomorrow.
For instance, as a kid, I was the last person picked for sports teams - nerdy, bad hand-eye coordination, slow. I did like doing things *with* people, so I got on a rec soccer team and practiced and played (and got glasses, which helped) and was eventually captain of the girls team in high school. I was never pro team material, but here I am decades later and I am still playing, and my team mates seem to think I'm an asset.
For all the soccer, I was not a runner - I played fullback, which meant mentally figuring out what the opposition was going to do and blocking them - smarter, not faster. But in my 40's, I took up running with the Couch to 5k program, and sucked at it for a year, but this morning, I was out on a 6 mile run through the neighborhoods, listening to TEDtalks on earphones for company, and came across this presentation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc&sns=em
I stuttered and hated giving class presentations, but now I volunteer to give training at work, and am good at it. How did I get there? Practice, and a desire for change. Fake it til I make it, until I am who I wanted to be.
Who do I want to be next?