Breaking Up is Hard To Do*

They say that breaking up is hard to do
Now I know, I know that it’s true

-Neil Sedaka

We recently (last week) surveyed 7000 people who completed the KTS-II to research the relationship between temperament and the usage of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc).   There were lots of interesting data, some of which I will follow up on over the next week or so, but one interesting item jumped out in the first cursory analysis.  With respect to Neil Simon, and dozens of cover artists including The Four Seasons, Paul Anka, and The Partridge Family, it would appear that breaking up has become pretty easy, especially for a couple temperament groups.

Continue reading Breaking Up is Hard To Do*

"Make it better" is her mantra.

She has had a quite interesting journey in her life so far. A privileged and mostly ignored daughter of one of the most famous actors and a suicidal mother, she grew up not knowing herself. This is a tragic situation for an Idealist, for she hid her excessive Idealist’s guilt and naivety with eating disorders and marrying three times. But, she slowly kept trying to understand herself, as Idealists are wont to do, finally doing so after 60 years. One of the most intriguing parts of this search was it took the frantic and opulent life of Ted Turner, an extremely extroverted and peripatetic Artisan, to make her finally need to say *stop* — “slow down” and then take a good look at herself. It took her almost a lifetime to find her voice and calling: teaching women’s issues — teaching the stuff — Jane Fonda actually experienced and conquered — rather than the political knowledge that she naively tried to pass off as her own, using her fame, and Idealist credulity, as an activist in her younger, reluctant-phony, days.

Continue reading "Make it better" is her mantra.

Career Growth Strategy (4): Articulate how your unique talent, viewpoint, and approach would be a significant advancement for the enterprise.

In my previous article Career Growth Strategy (3), I stated that if you want to move ahead in your career, the third step to take is to “Learn to articulate ‘your’ story by highlighting how your differences are a tremendous asset.”  The original four steps I introduced to build a long term career were as follows:

  1. Get comfortable in your own skin by celebrating who you are.
  2. Figure out what will get the company ahead.
  3. Learn to articulate “your” story by highlighting how your differences are a tremendous asset.
  4. Articulate how your unique talent, viewpoint, and approach would be a significant advancement for the enterprise.

Today, we look at the final step which serves as the connecting piece that brings it all together:  (4). Articulate how your unique talent, viewpoint, and approach would be a significant advancement for the enterprise.  This is really about making the case for why you and the company are a fit for each other.

Continue reading Career Growth Strategy (4): Articulate how your unique talent, viewpoint, and approach would be a significant advancement for the enterprise.

Trust Me

Who do you trust? Who can you trust these days?

Who will give you the honest truth?  Who has good advice?

Are they the same person in your case?

Well, in this case, if you trusted this guy, you could have gone to the bank on his advice.

Banking Billions on his advice.

You wouldn’t have suspected it given the circumstances he was born into.  He was born in the Dust Bowl of America during the Great Depression. However, he came to represent American business, done the right way.  Invest in America. Slow and steady.

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I Got You Babe: Isabel’s problem

Latin introvert: to turn within

“My daughter is not an introvert,
— she’s pretty”

An anonymous mother’s exclamation

One Babe had a problem.  She was an introvert – she was what they call shy — but she wanted to be an actress.

This Babe was lucky. At 17, she encountered “the most unforgettable character I’ve ever met.” The rest is history: for he, Salvatore, her unforgettable character, was not “intro-verted” — in fact he was far more gregarious than shy, or, in Latinized German jargon, he was “extro-verted.”  He had wiggled himself into the Los Angeles music scene; he had paid his dues as a gofer and backup singer for Phil Spector’s record company.

She had said: “For better or worse, I never plan my life. I focus on today. I love spontaneity. That is what has put me in some strange and wonderful places in my life.”

So how did this shy but ambitious teenager, a high school dropout, once one of Warren Beatty’s uncountable hook-ups, with no plans, become The Diva of Rock?

Continue reading I Got You Babe: Isabel’s problem

Politics, Genes, and Temperament

I recently read an article on cnn.com about research that claims people’s political leanings are less tied to nurture than nature. Essentially, the researchers are finding that where you are born, the political leanings of your parents, friends, and colleagues, etc., play less of a role in your own preferences than your “hard-wiring”. In others words – you’re born that way.

These findings reflect the results of of several independent research studies conducted with different scientific methods – and support a theory we have had here at Keirsey Research ever since we started surveying people’s voting preferences and political beliefs several years ago. Our findings over the years have been consistent: there is a measurable correlation between temperament and political viewpoints. This doesn’t mean for example, that all ENTJ’s are Independents, but we have consistently seen substantial statistical differences between the temperaments.

Before reading below to see what we’ve found over the years, stop and see if you can predict the link between temperament and stated political party affiliation. Are Artisans more likely to be Republicans than Democrats – or perhaps Greens or Libertarians? What about Guardians, Idealists, and Rationals?

Continue reading Politics, Genes, and Temperament

Career Growth Strategy (3): 3. Learn to articulate “your” story by highlighting how your differences are a tremendous asset.

In my previous article Career Growth Strategy (2), I stated that if you want to move ahead in your career, the second step to take is to “Figure out what will get the company ahead.”  The original four steps I introduced to build a long term career were as follows:

  1. Get comfortable in your own skin by celebrating who you are.
  2. Figure out what will get the company ahead.
  3. Learn to articulate “your” story by highlighting how your differences are a tremendous asset.
  4. Articulate how your unique talent, viewpoint, and approach would be a significant advancement for the enterprise.

Today, we look at the third step which serves as your foundation for expressing who you are to the world.  In this article, I will expand on the step:  (3).  Learn to articulate “your” story by highlighting how your differences are a tremendous asset.  This is really about communicating who you are to the world.

Continue reading Career Growth Strategy (3): 3. Learn to articulate “your” story by highlighting how your differences are a tremendous asset.