Bertrand Russell on Criteria

“All human activity is prompted by desire. There is a wholly fallacious theory advanced by some earnest moralists to the effect that it is possible to resist desire in the interests of duty and moral principle. I say this is fallacious, not because no man ever acts from a sense of duty, but because duty has no hold on him unless he desires to be dutiful. If you wish to know what men will do, you must know not only, or principally, their material circumstances, but rather the whole system of their desires with their relative strengths”.

Bertrand Russell accepting his Nobel prize in 1950

MindSonar: Very helpful in job marketing!

In some time periods it’s easy to find a new job, in other periods it can be very hard. In those hard times, your job marketing skills are extremely important. Job marketing is the way to conquer the work barrier, so to say. Because when you are one of 200 job seekers in your region, looking for something new, finding a job is a day job in itself.

How can meta programs help?

First, it’s important to have a focus on which job you prefer. So, your meta program ‘towards’ has to be highly developed. It has been scientifically proven that it is better to apply for specific jobs. So don’t say “I’m available for anything”. That way you are not recognizable for recruiters and they will skip your LinkedIn profile or resume. So your ‘options’ meta program has to be somewhat lower here.

Then, discover whether you are ready to go networking. Is your internal control no longer influenced by grief or mourning from your last job? Is your ‘now’ and ‘future’ switched on instead of ‘past’? That’s really important, because you like to give your network relations the impression of someone who is ready for new work activities. Optimistic and open minded. So, ‘internal locus of control’, ‘towards’ and ‘matching’ are useful.

Next, it’s highly recommended to have a plan for your networking activities. So put on your ‘procedure’, ‘activitities’ and ‘people’ and ‘information’ meta programmes, because you need them all! Depending on what you discover during your search, work with a procedure, a plan.

Next, via Linked In it’s possible to find people who do the work you prefer to do, and to see who can introduce you to this employee. In a network date you need the thinking styles “external reference” to be able to really stand in the shoes of the other, and find out what is important for you to develop.
So your meta program “development” is also of great importance. So you can find out what is the gap between the job you want and your competencies. In that case it can be useful to put on “past” as a meta program, because you learned a lot already. When you walk through your work-past with a career coach, you’ll find out that you can do a lot more than you thought.

When you were asked to apply for a job because someone in your network is giving you a hint, your meta programs are helpful as well. Analyze the job very specifically. Which thinking styles do you need the most? What do you read in the text of the profile? Are the tasks specifically defined or just global mentioned? Is the company emphasizing future aspects of the firm, or mentioning where it stands nowadays, or where it comes from? Does it say more about the colleagues, of about the tasks and activities, or are there given lots of information?
So, analyzing the text is very important, because now you can put on the ‘external reference’ meta program again to write your letter in exactly the same style. So that the recruiter matches (perhaps unconsciously) your skills with the job.

When you are invited for an interview, you can use all meta programs. Depending on the recruiters you’re speaking with and which meta program you discover during the interview. Do they ask how you see your first day at work? Or how you are able to harmonize with other team members? Or what your feelings are about the company’s last moves on the market? Match their representation systems!
Are there questions about the essence of the vision of the firm, or about how one part of the process fits in another part, or how you want to put the vision into activities?

Yes, it does sound like you have to be more than an expert in analyzing all those meta programs simultaneously in your search for a job! But don’t panic. When in doubt, ask for a MindSonar expert to help you get the on line measurement and get coached in how to put the most efficient styles on. Start by just putting effort in using a few important, significant thinking styles and you will succeed, sooner or later.

Guaranteed!

Selling Products ‘Powered by MindSonar’

Customized
Let’s talk about selling MindSonar. MindSonar professionals need customers who buy MindSonar products. And in the realms of consultancy and coaching the ‘product’ is usually a ‘project’; a custom built solution. For an individual it will be a custom planned coaching path. For a company or an agency it will be an intervention designed for that one particular organization. It may have standard components, but the combination is still one of a kind.

Passion and expertise
The way I see it, a good MindSonar product is a combination a MindSonar professional and the MindSonar system. The professional brings their passion (what they are very enthusiastic about), their vision (the ideal world they see), their mission (what they want to contribute to that ideal world) and their expertise (the content areas they know a lot about and have a lot of experience with). MindSonar adds understanding to that, based on a fine grained, in depth measurement of mindsets. It is the synergy between the professional and MindSonar that creates a great product. MindSonar would not be nearly as effective without the passion and the expertise of the professional. And the professional would be much less effective without MindSonar.

“I have a great tool!”
Many people have approached companies with a pitch like: “Hey, I have this great new tool, a test that can actually measure mindsets. With this test I can help you understand how people in your business think.This tool I can help you guys advance in all kinds of ways!”. Often they have been met with blank stares. Or with: “We already have a test”. Why? People who lead organizations are not that interested in the tools their consultants use. It is a bit like being called by a sales person saying: “Hey, we have this great new set of wrenches that can help the engine of your car run smoothly!”. Sure, I want my engine to run smoothly, but as long as it isn’t making funny sounds I am not that interested in the first place. And even if I were worried about the state of my engine, the type or wrenches is a detail I leave with the mechanics. Customers love to leave it up to you to use whatever tests you like, as long as you help them get results.

What people are interested in
People and organisations are interested in results, not so much in the tools they are achieved with. If someone feels a lot of anger, they may want relaxation as a result. If two organizations are merging, they want the people working together as harmoniously as possible. Sales people want to be selling in good quantities. Departments want happy employees. Managers want conflicts resolved as quickly as possible. Almost every business wants excited customers. Employees want to develop as professionals and as people. Almost everybody wants interesting new products being developed. That’s the kind of things organizations are interested in.

Powered by MindSonar
And when you have the ability to measure mindsets, you can offer these results, often in a relatively straightforward manner. And you will be offering them a lot more than just MindSonar. You are offering them you expertise in designing and running change projects. Often you also have some content knowledge of the business they are in. You know what’s going on in their kind of business. Plus you have a broader theory of how things work, in which mindsets are a central element. You are offering a product that is ‘Powered by MindSonar’. Just like your website is ‘Powered by WordPress’. Well, actually it is ‘Proudly Powered by WordPress’. So my advice is: make your next offer about something that you client really wants and that has been difficult for them to get. And have it ‘Proudly Powered by MindSonar’.

The Career Coach and MindSonar: Inseparable!

As a career coach, I often work with people who are afraid to lose their job. Looking at the economical situation in Holland, this is a real fear. But how to handle this fearful feeling of insecurity?

Barbara, almost 58 years old, came to me because she didn’t know how to act in her work situation anymore. Her employer told her to look for a different position inside or outside the organization. She was working there for more than 20 years.

Her most significant meta programs were ‘reactive’, ‘away from’, ‘external reference’, and ‘mismatching’. Also kinesthetic had a high score.

In the sessions Barbra showed the behavior that matched the profile. She was constantly stressed and mentioned what could go wrong. She didn’t take action at work, apart from asking a whole team of people around her what to do. She asked advice from me as a career coach, from a psychologist, from the HR-manager at her company and someone from the works council.

She totally fell into the pitfalls, matching her profile. Her high kinesthetic score made here feel everything that happened, she was not able to develop a vision on her future, nor to say the right things to herself to handle the situation. She was still working, though now and then she called in sick, overwhelmed  by her feelings.

You can imagine she was deeply shocked and wasn’t able to climb out of the stress all by herself.

I did a lot of exercises with her to let her associate in different meta programs and asked a lot of solution focused questions. What if everything turned out better than she expected? What if she decided by herself what was good for her future? What if she said to herself: “I have enough in me that can help me decide? I also did an timeline exercise to discover when her less helpful meta programs were installed. This was very helpful to her, as well as the discovery that she had a lot of people around her to support her. She wasn’t aware of that, using the meta programs “mismatching” and “away from” too much.

During our sessions she became a little bit more at ease. A bit more convinced that sooner or later there would be a solution. Her humour came back bit by bit, and she was able to look at herself instead of being overwhelmed by her feelings.

We finished, and some weeks later she let me know she quit the job to get the rest she needed. And that she was at ease with her decisions.

 

How do you reference time?

Are you contemplating things that happened in the past? Are you focusing on what is happening in the moment? Or are you planning your future?

Time Orientation: Past, Present or FutureContinue reading

How Can Change Be Effectively Implemented?

This week we are exploring the idea of how we compare things around us, adapt to change, as well as the rate at which we prefer change in a specific area of our life. Knowing your own, or someone else’s pattern for change will guide you to the easiest path in effectively and gracefully bringing about any revisions. Pinpointing this ‘meta-program’ will bring great insight into the inner workings of a person, group or organization.

Do you notice similarities? Or are you drawn to what is different?Continue reading