Our partnership with the Founder of Dragonfly Coaching Antonia Smith has resulted in a number of successful personal development workshops. Each workshop is designed to help finance professionals improve their work experiences. This workshop titled ‘How to go from STUCK to FULFILLED in your career’ was specifically designed to help boost your career experience.

What is your intention and why are you here?

The workshop started with this very important question. With anything in life, purpose is an important factor. The motivating aims of why you do what you do will almost always have an impact on what you stand to gain from what you are doing. For those who wanted to attend the workshop but were unable to, start by asking yourself the above question: What is your intention and why are you reading this blog?

3 secret steps towards greater fulfilment

The next stage of the workshop was about identifying the 3 stages to greater fulfilment.

The first being ‘Explorer’, a stage that most if not all of those that attended the workshop were at. The stage of seeking answers, options, and solutions to the way they are/were feeling about their careers. It’s a good place to start but sometimes the following factors can cripple this stage: Fear, boredom, feeling trapped, indecisiveness, hopelessness, complaining, feeling miserable, lost motivation. At this stage, you have to get past what Antonia called the mess in order to progress.

A famous quote by Joseph Campbell was referenced:

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”

Joseph Campbell

In a nutshell, your fulfilment is what lies past the mess.

The next stage is ‘Visionary’. What do you see now and where do you want to see yourself?

The Blob Tree

The blob tree below is a good tool you can use to evaluate where you are and how you are feeling about your career vs where you want to be and how you want to feel about your career. Use this to have a visual comparison and a picture of where you want to be. The blob tree will also reveal what your dominant motivator is, whether you want to be at the top (power), with a group of people (affiliation) or swinging alone (achievement).

Finally, there’s the Fighters stage. Once you know what you are aiming for, and you’ve identified the factors that could cripple your vision you have to fight to get there.

McClelland Theory

A personal motivation tool to help you boost your motivation levels. This ties back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the core concepts are quite similar. If you are unfamiliar with this theory; it identifies the basic human needs and places them in hierarchical order. The basic needs at the bottom and the higher needs are only achievable once the basic ones are met. For your reference, please see the diagram below.

The McClelland Theory identifies 3 core motivating drivers that he believed we all have: a need for achievement, a need for affiliation, and a need for power. However, one motivator would be identified as the driving motivator. The characteristics of a person vary depending on this factor.

The Need for Achievement: Simply put is the desire to accomplish something in your field. The need for Affiliation: Is the desire to build and have relationships with other people. The need for Power: Is the desire to lead, control or have authority over others. (Side note- this desire is not necessarily bad and shouldn’t be mistaken for a power-hungry dictator)

Questions to ask yourself

Antonia asked a number of different questions which helped the group to identify what their dominant motivator was. Use the below questions to do the same:

  1. If you disagree with a team member, are you more likely to stick to your guns at whatever cost or roll over in favour of maintaining a good relationship? (AFFILIATION))
  2. Do you thrive on accomplishments and goal successes above all else? (ACHIEVEMENT)
  3. Do you prefer to provide directions or receive them? (POWER)
  4. Does the success of goals feel sweeter if you were the leader of the project or is it all about reaching the end goal no matter what your role was? (POWER or ACHIEVEMENT)

Once you have identified which of the three motivators is your dominant one, the next question to ask yourself is… ‘Does my most dominant driver match my role in my career?’ If the answer is no, then ask yourself… ‘What do I need to change to make it match?’

Conclusion

In conclusion, the road to career fulfilment heavily relies on you. If you’ve taken the time to read this blog you’ve started your journey and we would be happy to assist you in any way, we can.


For more information and useful tips on how to grow as a leader, please contact us via the following email: [email protected]. Our next group workshop will be held this month be sure to keep an eye out on our social media platforms.

If you signed up for this workshop and were unable to attend, Antonia is offering 2 FREE career fulfilment, strategy sessions. These sessions will be offered to the first 2 people to register. Please contact her directly via [email protected]