ENTRETUDE

Style Matters – How To Make the Way You Work, Work

   There are two basic types of working styles – Internal and External .  Knowing which you are reveals which personal and professional opportunities hold your best chance for success. 

Choose the statements that best describe the way you like to work:

                         

1.     I've always preferred to take the lead on an assignment.

    

2.     I think that if greater minds than mine have weighed in on a process who am I to question the way things work?

    

3.     If things go wrong – whoever screwed up is really going to feel the heat.

    

4.     I don’t mind making the decisions and accepting full responsibility for projects or assignments.

    

5.     I think decisions based on consensus are the best decisions.

             

6.     I like to make recommendations about how things can be accomplished or systems and methods improved.

    

7.      I like working in a group, there’s safety in numbers.

    

8.      I don’t want to know just what we’re doing I want to know why we are doing it.

    

9.     When I’m working on a team I don’t have a problem fulfilling my responsibilities as long as I’m given clear directions and enough information.

    

10.     I like working with clearly outlined policies and procedures.

    

11.     An employer/client should give clear directions, time-frames and expected outcome for every project.

    

12.     On a team, I am usually the one who keeps everyone on track.

    

13.     I like it when each member of the team does their own work and lets me do mine.

    

14.      I work well by myself - fewer distraction and I see to get more done.

    

Now, use your choices to see the way you want to work.  Write down the number of statements you chose from Group1 which includes statements: 1,3,4,6,8,12 and 14. 

    

Write down how many statements you chose from Group 2 which includes statements: 2,5,7,9,10.11.13. 

    

Find your numbers for Group 1 and Group 2 in the table below to determine the way you want to work.

   

Number of Statements from Group 1	Number of Statements from Group 2	The Way You Want To Work
7	0	Very Strong External Consultant
6	1	Strong External Consultant
5	2	External Consultant
4	3	External/Internal Consultant
3	4	Internal/External Consultant
2	5	Internal Consultant
1	6	Strong Internal Consultant
0	7	Very Strong Internal Consultant

      

You know what you're good at and now you know your preferred working style.  We'll use this awareness and other Entretude principles to start creating your best opportunity.

What You Do Well, What You’re Good At and What It All Means

   A basic principal of Entretude is that your best opportunity is always one that you create for yourself.  When you have an entrepreneurial approach to life you build on your strengths and use them identify your best opportunities.  In this post we’ll lay the foundation for that awareness.  I’ll show you how to find your personal strengths and then start to use them to base your best opportunities on.

                         

To recognize your personal strengths, you have to know the difference between what you do well and what you are good at.  The activities that you do well at are within the things you do every day: you earn a living, you have relationships and interact with other people; you seek, retain and share information; you negotiate, direct and schedule your actions and the actions of others - these seemingly mundane activities are opportunities to do a variety of things well. 

                              

What you are good at is the engine that drives what you do well.  It is the reservoir of personal skills and attributes that you draw from over and over again, combine with each other and build on each time you do something well.  The challenge is to understand what those personal skills and attributes are – what you’re good at - and how they relates to what you do well.  Remember without this self knowledge it will be difficult to develop and capitalize on your best opportunities – the ones that you create for yourself.

Here’s a easy four-step process to help you determine what you’re good at and what you do well:

                              

1.      Make a list of ten things you did well or skills you acquired/improved in the last twelve months.  They can relate to work, personal relationships, community activities or things you do for fun.

                   

2.      Write down one to three other skills, talents or experiences that helped you do each of the ten things well, like getting along well with or motivating people, speaking persuasively, developing a vision or making plans for yourself or others, explaining ideas clearly, combining ideas in innovative ways to come up with new thoughts or putting a personal twist on a mundane task. Your talents could also be more general - determination, willingness to work hard, discipline or selflessness.

                     

3.      Identify the skills, talents and experiences that appear:

•     If a skill, talent or experience appears more than four times on your list, it’s a strong indicator of what you’re good at;

•      If a skill, talent or experience appears between two and four times it is closely   related to what you are good at;

•      If a skill, talent or experience appears less than two times - these skills are skills you don’t use very often.

                                     

4.      You’ll now use these skills, talents and experience – what you’re good at - as a filter through which you view what you’re doing now and what you would like to do in the future.  When you consider an opportunity - list the skills and talents necessary for success.  If more of those skills and talents are on your list of things you’re good at – that is a good indication that this opportunity will probably be something you do well.  In other words you’ve identified something that it may represent your best opportunity.

   

Now you know what you're good at.  Your next step is to determine the best environment in which to put these talents to work.

   

See how this worked for me. 

   

Entrepreneur + Attitude = ENTRETUDE

   My name is Granville Sawyer, for nearly three decades - as a business consultant, university professor and mentor– I have studied, researched, taught, interviewed, worked with, launched and counseled entrepreneurs.  I also come from three generations of entrepreneurs.  These talented and self-actualized individuals helped me discover how the principles of successful entrepreneurship are applicable to more than starting a business; they can also inform and transform just about every aspect of personal and professional success.  That is the foundation of Entretude.

         

   

Through this blog I’ll share the principles of Entretude.  As you learn how to integrate an entrepreneurial attitude into all aspects of your life - work, play, relationships and community - you begin to feel less reactive and protective to more proactive and empowered.

    

You're In the Driver's Seat

"If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else."  Yogi Berra

 

Entretude is not a road map, a manual or a miracle.  Entretude facilitates a very personal process that challenges you to make cogent, conscious decisions about your future.  Entretude challenges the prescribed approach to work and life - lots of work with a little life on the side.  That old model also defines success and failure for you - including how far, how fast and what it looks like when you arrive.  Recession, job shrinkage, the housing crisis, the economy and overwhelming uncertainty are pretty good indicators that for most of us, the old model just isn't working anymore.

    

A few times each week I'll share information, exercises and the insights on Entretude.  I'll introduce you to talented people who embrace, understand and walk the Entretude walk and talk the Entretude talk.  From them, from me and with your vital input, we’ll explore ways to use Entretude to develop your own work-life model - a holistic approach that considers who you are, who shares your life, what your strengths are and how to make them work for you - not against you.

    

A New Road, New Resources, Better Results

    

What you get out of Entretude is directly correlated to what you're willing to put into it.  Remember, this is  your personal navigation system - your journey, your destination.  You're on the road, top down, the sun is shining, you've mapped it out and you've decided how far, how fast and what success will look like when you get there.

    

Let's get started.