Self-knowledge: the key to understanding others

Carl Jung said, ?Whatever we don?t understand about ourselves, we will not understand in another person.? Conversely, what we do understand about ourselves will help us to understand others and accept their actions as logical behavior. For example, if I understand myself to be impatient, impatience in others is likely to be more acceptable to me than it would be without the self-awareness. The key is to gain understanding of the energies for which I have the greatest preference.

How do we gain the understanding of self that helps us validate our energies and to become more accepting of the energies of others. One way is to analyze our experiences and the consequences that have occurred. For example, if we have tended to being hyper-critical of other people and our critical behavior has resulted in the loss of jobs, friends or related opportunities, we should learn from the results and their implications on our lives. Another way is to seek feedback from friends and associates, who can give us their perceptions, if they know we seek honest responses.

Finally, we can utilize a psychometric instrument that is statistically validated to consistently indicate what it purports to measure in order to understand our attitudes and behavioral characteristics that we prefer to use under normal conditions and also under stress. In twenty-two years of working with people experiencing career-driven change, the most accurate and powerful tool that I have found is the Insightsâ Discovery Personal Profile that produces information about how we make decisions, communicate, our value to the team and an array of actionable material including suggestions for our personal development.

Next time: Removing you blocks

Good day and good work,

Norman

Overcoming the past

Science confirms that we engage over sixty thousand thoughts each day. If that?s true and if many, if not most of those thoughts are dealing with negative or hurtful events in our past lives, we should hardly be surprised that our present life lacks whatever good we may desire. Our thoughts manifest as things and circumstances in our lives whether our perception of our situation is either good or bad.

Fortunately, each thought, good or bad, doesn't produce its immediate equivalent; otherwise we would all be in trouble. Rather, it is the consistency, the constancy and the predominance of our thinking that produces whatever outcome we're experiencing. We tend to experience habits of thought that produce a consciousness either positive or negative. However, we are blessed with the ability to choose to change our thought patterns from negative to positive, or vice versa, thereby changing our consciousness.

If we seek to develop a positive consciousness and reap the attendant benefits we must become willing to change the way we think and the corresponding way we feel. Choosing to feel happy and enthusiastic is habit-forming and if we do so on a consistent basis, we will experience life in a more, prosperous, healthy and harmonious way. Change in consciousness doesn't occur over night, especially if we have spent many years putting garbage into our unconscious computer. Yet with understanding, commitment and determination we will experience the blessings of life that we seek to bring to pass.

Next time: Self-knowledge, the key to understanding others

Good day and good work,

Norman

Can you deal with the fear?

If you've said yes to the first two issues: having a marketable product or
service and being willing to market it, you still have a major consideration
and that is the fear that you will experience, to some degree or another,
about being in your own business or practice with few, if any, to turn to
for help and encouragement. The fact that you will experience fear, or
uncertainty or anxiety is not the issue. You will experience these emotions
yet how you deal with them will be significant to your success or lack
thereof. It is not necessary for you to have no thoughts of concern, doubt
or disappointment; however, it is important that positive beliefs and
expectations dominate your consciousness. A good part of this objective is
becoming willing to give up anger, resentment and feelings of self-doubt and
unworthiness.

Emerson said, "A man is what he thinks about all day long." While it is not
my role to approach this from a metaphysical perspective, it is non-the-less
true that we bring into our experience what ever we believe and that we
create our beliefs through our thoughts and feelings. In other words, if we
believe we can, we can and if we believe we can't, we can't, even if
otherwise we could. Therefore, nothing is more important to our success,
than our willingness to focus our thoughts and feelings on positive outcomes
and expectations, because if our focus is on negative outcomes, we will
surely experience them. If we focus on failure and bankruptcy, we will
surely experience aspects of failure and difficulty, while a focus on
success and prosperity produces what we truly desire. The simple beauty of
this Universal law is that we do have dominion over our lives by controlling
the only thing we can control; our thoughts and our feelings.

We can overcome fear by placing our thoughts on the goals we have set for
our business and parenthetically for our lives, then imagining the joy that
the success will bring.
By so doing, we receive the insights, the ideas and the inspiration from our
internal computer that will motivate us to take right action required to
achieve the desired outcomes. The happier we are and the more positive we
become, the greater the likelihood that our endeavor will succeed. Our
imaginations work like a magnet to bring us what we want or, conversely,
what we don't want if that is where we place our energy. While fear can be
reduced and even eliminated by having a good plan, adequate financing,
interdependent partners and other physically desirable circumstances,
nothing is more important to our success than our willingness to maintain an
attitude of gratitude and the realization that with consistent commitment to
maintain positive expectancy, we will succeed.

Next time: Overcoming the past

Good day and good work,

Norman

Norman J. York, President
York Career Development, Inc.
3307 Northland Drive, Suite 280
Austin, TX 78731
Austin: 512-502-8258
Houston: 866-502-8258
Cell: 512-656-8239
Web site: www.yorkinc.com

"Your vision will become clear only
when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams
Who looks inside, awakens"
Carl Jung

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8:25 AM

ARE YOU WILLING TO MARKET?

Even if you have a great new business idea for a product or service, getting it produced or promoted is hardly enough. Someone, probably you, has to sell it. I prefer using the term marketing, rather than selling because a marketer seeks to find a product or service need, while stereotypical salespeople seek to sell their products whether there is a need or not. However, there is selling within the marketing concept because, even though you have identified the prospect's needs, you still have to convince him or her that your product or service is better than the other guy's. Since most products or services are difficult to differentiate, ultimately it gets down to you and the extent to which you can build trust and confidence with your prospect. In short, building a relationship.

What is required of you is a willingness to make connections with prospective clients or customers and to develop relationships with as many of them as you can in order for you to identify current needs or for them to know and appreciate you against the time that a need will arise. Note that the operative word is "willingness" it has nothing to do with ability, because if you do not market willingly, you will find every excuse not to do it. And unless you maintain a consistency of effort, your sporadic marketing activities will cause your business to struggle or worse.

If you do not think of yourself as a marketer, yet the success of your business is based on your marketing efforts, what can you do? Several things. First, choose to change your attitude from one of reluctance to one of enthusiasm. See the joy you receive when you know you have served a customer/client well with a high quality product or service. Feel the sense of satisfaction that you will experience. Second, prepare each call or contact with a feeling of positive expectation. Say to yourself before the telephone call or meeting, ?I know that my product/service will add value to my customer and fulfill the person?s needs.? Last, remember that practice makes perfect; the more to do it, the more effective you will become and more enjoyment you will experience.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) is a preference indicator program created by Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers in the 1950?s. It is a self-report instrument, which reveals personal preferences for making decisions, source of energy, focus and orientation to the outer world. An individual?s preferences are reported: extraverted-introverted, thinking-feeling, sensing-intuition and, a fourth preference, judging-perceiving. This fourth preference was added by Briggs and Briggs Myers, and is unique to MBTI. MBTI does not measure competence, intelligence, satisfaction, or skill.
The MBTI system is based largely upon C.G. Jung?s theory of personality type, with some exceptions. It identifies 16 ?types? through a possible combination of preferences: E (Extraversion) or I (Introversion), T (Thinking) or F (Feeling), S (Sensation) or N (Intuition), J (Judging) or P (Perceiving), e.g., ENFP.
Information is printed for the 16 types, but is restricted to 16 types only.
MBTI has been available for 50 years and has been widely used and adopted as a means of identifying different personality types. Programs which address specific interpersonal issues in the workplace have not been developed by MBTI, rather are custom-designed and delivered by accredited MBTI practitioners. This additional development time can make the process more protracted and lead to additional expense.

Correlations between Insights & MBTI:
The 16 MBTI ?types? correlate with Insights 4 Colour Quadrants and 16 Types, as follows:


Benefits of Insights vs. MBTI:

Insights profiles are more highly customized to the individual than MBTI.
The language used in the Insights program is simple to ensure better recall and accessibility to a wide variety of clients.
Group ratings indicate a 95% accuracy rate for Insights reports due, in part, to the high level of customized content.

MBTI is more prescriptive and doesn?t take intensity of preferences into account. With Insights, there is an appreciation for the ?shades? or degrees of preference, which exist in each individual.
MBTI speaks of only 16 types, while Insights identifies 72 types and provides detail that defines differences in far more specific terms, so nuances of difference are evident between individuals who fall into the same position on the Insights wheel.
Insights profile content provides information on preferences and individual needs. This ensures that each individual receives direction for personal development action planning as well as insights that will equip them with new interpersonal strategies, enabling them to work more effectively with teammates following the learning experience.
Insights can be a more cost-effective program than MBTI.
Insights learning can be immediately applied by workshop participants, and can be used with peers who have been through the program, as readily as peers and partners who have not.
There are several Insights programs that have been developed for immediate implementation: team building, sales effectiveness, leadership development, etc. Following a needs analysis, program content is customized to meet client?s objectives and can be delivered simultaneously to a large group of people in one location or to many offices across North America. Insights practitioners will ensure that program content and learning

InsightsR Discovery System vs. DiSCR

 

DiSC or the Personal Profile System (PPS) is an instrument which measures surface traits or characteristic ways of behaving in a particular environment. It explains how normal human emotions lead to behavioural differences among people as well as to changes in a person’s behaviour in different situations. The system theorized that human behaviour could be studied on a bipolar model according to people’s perception of their work environment as favourable or antagonistic and their perception of being more or less powerful than their environment This system explores behaviour across four primary dimensions.

 

In the DiSC system, there are adjectives describing each letter of the acronym DiSC. Some programs use colour, but the colours are not consistent across the DiSC range of providers.

 

DiSC has 4 measures - each representing one of 4 types of behaviours: D - Dominance, I - Influencing/Inducement, S - Steadiness/Submission, C - Conscientiousness/Compliance

 

The DiSC system has four scales represented graphically for each of the four adjectives above, collectively called a person’s profile. There are 15 classical profile patterns- each representing a popular pattern of most and least characteristics. With some DiSC Providers, in a workshop setting, it is not unusual to find more than one participant having identical reports. This can reduce credibility with participants as they feel their uniqueness is not captured. In fact, where ‘boiler-plate’ text is generated, the individuals may of course be significantly different from one another while their reports are identical.

 

The DiSC system has been designed for improving communication in the workplace. Its applications range from enhancing customer service, sales training, reducing stress, and improving relationships between employee and managers and enhanced organizational development.

There are numerous versions and providers of DiSC in the market.

 

Correlations between Insights & DiSC:

The four dimensions of DiSC are loosely correlated with the Insights colour energies, as follows:  D - Fiery Red       I - Sunshine Yellow       S - Earth Green       C - Cool Blue  

 

Benefits of Insights vs. DiSC:

Many users question the fundamental methodology of DiSC. The scales which form the system’s profiles are skewed without explanation, the DiSC questionnaire measures only 2 out of 4 question elements (“Most” and “Least” characteristics only, disregarding the 2 in the “middle”), and there are placebo questions which are answered but not counted at all. Insights profiles are represented graphically, using rational logic, and are not skewed in any way. The Insights evaluator measures all elements, and every part of every answer is counted. Insights profiles are more highly customized to the individual than DiSC. In certain short DiSC reports, only a list of adjectives is provided. This makes it difficult for the user to fully understand behaviour as it lacks context and a complete explanation. 

 

The Insights system is designed so that no two individuals will have the same profile. Group ratings indicate a 95% accuracy rate for Insights profiles due, in part, to the high level of customized content. The language used in the Insights program is simple, and the model clear, ensuring better recall and accessibility to a wide variety of clients.

 

The Insights Discovery system has been designed for improving interpersonal effectiveness through individual awareness and focuses on maximizing an individual’s potential. A wider variety of applications are available ranging from leadership development, team building, team effectiveness, sales and service enhancement to stress management, change management, conflict resolution and coaching. This range enables an organization to adopt the Insights model and apply it to many learning and development needs within the organization. This consistency of cross-functional training ensures a common language is adopted throughout an organization and that all individuals are learning and applying adapting and communication strategies that enhance collective performance.

 

Madeleine York

York Career Development, Inc.

Houston-Austin

866-502-8258 office

512-565-8506 mobile

www.yorkinc.com

myork@yorkinc.com