Are You a Martian-Like From Mars?

If you flew in from Mars, hooked up with Earth’s leaders and were sitting across the table from them, most likely you wouldn’t be able to communicate. So Earth’s leaders would put together a task team to scour the planet looking for people who spoke Martian. They would attend seminars about Martians; they would search the Internet for sites on the Martian language; they would join a Martian association and attend its national seminar; they would read books about Martians; they would survey the public in search of Martian knowledge.

Whew! Did you ever think it would be so hard to figure someone out?

Apparently managers do, because they go through about as much trying to figure you out as Earth’s leaders do Martians.

The idea for today’s topic came from a HVACR Business tweet on Twitter about this article at Forbes. Here’s the skinny on this article: Strengths Finder is an online test that will help measure a person’s strengths. If a manager knows what your strengths are, he can get more out of you*.

There are universities, books, online classes, magazines, seminars, associations, focus groups, social networks – all out there trying to help  your manager figure you out, figure out what your strengths are.

Earth to you Mr. or Ms. Technician, you are not a Martian. You speak the language. You can communicate. You can demystify you to your manager. Talk with him about your strengths.

In Part II of this post we’ll talk about talking about your strengths (for most it’s not an easy thing to do).

*Please don’t interpret this in a negative way. The premise is, if you are utilizing your strengths there is a good chance you really like what you do. Naturally if you like what you do you’ll be more productive.