Find out what drives you
A majority of millennials may say that purpose is a priority in their career. This is important to find out in your assessment, because with passion comes the drive to succeed, learn and improve. Ask yourself what you would do if a paycheque wasn’t on the line. Nurture this curiosity and desire to explore new things, which translates into the ability to learn and continual improvement.
Identify what’s not working
On the opposite spectrum, you should identify what you don’t like doing at work, or whether you might even hate your job. This is likely to be correlated with poor performance. Is the problem to do with your tasks and responsibilities being too challenging or too mundane? Are you equipped with the right skills to manage these tasks? Or is your low job satisfaction more to do with a difficult boss or co-worker, or negative workplace culture?
If the problem lies with the people you are working with, you may consider resolving the issue by talking it through or alternatively transitioning to another department or role. If the problem lies with your job role, there are some steps you can take to understand better why things are not working out.
Seek outside perspective
You may feel like you know yourself better than anyone else, but you may not necessarily be the most objective evaluator of your own skills. Instead, you can view yourself through the eyes of an employer by taking a professional skills or career assessment and reviewing the results to identify your strengths.
Besides employing such self-help resources, you can also seek out a career coach to help you better understand your value to employers. They can help you to review your interests, strengths and skill gaps objectively, and even share insights on roles in other domains or industries that you may not have considered.
Finally, ask your trusted supervisors or co-workers to provide you with feedback on your professional performance.
In the end, knowing where you excel – and where you fall short – requires a blend of both introspection and external input. Knowing where your true talent lies will help nurture and grow the areas where you have the most potential and where you can thrive the most in your professional career.
This article is contributed by Manpower Singapore.
