Know Your Brain to Increase Job Satisfaction

I just got done reading a great article in the Harvard Business Review called Managing Yourself: What Brain Science Tells Us About How to Excel. In it, the author, Edward Hallowell, points to inherent brain science–the way we’re wired–as an indicator of how we can achieve greater happiness in our work.

He considers five aspects that are inherent to our neurological make-up (in the way we approach them) as critical to ensuring job satisfaction and success:

1. Elect the right tasks

2. Connect with colleagues

3. Play with problems

4. Grapple with and grow from challenges

5. Shine in the acknowledgment of your achievements

What I couldn’t help but notice was the similarity to how Emergenetics looks at things via the Attributes. We can see a Green (Structural) perspective in electing the right tasks, a Red (Social) perspective in connecting with people, a Behavioral and Yellow (Conceptual) element in playing with problems, an Blue (Analytical) viewpoint to grappling and growing with conflicts, and a Red (Social) and Expressive element to shining on in your achievements. These things fit within the Emergenetics framework (as do many work challenges), but what I found most compelling about the idea of using brain science for career guidance is this:

Knowledge of your thinking and behavioral preferences can help bring to light why you may either excel or struggle with a particular task or job. It can also elucidate the many various ways that different people can approach the same things.

What the Emergenetics Profile (or any other test that measures how you think and/or behave) can’t tell you is exactly what the “perfect job” is for any one person. But, with a little digging into the kind of work you do, the people you do it with, and how you approach it, the Profile can provide a deeper level of insight and nuances that you might otherwise not pick up.

There is no perfect Profile for a leader, a manager, an accountant or an artist…but you there are knowledge paths that can help bring ideas to life on how to excel at these positions. If you’re a manager, think about your employees – do you really know why one person excels and another struggles? It might not be work ethic or intelligence or personality conflict. Rather, what if it were a system put in place that was fundamentally different from the way a particular employee preferred to work.

Using a tool, such as the Emergenetics Profile, to understand more about your own personal preferences can be a powerful step towards increasing your job satisfaction and success in your career.

 Print This Post