Shaping a Multi-Passionate Life with Meredith Fuller

January 6, 2022

Welcome to Episode 8 of the Create Your Story Podcast on Shaping a Multi-Passionate Life.

I’m joined by Meredith Fuller, Psychologist, Author, Media Spokesperson, Career Change Specialist and Theatre Maker.

We chat about shaping a multi-passionate life in practical terms! There are so many tips for living a full, wise and creative life without overwhelm.

You can listen above or via your favourite podcast app. And/or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.

Show Notes

In this episode, we chat about:

Making transitions from work or a life we don’t love
Tools for tapping into what is not conscious
Living a full, multi-passionate life in practical terms.
Meredith’s book Working with Bitches
My book Wholehearted & how Meredith is working with it with clients
Thinking and Feeling preferences in women
Choosing projects wisely
How personality insights can help
How tarot insights can help
Setting boundaries
And so much more!

Transcript of podcast

Introduction

Welcome to Episode 8 of the Create Your Story Podcast and it’s the 6^th of January as I record this and we’re firmly into the new year. It’s warm and humid here in Sydney with lots of rain, so it’s a perfect time for setting intentions and goals for 2022 and also reflecting on my word of the year. I shared about my word of the year for 2021, Author in the past week on my blog. So pop over to see how that shaped up over the year and some tips for applying this learning in your life! More on my 2022 word soon as I ponder on all that it might mean!

I’m thrilled to have my friend Meredith Fuller join us for the podcast today to chat about Shaping a Multi-passionate Life. You might remember Meredith featured in Episode 3 of the podcast as part of the first Wholehearted virtual book launch.

Meredith’s concurrent careers have included author, playwright, columnist & media commentator, talkback radio guest, theatre director & producer, TV co-host, actor, psychological profiler and trainer. As a psychologist in private practice, providing counselling and career development to individuals and groups, she has also consulted to organisations on professional development and interpersonal skills for over 40 years. She ran a university careers counselling service for 12 years and has been a sessional lecturer in postgraduate courses in vocational psychology at several universities.

Meredith and I met via our mutual interest in psychological type as members of the Australian Association for Psychological Type about 4 years ago. From that we have discovered many shared interests and passions. Today we will be chatting about the value of psychological type and personality insights in making change, looking at how tarot can help, my Wholehearted book, Meredith’s book ‘Working with Bitches’ and writing and creative living. One of the things we particularly chat about is being multi-passionate and having a number of projects. There is some fabulous advice about how to make wise choices about where to focus and how to practically structure your life so you don’t get overwhelmed or burn out.

A reminder before we head into the podcast about the Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club as a focus for 2022. One of the things Meredith mentions in the podcast is about the value of community and it’s something that’s integral to my life and work. If you’re looking for community, support and accountability for living a more wholehearted life, join me and a wonderful group of women gathering for the Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club to read and work through my book Wholehearted and the Companion Workbook together through-out 2022. Part book club, part group coaching, with weekly accountability and prioritising check-ins, it’s a gentle, focused and value-packed way to keep wholehearted living front of mind and make progress to the transitions and transformations you desire in the coming year.

We start on Chapter 1 of Wholehearted in mid-January so it’s not too late to join us now and there is a space for you. People in the group are already commenting on how the accountability is helping them to do things they might otherwise have given up on! So head to the Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club.

You’ll also hear more about Wholehearted in this episode and how it can support you. Meredith wrote a fantastic review of the book you can read too.

So now let’s head into the interview with the fabulously multi-skilled and multi-passionate Meredith Fuller!

Transcript of interview with Meredith Fuller

Terri Connellan: Hi Meredith, welcome to the Create Your Story podcast. And thank you so much for your support of me and my book Wholehearted.

Meredith Fuller: I’m delighted with it.

Terri Connellan: Thank you. It’s great to chat with you today. So to kick off, can you tell people a little about you and the roles that you focus on in your work in the world?

Meredith Fuller: So, I’ve been a psychologist for over 40 years. I have a private practice where I’ve seen many thousands of individuals who come for career developmental or personal growth, and I’ve also spent a number of years working in organizations on organizational issues, whether that’s leadership, team communication, mainly it’s interpersonal issues.

And I also write plays that I direct and produce at our venue, and I assist my husband with his short documentaries. So, we’ve got a very psychological focus on that. So essentially what I do is assist people to be the best they can be. And I mainly find that people are often in a position of distress. It could be interpersonal problems with people at work, problems in relationships, a poor fit, and they need some assistance in moving towards whatever their life stage is.

And it’s interesting at the moment, there’s been obviously quite a lot of people who are looking at what next? I’m in my fifties, I’m in my sixties. What now? So there’s a very strong theme there. And the other thing that we’ve been doing for the past two years because of the pandemic issue is working with a lot of people using Zoom to do group sessions or one-on-one sessions.

So, I guess what happens for me is there’s lots of different projects that emerge and if I’m interested, I’ll grab it. So for example, at the moment, I’m making a film with some colleagues about domestic violence. So it’ll just depend on what seems to be the critical issues. And the other part of what I do in writing is I’m an author of books and I do a lot of book reviews and write articles for newspapers, magazines, do some TV work, radio work, just a lot of helping people to understand more about the psychology of people.

Terri Connellan: So many threads, but so many interesting aspects to your life and to your work. And I love that at its core about helping people to be the best people they can be and I think that’s where your work at my work comes together. We’re both interested in that space where people can make choices, make transitions, practice self-leadership, understand themselves to be the best they can be, but I absolutely love all the different strands. And so we’ll explore quite a few of those in our chat today.

So thank you. And thank you for your review of Wholehearted too cause, that was a beautiful first review, which I’ll put in the show notes, but thank you for that. And the work that you do, I’m sure is hugely appreciated because it’s one thing to write and create something, isn’t it? It’s about sharing it with the world too. So thank you for that. So we met through our mutual love of psychological type and it’s valuable insights. So why have psychological type and personality been such powerful frameworks in your life?

Meredith Fuller: I’ve always been psychologically minded. And even as a child, I wanted to be a psychologist and it struck me that I was fascinated all through school about what do I think people will become when they get older so much so that I used to write down all the names of the kids in my class and write down what I thought they’d be when they grew up.

So obviously, the issue of vocation spoke to me very early on, and it was clear to me that people were different and that you could cluster them in some way. And I used to wonder why doesn’t anyone else seem to see what I’m seeing? So I felt quite different and alone with that and I guess for me, what I love about AusAPT and working with psychological type is we have a group of disparate people who are all keen to understand what our differences and similarities are.

And we like looking underneath and we like reflecting back on what we’re observing and to my mind, there’s a great depth of thinking that is so helpful for people. And I certainly find that psychological type has informed most of the work I’ve done since about 1998.

Terri Connellan: Wow. It’s been a really long-term influence then. Yeah. So just to explain to people listening Meredith and I are part of the Australian Association for Psychological Type, which is a connection of people in Australia, but globally who have a passion for personality and psychological type and it’s great community for people who as you’ve said think really deeply about the way we’re made up, the way we’re wired and the influence of that with nurture too. It’s not all about how we’re wired is it? But it’s obviously a big player in how things play out. So how do you work with these insights with clients?

Meredith Fuller: Individuals will come for counseling or careers counseling, and they’ll normally present with distress about their relationships at work or their relationships in the family, or with significant others or their difficulty in forming relationships, their concern about their careers and we’ll explore their lives. And I like to look at childhood through to the present and I like to understand their narrative. But I also like to look at what are their ability, skills, interests, values to get that full picture and what their hopes and dreams are in terms of who was this child? What did that child want in the future? And who is this adult now? What does this adult want?

And increasingly, I’m noticing that there’s so many problems with people who are not being valued and validated in their relationships and at work. And so, the thing that struck me about your titles about, this wholehearted and the shadow coming to work and the half-hearted working. The turns of phrase you used were just beautiful because they just encapsulated for me how people talk about work versus self.

And, I loved the way you gave a number of activities and exercises that they could reflect on, that helped them to see what the misalignment is and what’s changed. And that just sits so nicely with the sort of work that I do with people where something shifted. And if they don’t address what’s going on for them, invariably, they get sick or they have to sever relationships or rethink a lot of things.

So definitely there’s a sense that people are coming because they’re not happy. They’re in distress. They know something’s wrong. And they know that it’s very toxic for them, but they feel so stuck and they often feel very trapped and they seek some support from elsewhere because there’s something intolerable that’s going on.

Terri Connellan: That makes perfect sense with me cause certainly when I went through my journey, in my case, I reached out to a coach. There’s lots of different people or actions we can take when we feel that. But it’s that, as you say, that real sense of misalignment between who we are, what we want to do, what we want to be, and then what’s actually happening. And there’s lots of reasons for feeling stuck isn’t there.

Meredith Fuller: Oh, absolutely. And also the issue of age, life-stage. The sorts of issues people might present with when they’re 27 are going to be very different to what they’re presenting with at 57. So, that’s of concern to me that there’s quite a number of women I find who haven’t got the financial security that perhaps men might have. Historically, we know why that is. And they find themselves in this position where they’re being edged out of their organization, or they’re not ready to leave, but there’s nothing for them anymore. And they’re really at their prime and they might be in their forties, fifties, and sixties, and they’ve got so much to offer, but they just can’t get a gig anywhere so that’s a real concern. And the other one is that similarly with a lot of men who are really stuck, lamenting that nobody wants them and what are they going to do with the rest of their lives? People that have been chewed up and spat out. So that’s very common.

Terri Connellan: And it’s ironic as we get through life, we get more wisdom, more skills and, then we get in a situation where we feel of less value. So it’s a huge issue and it’s obviously something we’ve both really noticed in the work and, and I’ve experienced it myself. So it’s something obviously you’re seeing in your clients.

So in Wholehearted, in your work with clients, we both use psychological type and personality as like a compass or a framework or a way of seeing personal development. I’ve spoken about that in my book, and obviously your story is very different. So do you want to tell us more about your psychological type makeup and how your understanding of your personality and how you’re wired has helped you grow and evolve?

Meredith Fuller: And so my preference is for introverted, intuition, feeling, perceiving, [INFP] and I was aware when I was very young, that there were two parts of me, two aspects. There was the very introverted—I loved reading. I loved thinking, daydreaming and performing, and this would be my outgoing situations. So I started working very young. So I was in professional salaried work when I was four and a half. That was because I came from a single parent home and my father had left and there was no supporting parent benefit. My mother was very unwell. We also had in our house, her mother and her mother’s sister who had Down’s syndrome.

So my mother was quite trapped, as a caretaker and not really able to go off to work. So it was quite dire. But from when I was very young, three or four, I just love singing, dancing, chatting to strangers, that sort of thing. And so there was a photographer called Athol Smith who was very famous at the time.

And he and his wife, Bambi, wanted me to do some modelling with them. And so that began a modelling career and that also led into an acting career. So I had a situation where I loved all that. I could go off to work and earn some money to help my family, but I could do things I enjoyed, which was entertaining groups, being in plays, et cetera.

But I knew that was a part of me. And the other part of me needed that balance of time alone. And I always had that fascination by how people were different. Why were they different? What can I understand about that and how to make sense of all of that? I guess I’ve always been interested in these things and another connection we’ve had is with the the tarot.

So I started reading tarot when I was about 15 and that’s always been a lifelong interest in collecting decks and exploring symbolism and the unconscious. And so locating MBTI when I was working at a tertiary institution. It was about 97, 98. It seemed to me that things very much came together with that because here was something cogent.

It made sense in a way that I just felt encapsulated everything I’d been thinking about. So I seized on that and became very involved in doing something to help people train and bringing that to tertiary institutions, bringing that to organizations and then working one-to-one with clients.

And I found it’s been the most useful thing because it isn’t about people running around doing a questionnaire. It’s about understanding yourself through that self-reflection and observation and imbibing the theory yourself. So, it’s got a lot more to offer than say, there’s a lot of tests and little questionnaires and things people do, and they’re quite simplistic.

And of course the fewer categories, the less comprehensive and the less good affinity. So there’s something about having 16 types that’s so robust and it’s something that people can grasp very easily and then it can help inform, well, who am I with? How do I work? What do I need? Where am my gaps in communicating? So it’s something very practical and very common sense.

Terri Connellan: That really aligns with how I feel too. First it’s making sense of your own personality and your own view of the world, I think often is part of the lens through which we see type. And then, in my role as a coach or your role as a psychologist using those skills to help others to see what your strengths are, where you’ve got blind spots, what you might be missing, because we all just naturally have certain ways of seeing the world that’s so natural to us, we think it’s the same for everybody.

Meredith Fuller: That’s a really good point you’re raising because obviously one of the issues about working in my field is that we see the people who don’t fit, who have got distress, who have got concerns, who do feel different. So , I do have a skewed sample in that sense.

So invariably, what I find is there are certain types who come for counselling and careers counselling and my husband, who’s a psychotherapist psychologist, he finds the same thing. So, we tend to work more with the introverted, intuitive, thinking or feeling perceiving or judging types than perhaps the more mainstream types.

And that interests me as well, that I can actually reframe a pretty horrible life experience for someone, and they can actually celebrate what is unique about them and then work to their strengths rather than feeling unwanted in our society.

Terri Connellan: That’s really powerful work. I think type’s such a valuable tool for reframing, for understanding. I like the idea of it as a compass, as Jung used that idea of the compass and the framework for taking us forward. So, thanks for those insights. You mentioned tarot, which is another love we share. I write about tarot as a tool and a support for wayfinding and personal insight in my book. And I know you have been collecting decks and have lots of insights. What are your thoughts about tarot as a personal development practice?

Meredith Fuller: I love the visual aspect for people. It’s very clear that some people are very auditory and they need to have deep conversation and, and music might be really significant in how I might work with them. For some people it’s visual. So films, things like tarot, help them get the awareness, get the insight, help them to name what’s going on for themselves, and also really help them connect with their unconscious.

And the thing that I particularly like about tarot is that it sits so beautifully with doing dreamwork and how in our dreams, we understand that present, past and future are interconnected. We don’t have linear time, that images can be constructed or archetypal. There are messages in our dreams.

And similarly with working with your tarot and working with your unconscious, you’re actually helping yourself to appreciate what’s going on for you in a way that enables you to perhaps have a few more resources in the moment when you’re feeling lost, uncertain, confused. So it’s something very tangible. And it’s also something that I really appreciate because I love ancient cultures, ancient religions, ancient symbolism, and also futuristic work. So I love how it just seems to combine all of those.

And it’s a great tool for quickly communicating with someone else. It’s a little bit like the way we use type that, you know, we can say, oh, you know, my preference is X. So suddenly we understand a lot very quickly. And similarly with cards, oh look, I keep getting certain cards, what’s going on with me. It’s a good way of quickly absorbing and integrating information that helps us.

Terri Connellan: Yeah. So I love two things you said there, firstly, about both tools,type and tarot, or both frameworks are ways of tapping into that unconscious, like what’s beneath the surface or what’s less conscious for us.

And then secondly, how they both like languages or symbolic systems or languages, we can become more fluent in. I love that idea because they do. At a type conference, for example, when we’re together, I just love it. We all understand, at different levels, but it’s sort of a language we can speak.

And as you say, it’s the same with tarot. When I talk about the Six of Swords and the Eight of Cups in the book, I hope people who don’t know that can also get a way in. But for those who understand that, they will bring that understanding to that book. So it just means we’ve got a language for communicating.

Meredith Fuller: It’s interesting. There was a line in the book that was really interesting for me, that you made that I hadn’t seen anywhere else before. And it was very significant. I think, as a teaching tool for a lot of people who are looking at this business of career change. You’re talking about, you’re leaving success. So you’re leaving things that are working, you’re leaving things and you’re going off and you made the comment, you’re actually choosing to leave the successful things.

And that was a very significant statement because for a lot of people where I find they’re stuck is: I earn X amount of dollars and I don’t want to learn less. I’ve been doing this for so long and I’m a partner or a senior administrator or an executive, or I’m a X, Y, Z ed. I can’t leave all this, all this work. I can’t stop and start something where I might earn less or not have my status or not have the recognition. And that can actually paralyze people.

And so we’re looking at the duality of, well, on the one hand, you’re saying you feel dead inside, you hate going to work. You feel there’s so much inside you that’s not being expressed. You’re bored with what you do, even though you’re busy, you feel trapped. And yet you’re saying I can’t let go, you know, do I stay, do I let go?

And there’s something about the way you’ve talked about this card and saying, you’re actually choosing to leave your success. It was just a beautiful way of describing an active decision. And I think that’s very empowering for people who are frightened about letting go of material things, or letting go of how much work they’ve put into something to begin something different.

And with that thread, you also talk about we bring ourselves to every new thing we do. So it’s just a different iteration of what we’ve done before, but some of those phrases will resonate with a lot of people. And it will help give them a boost to say, I can do this. I’m choosing to do this.

Terri Connellan: Absolutely. Yeah. I think that idea of abandoned success, and the image of the Eight of Cups. If you have a look at a fairly traditional pack the cups stacked up, and then a person’s choosing to walk away from the full cups. Yeah. And to me, it’s about identity. It’s about how much of our identity we’ve invested in that role, that position, the money that we earn, whatever it might be. And then that choosing to find a new path is incredibly difficult.

Meredith Fuller: I guess what makes it hard is our society doesn’t understand. So when people say I’m having a change, I’m leaving X or, I was doing a more senior role, but I’m going back to do a more specialist role in the same organization, or I’ve worked long and hard for this and I’ve got all these qualifications and so forth, but I don’t want to do it anymore. I’m doing something else. And how other people really try to interfere and say, you’ll regret it. You shouldn’t do it. What if you can’t get another job and everyone will laugh at you and what a stupid thing to do. And they’re actually, I think often frightened because they don’t want that other person to go off and be happy because they’re not happy either.

So a lot of investment in keeping the status quo. So I think the way you’ve talked about the Eight of Cups in that sense, that it’s a really sound decision to choose to walk away from amazing success, because you know you will have different success and the success you will have is more congruent with who you truly are. There’s something in a lot of those comments that you’ve made that I just think for people reading the book will strike such a chord.

Terri Connellan: Thank you for those comments. I really appreciate it because it’s something I really felt personally. And my aim in writing the book was to help cause when I went through it, I also felt a bit lost. And there weren’t a lot of frameworks in writing the book. It was working through what I experienced, but then trying to provide some anchors for others.

Meredith Fuller: That was another thing. I did want to mention this because I was very struck by how you wrote the book. What’s unique about your book is that you talk about your own process, including everything you did, every book you read, every person you saw and you very generously talk about what you took from each experience. And it’s almost like a little road map of, here’s a whole lot of books you can buy or types of people you can go and see, and how a coach might be different to a therapist.

And there’s so much that you give in that that is so helpful because traditionally when people write self-help books or here’s your way of looking at your career or change or whatever. They’re very much about, well, this is the system and this is what you follow. And, they don’t compare and contrast other techniques or things that they’ve struck. They don’t suggest that very wide exploration and they don’t talk so much about the internal distress.

They’re much more about, okay, so here’s your problem. So here’s step one and that’ll go to step three and then you’ll be at five and then you’ll be done. And so there’s something quite desiccated about reading those books. Whereas with yours, a) because you’re so honest and open about everything that happened to you, people can feel that you understand them. But the way you talk about how you made decisions about, will I go here? Will I read that? What did that trigger? What did that mean? Why is this person good at this? It’s so much more comprehensive for people to say, okay, well, I didn’t like that book and I didn’t like that person. But you know, it’s like a hairdresser. I’ll go and find one that cuts the hair how I want. Thanks very much.

You’ve really given people permission to play with the way through. And I can certainly see how this kind of approach has been missing in the past because there are a lot of books came out in the eighties and the nineties. It’s almost like we get waves of things happening, but they never really hit the spot about people who had this profound sense of emptiness and loss and confusion and concern.

And they didn’t help people who couldn’t just snappily work through each exercise and tick off all the goals and have it neat and tidy. And, I like it cause it’s messy and our lives are messy. And you’ve really captured that for people, which is nice. And that sense that you have with your work is, well, it is going to be unexpected. We don’t know how this is all going away, but it could be this. It could be that. It could be something else, but there’s growth in it and there’s excitement. And there’s learning in this curiosity, and there’s a sense of mastery rather than having a person feel well look, I’m hopeless, even the help books don’t help me cause I’m so hopeless. So to me, you’ve really picked up on a book for our time.

Terri Connellan: Thank you. I really appreciate that cause often when you’re writing a personal narrative like that, it’s that challenge of sharing your experiences a bit like, show don’t tell. I was just chatting about this in another interview, the difference between telling people to do something versus this is what I went through. And here’s what I suggest, which I thinks a more powerful way to go. And you’re also an author. So tell about your books and the topics you focused on in your writing career.

Meredith Fuller: So I’ve written a number of books that were more academic, but the one I did that was more mainstream was called Working with Bitches and it was identifying the eight types of nasty people that you find, nasty women and how to deal with them. And why I did that was, again, part of the theme of what was happening with my work is women were saying I’m really struggling with a particular woman at work who might be my support person, my boss, my team leader, my colleague, and they were being undermined or they were being distressed and they couldn’t understand what was going on.

They didn’t know how to manage it. And they were being so triggered. It was causing great alarm. So I wanted to identify what was happening with these themes. So I did some research and worked on about 2000 cases and put together types based on all of the materials, the data that I gathered and then worked through, well, how could people deal with that in a way that was safe and in a way that also appreciated their personality structure. Because usually the people who were coming to see me were very much feeling preferred women who avoided conflict, who were frightened by power and control issues and were really getting decimated at work or in relationships. Often it might be something about a mother-in-law or a sister-in-law or somebody’s sister or something.

So it was a way of validating that what they were feeling was true, because there’s been such a theme of, oh, you can never complain about another woman. We women have to stick together because we’re all a homogenous group and men are the enemy. So you can’t say that you’re struggling with a woman. So they’re actually being silenced before they could even articulate what was going on for them. So it was a way of appreciating that all genders walk up and down a continuum of nice to nasty and what you can do to manage that better.

Terri Connellan: Oh, it sounds a really practical book cause that’s something a lot of us experience in different ways, but maybe don’t have any reference points to make sense of all of that. And often when that happens, we tend to think, oh, it’s us. Is that something you’ve come across?

Meredith Fuller: Absolutely, and of course the other thing with that too, is that often it’s about different personality types. And if you’re not as aware of your own style, you certainly not going to be able to identify what someone else’s style is or where there could be a mismatch or a misunderstanding, or how you could broach that to make it a little more palatable at work.

And one of the key findings in my work, and this has also been researched by Ian Ball, who is our colleague at AusAPT. Interestingly enough back in the day, many, eons ago, I used to work at a university with Ian where he was Head of the Psychology department. So I already knew him before we found ourselves back together in our association.

His research found that while there are far more feeling preferred females, for women in the workplace who had a more senior role, they usually had a thinking preference. So if there’s only about 25% of females have a thinking preference, 75% of those females will be in a senior role in the workplace.

And one of the things that was very clear to me was that people were coming to me with this terrible distress about a thinking preferred manager who actually wasn’t being a bitch, wasn’t being horrible, was actually really trying to help them grow and develop, monitor them, train them, work well with them, but there was such a misunderstanding about the way they went about this. They were really at cross purposes.

So it was also part of my book to say, hang on, maybe that person you’re having trouble with, isn’t a bitch. Maybe it’s something about you you have to look at. So let’s have a look at how you can work better with those people. And I certainly used to find that working in organizations. I’ve done a lot of work in banks and legal firms and universities, where there tend to be more thinking preferred females in positions of leadership and authority. And often they would be having difficulties with their feeling preferred females. And it really was, talking two different worlds, two different languages and so much misunderstanding.

And there were some things you could do to make it work and that really excites me. And again, one of the things I loved in your book, as a thinking preferred female, you operate very much using your feeling and your thinking preferences. And you talk about your integration of those things. And this is so important in terms of, I think all of us men and women being able to access all the parts of ourselves. So I thought you handled that very well. And one of the things I’ve noticed as, I guess walking the talk in your role as President of our association, I noticed that you do the very thing we talk about. You identify well, who are the people on the team, or who the members, or who am I working with? What do those people need to do their best? How can I respond to that, so that I honor the difference that I have around me and I see you actively do that. So I see you working very hard to connect with your committees and your staff and your members and your groups and whatever, and doing it well. And so to me again, there’s that sense of, okay, so here’s someone who writes a book and she actually practices what she’s talking about and I see it. So that was another thing that struck me about what you’ve achieved in this work.

So it also sat really nicely with me about knowing that, it’s very good for many women, I believe to understand a little more about what the thinking preferred woman’s doing, because, historically, that’s been really a problem for thinking preferred females. They’ve had a terrible time at school. They’ve often had a dreadful time when they not yet in a position of authority and they’re struggling. It’s one of those things where the more we understand our gender, the better, and you seem to be saying on our journey to become all of these aspects, let’s understand how it might be played out as we sometimes swing from one extreme to the other till we find that fulcrum balance and why it is important for us to take the time to consider that innermost part of our souls and how we are who we bring to work. We can’t divorce ourselves from all of that.

What happened for me with the book [Wholehearted] was thinking, well, I’m not able to see as many people. I can’t see them in person. We’re doing Zoom work. It’s a bit tricky holding people. Here’s a resource that people can work through that I would say is safe, trustworthy. It doesn’t humiliate anyone. It doesn’t cause people to feel stupid if they can’t work through the exercises or there’s no problem about working through the Companion Workbook and the book. And it’s something that gives us some dialogue when we have a couple of weeks gap between sessions. So I thought you’ve really come up with a tool, right when we must need something.

There used to be a number of books. Everyone would get one every year, like What Color is my Parachute? They were very superficial and they really didn’t hit this spot about people are really saying, who am I really and how do I want to live my life? What does my life stand for? And how am I in relation to others? And so those very fundamental questions and the way we’re changing work. We’re changing work to be, as you would appreciate, most small business run by women, most new business women setting up, most people going off becoming specialists or consultants who are collapsing who they work with at different times.

This is the way that we’re working and doing several jobs in a year. And just going with the flow. And historically, a lot of the books about careers and development just didn’t take into account the new way that work is emerging. So, I’ve been really happy to say, well, here’s a tool that I can recommend both to men and women, interestingly enough, and get them to work through. And then when we talk, they’ve had the chance to really work through some thoughts themselves and that really adds to our work together. So I’ve been really struck by how you’ve put, certainly your understanding of type in, but also your understanding about how organizations have been working and where they need to be working in the future. So it’s got a real breath of fresh air to it.

Terri Connellan: Oh, thank you. And I was really appreciative too of your comments that it’s a book you can use with clients, that idea of particularly in times when we’re not having as much, face-to-face, it’s something people can take away. And it was certainly designed to be part of a whole that people can work through the workbook, read the main book, have their own reflections, have space, create their own ways of working through it. But have a mix as we’ve talked about before of meandering, but also structure to work through. And I guess that’s the teacher in me as well as INTJ coming out. So, yeah, it’s designed to be that sort of self coaching, self-leadership guide as well, supported by also having a face to face.

Meredith Fuller: Yes, that was another thing I liked about it. We want people to sit with the uncertainty. We want people to explore symbolism and dreamwork and art and literature and film and tarot and everything possible. But we want them to be able to do it in a way that they can then integrate that into their everyday life and this helps them do that. Whereas some sort of new age materials, there’s no relationship to get up each day and go to work, come home, and you have to earn an income and you have to feed yourself. And, you have to be in relationship with other people who aren’t on the same journey and all of this sort of thing.

So I felt that you provided those safe walls if you like so there was plenty of space to bounce around in this, but you knew that you were being held in a very caretaking way while you went about exploring all of these, for some people, very new ways of looking at their careers, particularly looking at tarot cards, for example.

Terri Connellan: Exactly. And I think from looking at your body of work, which is a concept I talk about in the book, that all the skills, all the work that we do, the volunteer work, all the different work that we do, often that idea of having multiple sources of income, being a multi passionate, multipotentialite, is very much embraced, I think, by how I’ve moved and certainly it’s embraced in your life. So with all that amazing body of work you have over time and what I also hear from clients is sometimes having lots of passions, people can feel overwhelmed, by which way to go, what to do, what advice would you give to others who are also looking to embrace their multi passionate body of work and interests?

Meredith Fuller: So I had an INTP mother, which is a great mother to have, so she was quite unique and unusual, and her attitude was, you find your own way, Meredith. Value education and trust yourself, back yourself and so for me, I’ve always felt a little different from a lot of people because I’ve always known exactly what I wanted to do is from when I was very young.

So I’ve never felt, oh, there’s too many things, or I don’t know which one to do first. What I’ve always done is I’ve said to myself, I have to go with what’s most important to me at the moment. So what’s the most burning, exciting thing for me now. And I know there’ll always be plenty of time to either come back to something or do it, postpone it and do it later, or do a little bit of it, stop, do something else. I’ve never felt, aw gee, you can’t play with it all. I just knew you could never do it all at the same time. So I find that my question always will be when there are so many things I enjoy doing, how do I choose? I’ll go with what sits inside of me being best, right thing that I have the most energy for. So for me, it’s often about energy.

So I do a lot of pro bono work for clients, particularly cause I work in the creative arts a lot. There are a lot of people in the creative arts, who’ve got no money and I often see a number of those people for nothing. And how do I choose? Because so many people, how do you choose? And something will happen in that engagement with that individual that I’ll feel, and I’ll go with that. So for example, at the moment, this is a funny story, but it’s a good example of how do you choose what you do? We mainly do a lot of our house maintenance ourselves, but in a two story house, there was no way my 70 year old husband was getting up a ladder.

So we had a housepainter come to do the top bit. And he brought his son with him to help hold the ladder. And they were talking and his son had wanted to be an artist and he was really lost. And he was very distressed and there was something in this young man that I felt. So I’ve now been working with him for some months. So he comes every week and we’re exploring his move towards becoming an artist, how he will go about choosing a course to do, how we’ll go about earning some money, to be able to be a student, to purchase all his materials, how he works in the field.

And his sense of identity and who he’s becoming and how he deals with issues because we’ve all got issues, obviously. And because he’s such an aware person, he has a lot to work through. So there was something I felt in him where I felt he had something very special and I wanted to nurture that. And he’s a very humble person and he’s a very respectful person. He’s got qualities as well. So I’ve really felt drawn to working with him. So there’ll be something about that. Or if I’m choosing a play, I want to write, it’ll be a burning issue that I’ve got some energy for. Nothing that might be commercially successful.

It’s always about what I’m interested in and that’s what I’ll do. And if friends come to me and say, how about a project? I’m doing this. Are you interested? Again, it’s always going to be because I either love working with those people or I love the issue and I’m happy to just trust my own sense of where my energy is saying to go.

And it’s very much like that Eight of Cups card. Often it means I walk away from successful things because there’s something new I want to do and different I want to do that the energy is there for. And I know I’m not saying goodbye to everything forever because there’s plenty of time. So it’s something about noticing what’s the spark, what’s the energy, what’s the curiosity. And if you follow that, they’ll always be a few things that bubble up to the very top, rather than everything. And I really love this notion of, just because you’re really good at something, you don’t have to keep doing it. Do something else.

Terri Connellan: Hmm. I love that too. I think that’s great advice because just some of the people I’ve worked with, what you’re saying resonates. And some of them are INFPs too, which is interesting, it’s that idea of just so many passions, so many interests and they compete. But I think that idea of being more attuned to what you’re drawn to and prioritizing that. I’m also hearing you say almost taking a bit of a project approach to things, to help compartmentalize, I guess?

Meredith Fuller: Yeah, I think it’s really important to compartmentalize because I notice for me, if I want to fit a lot of things, I couldn’t keep doing too much of one thing because there wouldn’t be the space. It’s almost like asking yourself, how many days a week are you fit for counseling? How many days a week are you fit for writing? How many days a week are you fit to do radio interviews or whatever it is, and work out roughly what those clusters will look like, and then be really strong.

So I’ll be able to say, well, I counsel on these days so if you can’t fit in with me, sorry, I’ll refer you to someone else because I can’t keep stretching across taking the space from other projects that I really believe in. Because if I do that, I’ll end up getting sick. I’ll end up trying to overstretch and I won’t manage, and it won’t work.

Terri Connellan: So there’s a couple of questions I’m going to ask podcast guests as we go through. And, this being the Create Your Story podcast, it’s a big question, but I’m interested to see just what comes up for you when you’re asked the question, how have you created your story over your lifetime?

Meredith Fuller: Okay. I’ve created my story by allowing myself to sit a bit away from the mainstream. And I’ve enabled myself to listen to what my heart wants to do, even when it seems at odds with what the sensible thing to do is, or the smartest thing to do is, and almost like back myself, even when it looked ridiculous, because I told myself when I was very young, there’ll be a pattern, I don’t understand it yet, but there’ll be a pattern that will make sense to me, but it’s something that I’m doing that’s going to be unique to me. So I can’t be impacted by what everyone else thinks I should do or what one should do.

I have to trust that little voice in me that says, I know I’m here to do something unique for me. And I’ve always done that and to my detriment often, but it’s like I’m absolutely convinced for me that what’s helped me is by wanting to go off and do whatever it is I want to explore because I’m curious about it. Even if it’s not fashionable or even if it’s way too early and then once I’ve understood it or mastered it or done enough, I don’t have to keep doing that. I want to do something else. So a little bit like saying, yeah, just because you’re good at something you don’t have to keep doing it, do something else, as long as it’s what you’re interested in and you believe in it and it sits with your values.

And my values very much came from my childhood and my upbringing, which was about, to care for people and to care for relationships and to care for what the purpose is that we’re here for. And in a deeper sense, in a much deeper sense. And I’ve always appreciated self-expression. And so for me, creating my story was about saying, well, okay if I can trust myself to follow what my interests are and use that as my guide and not be swayed by what everybody else says you should do, or how everyone else goes about doing things, that’s going to keep me most aligned with my true self. And that’s what I’ll follow. And it was pretty clear to me very early on that I didn’t have a lot of the values that mainstream society seems to have.

I believe that if you do things that are really important to you and you do them very well, somehow you’ll be rewarded and it may not be quid pro quo or tit for tat or something, but somehow it’ll work out. If you are transparent and if you do believe in what you do, and if you do respect other people in how you go about that. You know, that whole thing, isn’t it about freedom but freedom as long as you don’t impact on other people’s freedom.

So that’s been a bit of a narrative for me. And it’s almost like if I had to say, well, where does all that come from? I’m convinced it came from being a little girl who used to believe in her dreams and sitting around daydreaming and imagining the future and imagining things way ahead of time and backing that instead of what was just literally right in front of me.

And that came from coming from a family where we didn’t have a lot, it was very difficult. So we had a lot of trauma in the family, a lot of poverty in the family. But what I had with my INTP mother was a woman who said, use your brains and you can help other people. Use your brains and you’ll find a way to construct something positive out of whatever happens. And I saw her do that. So I had a very good role model in my mother. And I also had a very good role model in reading because I love to write, I was always reading books.

I just found that I was far more interested in thinking big picture future than I ever was in what was going on in the here and now. So it was some something about a knowing that I had and that I couldn’t not know once you have that feeling. And also what was good for me, if this makes sense, it’s like I lived my life backwards.

So if you start working at four, that’s a long time that you’re in the workplace, and if you’re very famous, when you’re a child, well, you’ve sort of been there, done that. It doesn’t matter. It’s like I didn’t have to build up to anything. It’s like, well, I’ve already ticked off this and I’ve ticked off that and I’ve ticked off something else.

And so there’s so many things that I had done that really didn’t concern me at all that I could just go along my own merry way, do what I liked because I didn’t have to prove anything. If that made sense.

Terri Connellan: Yeah. That’s fantastic. Thank you. It’s just fascinating to hear how, with all those different things in the mix, how you created your story to where you are now. So thank you for that. So in Wholehearted, I share 15 wholehearted self-leadership tips, particularly for women, but for all people. So I’m interested in what your top wholehearted self-leadership tips might be for women.

Meredith Fuller: The first one is I believe that it’s a good idea to have a small group of people with you, like your clan or friends or colleagues who you trust, that you feel safe with and who have similar shared values. I take that very seriously. I won’t work on projects with people that I don’t feel that we’re aligned about our values and honesty, transparency, trust, loyalty, all those things are really important to me.

So, that’s a very important issue about who do you connect with. I believe that it’s important to work on communication. So, if I’m going to do it, I need to know how I feel. So I’ll do a lot of checking. How am I feeling? What’s being triggered in me? What do I need to do about that? Can I talk to someone? How do I do that? So in my life I’ve always been keen to look for wise counsel. When I was a child, I got to figure out what I would look for in a partner, because how would I know I didn’t have a father. We were very isolated in our home. There weren’t very many male role models.

So I read all the classics when I was in primary school and I thought, I don’t want all the exciting men. I want all the nice men that I’m reading about in these classics. So I thought: these are the qualities I want in a man. I want a nice man. And I got it from the books. And then as I got older, I realized that I want to understand myself and that will help me understand others.

So anything that would help me do the best I can for myself, I will do. So I went into therapy. I went into supervision. As a psychologist, I think it’s important that we do our own therapy and we do our own supervision. So, whether you go to coaches or whoever you go to, it’s going to someone where you can actually explore your process. So I think that’s really important.

And of course, reading, I’m always reading millions of books so I think that’s important. The other thing I think is working out very simply, what do you need for wellness? So, I’m a diabetic, I’ve got a lot of health issues. I have to say part of my day is managing my diabetes, is going to appointments and is to understand that as I get older, I have less energy than I did when I was younger because of that.

So therefore I have to really cherry pick my projects. So I think, know what your health is. One of the biggest problems I’ve seen in nearly every woman who’s come to me is they push themselves way too far. They work too long hours. Doing work that’s killing them and they can’t stop. And so I think it’s really important to say in the week, how much space have you got for work? How much do you need for sleep? How much do you need for your internal life? How much do you need for your relationships and make that pie and make it work?

And I’d also do that with being strict about those boundaries. So both Brian and I, because we’re helpers and we’re feelers, we’re busy. So people come to helping, feeling, busy people and you need to learn to say no. And so while it would be nice to do everything everyone wants you to do, I can’t. So, be really clear about how do you cluster it. So it might be for me, I work in clusters of time. So it might be two days for this and all night for that and a weekend for that. And that’s how I like to work. Other people it might be well mornings isfor this and afternoons is for that. So know what your best rhythm is and then be really strict about how you protect that. And don’t keep saying, oh, I’ll just let this one in. I’ll just let that one in because you’ll get overloaded and you get sick and then, you’re no good to anyone.

So I think they’re probably the key things for me, but, really overall, it’s something about, got to know who you are. You got to know what’s important to you. You got to know what you’re here for. What’s your purpose. And the threads will probably stay the same, although the execution of that will shift over time.

And so you have to keep saying, does this matter to me? Is this engaging me? Am I growing in this? Am I learning in this? Am I sharing with others with this? What’s the point of me doing this and doing it because you want to do it, you believe in it and you love it. So they’re probably the most important things, but you know, it be sensible. Like you might have to say to yourself, well, how much money do I need to earn to live for the week? Okay. I need to earn x dollars. How many hours a week can I possibly work x hours? Well, what do I need to earn per hour to do that? And what will I do to get that? And then if I’m prepared to say, I’ll do a day for that, then that gives me three days for something else. Okay. That’s fine. So it’s not like a childish, I’ll just do what I like, blow everyone else. It’s about making choices and decisions that give the bulk of your time to what you love and you think is very important, but also that you’re mindful that you do live in a society and you do have to buy food and pay rent and, you know, whatever. So something about, honouring, not only yourself, but the other in relationships.

Terri Connellan: It’s a rich body of knowledge, honed from all your experiences and all your client work too. So thank so much for sharing that. And thanks so much for your time today. It’s been a fantastic conversation and I’m sure the listeners will get so many gems of wisdom and prompts to think about themselves. And thank you also for your comments and kind insights about Wholehearted, my book as well, really appreciate that and your support. So, Meredith, where can people find more about you and your body of work online?

Meredith Fuller: My website’s MeredithFuller.com.au. That’s probably a good place to start.

Terri Connellan: That’s great. And you’ve got so much on there about all the things you’re up to your books, your work with your husband, Brian, which we didn’t talk about so much, but he’s a filmmaker, psychologist as well, and your partnership is an incredible part of your life as well. So we’ll pop the links to Meredith’s key work in the show notes and thanks everyone for listening and thanks so much Meredith.

About Meredith Fuller

Meredith’s website: https://meredithfuller.com.au/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mfpsy/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fuller.walsh

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-fuller-8075a110/

Links to explore:

Book Club: Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club – open for enrolment now – join us for January 19/20 book club start.

My books:

Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition

Wholehearted Companion Workbook

Free resources:

Chapter 1 of Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition

https://www.quietwriting.net/wholehearted-chapter-1

Other free resources: https://www.quietwriting.com/free-resources/

My coaching:

Work with me

Personality Stories Coaching

The Writing Road Trip – a community program with Beth Cregan – kicking off Jan 2022

Connect on social media

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writingquietly/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/writingquietly

Twitter: https://twitter.com/writingquietly

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terri-connellan/

transition work life

6 tips to transition from consistent, unexciting work

July 30, 2021

I shared a Wholehearted Q&A chat on Instagram live recently and asked for questions about the book, transition and self-leadership.

This fabulous question came in from Esther via Instagram:

What advice would you give to someone too scared to leave the consistency of working for the government but knowing they are no longer excited or challenged by the work anymore?

Such an excellent question! Thank you Esther. It went straight to my heart. I worked in government as a teacher and leader in the vocational education sector for 30 plus years, so I know intimately the feeling you are expressing. And I am sure it is something many women ponder as they contemplate the tension between ‘safe’ and consistent work and not feeling fulfilled by unexciting work. It certainly brings up fear and trepidation!

You can watch my live as I answer the question here (video also below at the end of this post) or read my response below. Or both! And I welcome your comments or questions too if you have experienced this situation or are experiencing it now.

I’m hearing in this question the desire for change, but also valuing the security and ongoing employment offered. It’s a very real tension and one that can keep us stuck as we work out the best way to move. But if we can make a plan to move on to better things, it can make all the difference to our mindset!

Here are 6 tips for changing from consistent but unexciting work!

1. Look at your why

A starting point would be to look at WHY you are no longer challenged or excited in the organisation or role you are in.

Journal about this to see what comes up. Is it because, for example:

you are no longer aligned to the organisation.
it’s boring and not stretching you in the role you are in.
you wish to be doing something completely different.
you have long-held creative yearnings that you want to fill.
something else?

This will help you with the next step of looking at options.

2. Look at your options

If no longer challenged or excited by your work role now, brainstorm and make a list of options open to you. Self-leadership is all about exploring options and choices. Then actively pursuing what you feel is right for you with intention. Some of your options might be:

seeking new opportunities within the organisation you work for.
seeking opportunities like secondment in another government organisation or a project role where you can feel more excitement and challenge.
starting a consultancy on the side or another sort of side-hustle around a passion or something you’ve always wanted to do.
seek opportunities for space to consider options, for example: working part time, job-sharing, taking leave, working four days a week or a nine-day fortnight.
look at the skills you have, your body of work over time and where this might take you next.

Often we see our situations and options as binary and either/or, but there are frequently many choices. The transition to what you desire might involve a series of choices that take you there, one step at a time. It might not be one gigantic leap even though that may feel like the most desirable option. Deep transition takes time and is often incremental.

3. Get a vision of what life might be like

To get a vision of what life might look like in the future, write about what your ideal day might look like in a few years’ time. This simple but powerful activity helps to get to what is in your heart and what would help you feel fulfilled and happy. Often it’s simpler than we think and this activity helps us to see where we are already on the way.

A vision board or collage is another way to do this if you are more visual. You could start a Pinterest Board and gather images of what your new life might look like to see what themes emerge and what you are seeking through change. This process helps us to tap into what is beneath the surface of our consciousness, trying to break through.

4. Take inventory

When you want change or are not happy where you are, it is easy to dwell on what you don’t have. It’s helpful and grounding therefore to look at what you have and see how you can deploy these resources more effectively.

Areas to take stock of include:

skills you have, your body of work
skills you want to develop
resources, including financial resources
financial options
potential income sources
superannuation
leave
investment strategies
where you could cut back

Part of the fear of leaving a government job (and often other employment) is letting go of the security, the regular pay and the conditions. They are familiar and regular and it is not a decision to be made lightly. If you wish to leave, look at what you have to help you make a shift and how you might supplement or replace the income. Look at living differently, having fewer expenses, making income creatively.

5. Check your mindset – look at the fears

It’s very natural to feel fear as we make change, even if it is a change we deeply want.

An important distinction is this.

CHANGE is external – what happens to us, also what we choose to change or start.

TRANSITION is internal – how we plan, adjust, prepare, ground ourselves and our mindset as we do this.

The inner work of transition, even from unexciting work, includes looking at the fears, self-limiting beliefs and self-doubt that typically arise in times of change. Managing the internal aspects of transition strengthens our ability to negotiate change positively with self-knowledge.

If feeling scared, have a good look at your fears. Make a list of what scares you. Get it down on paper. Identify the false, overstated or imagined fears, then identify the ones that are genuine concerns. Once you have these identified, use all the tips here to work out how to address these fears in practical terms.

6. Get support

Significant transition takes time. It feels like your very identity is in the mix even if the unexciting work is making you unhappy. Often you feel alone, lost and uncertain at such times. You need support! Get a coach – I would love to support you if you are going through transition times in a 1:1 capacity as your coach. Working with a coach helped me immensely as I went through my transition journey, and I still work with coaches all the time to keep growing and focused. A group coaching program like the Sacred Creative Collective can also be an option if you want support and connection with others while going through change.

Head to Work with me to learn how you can work with me as your coach. First step is a free Self-leadership Discovery Call so we can connect and have a conversation about your challenges and desires and where I might help. You can book that free, no obligation call HERE.

So summing up, here are my 6 tips for transitioning from consistent but unexciting work:

Look at your why – so you can get some context and a starting point.
Look at options – so you can widen your scope of action.
Get a vision of what life might be like – see what you might really want.
Take inventory – look at the resources you have for a new life.
Check your mindset – look at fears and interrogate them.
Get support – via a coach and community to help you negotiate the changes positively.

Watch the video here to review:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Terri Connellan (@writingquietly)

Knowing it’s time to make a plan for a transition

If you know in your heart you’ve had enough of this unexciting work and need to move on. Or there’s been a turning point event in your life that has clearly said, ‘I no longer belong here’, then making a transition plan using the above tips is helpful.

Another resource for you is to strengthen your self-leadership skills is my book, Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition. It is full of practical strategies to help you with self-leadership if you are going through change or wanting something different. Plus the experience of reading the book and working through the workbook is a deep self-leadership and self-coaching experience.

You can pre-order Wholehearted and the Companion Workbook now to help you navigate times of transition. The books will be with you on 6 September. In the meantime, I’ll send you a free pdf of Chapter 1 so you can start reading now.

Plus, if you purchase 2 books, Wholehearted and/or the Companion Workbook, you can join me for a live Masterclass on ‘15 Wholehearted Self-leadership Skill to Change your Life’ where I’ll walk you through these strategies and answer questions.

So click below to find out more about the books. All the links to pre-order the paperback and ebook versions worldwide via different booksellers are there.

Learn more about Wholehearted

How to tap into the power of emerging at midlife

Create Your Deeper Story 1 to 1 Coaching

Stories of Wholehearted Living

Sacred Creative Collective Group Coaching

Cora Pacheco – Sacred Creative Stories of Transition

Your body of work: the greatest gift for transition to a bright new life

Image credits:

Feature image: Photo by Siddharth Bhogra on Unsplash

Vision board image: Photo by Andy Art on Unsplash

Laptop image: Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

introversion work life

How to be inclusive of introverts and extraverts in recruitment practices

January 20, 2021

Photo by **Christina Morillo** from **Pexels**

One of the challenges of being an introvert is that recruitment practices can feel oriented to more extraverted ways. Here are some strategies for being inclusive of both introverts and extraverts in recruitment for the best outcomes for both organisations and applicants.

Introvert and extravert are personality preferences

Introversion and extraversion are innate personality preferences according to Jungian theory and psychological type frameworks. They indicate the direction and source of our energy. Extraverts have a preference for the outer world and typically charge their batteries through social interaction. Introverts have a preference for the inner world of ideas and feelings and need solitude and quiet to collect their thoughts and refuel. As Jenn Granneman points out, introverts and extraverts are ‘wired differently’ around external rewards: ‘The introvert’s way isn’t about chasing rewards, but rather about seeking meaning.’ These are just preferences, not behavioural indicators, nor are they extreme in each person.

The Extravert Ideal and recruitment

So how do these preferences play out in the context of recruitment? Susan Cain in her book, Quiet, talks about The Extravert Ideal and how there is a general bias in the community towards people who are outgoing and gregarious. With studies showing that one third to a half of the US population are introverts, there are compelling reasons to review recruitment thinking and practices to check how inclusive they are. As many leaders and managers also self-identify as extraverts, there’s a risk that unintended biases can sneak into recruitment processes.

Across the spectrum of skills, leaders of recruitment strategies ideally want to ensure they find the best candidate match for any job role in terms of knowledge, skills and experience. But how do you ensure that the way you manage your recruitment is inclusive, enabling all applicants to show their best potential for the role?

Inclusive approaches to recruitment

Inclusive approaches to recruitment for introvert and extravert types need to be informed by:

Reflecting on the job roles we are recruiting to and checking for any unintentional bias in perceptions on the role itself.
Rethinking how recruitment practices can make space for both introvert and extravert preferences through a mix of assessment methods and styles.
Implementing practical strategies for being inclusive to get the best from all candidates in recruitment contexts.

Photo by **Marc Mueller** from **Pexels**

Reflecting on the job roles we are recruiting to

It’s important to start with the job description we are recruiting to so we can be sure there is no inherent bias in the personal requirements. This is challenging because some jobs seem to be inherently linked to particular character traits, like being outgoing and open. It’s vital to have a really good look at these assumptions.

Sales is one area that has become traditionally connected with and impacted by perceptions about introversion and extraversion. Here are some comments on a current website:

For example, if the profile for successful salesmen indicates that extroversion is a desirable characteristic, you had better be sure that you score highly on this trait if you want the job.

However, for almost all jobs, not just sales, employers prefer extroverts over introverts. The reasons given for this preference are firstly, around teamwork and the need to get on with people, and secondly, that people may become leaders in the future so it’s not just about technical skills.

This all appears to be based on the assumption that you need to be extraverted to be able to sell, to work in a team and to be a leader. Having performed all of these skills successfully as an introvert, I believe we need to challenge these types of stereotypes in thinking about positions and psychological traits.

Challenging stereotypes about key job functions

For example, in terms of sales, Daniel H. Pink explains in his book, To Sell is Human, we are all in sales:

People are now spending about 40 percent of their time at work engaged in non-sales selling— persuading, influencing, and convincing others in ways that don’t involve anyone making a purchase.

The art of sales is more complex than just being outgoing. It’s about influencing, listening and understanding others’ needs, areas in which introverts can be naturally strong.

In terms of teams, work units benefit from a mix of complementary personalities to be able to achieve organizational goals effectively. Diverse groups tend to outperform homogeneous groups, even if the members of the latter group are more capable. Furthermore, diversity fires up innovation.

The reality is that teams of like-minded people often come up with average results. Diverse teams, on the other hand, have been found to inspire original ideas and enable more market opportunities.
Gaia Grant, Do diverse teams produce more creative results?

And whilst there may appear to be more extraverted managers and leaders, introverted preferences such as a desire for solitude can be integral to breakthrough leadership skills such as clarity, emotional balance and moral courage. Lead Yourself First by Raymond M Kethledge and Michael S. Erwin provides case studies of famous leaders that describe how leadership and solitude are strongly aligned.

As these examples show, it’s important to reflect on and be aware of any implicit bias based on personality preferences around introversion and extraversion as they impact on job roles.

introverts and recruitment — Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Rethinking our recruitment practices to make space for preferences

One way to promote inclusion in recruitment practices is to ensure that the processes involve a mix of strategies that reflect both introvert and extravert preferences. The opportunity to assess candidates through writing, interview, references, group contexts, 1:1 discussion and practical skills assessment can all be considered to ensure that there is not a bias to one preference.

Even though there may be a mix of methods, face to face methods can somehow feel and be treated as pre-eminent and written aspects can seem secondary. It’s important to carefully consider the balance of all assessment inputs, not just the ones that seem more overtly influential.

It’s also important that recruitment methods appropriately reflect the job role across its gamut. If a role is primarily about research and writing, how are we assessing this. Is it by talking about it or by assessing research and writing ability? Perhaps the job is about training. How are we assessing all aspects of this skill and not just the standing up and talking part? Leadership might be key but are we also looking at self-leadership and how the leader recharges, clarifies their visions and thoughts and writes, as well as how well they can talk to a room of people? Lead Yourself First provides ample evidence that we certainly should be looking at all these areas of leadership.

Challenging stereotypes about job roles and recruitment can be effectively tackled by rethinking our assumptions behind the role and how we assess its competencies.

Inclusive strategies for getting the best from introverts in recruitment

Given the orientation towards the extraverted end of the spectrum, it’s worthwhile reflecting on inclusive strategies to enable both introverts and extraverts to do their best in recruitment situations.

Possible inclusive strategies for recruiters include:

Developing an understand of personality type and preferences and especially the impacts of introversion and extraversion in the workplace so you can bring the best out of all employees. This applies to both recruitment and wider organizational contexts.
Allowing a mix of recruitment techniques that will suit both types of preferences, noting that quiet influencing strategies include: writing, activities that involve preparation, focused conversation and engaged listening. See this Quiet Writing article for more on how introverts can make the most of recruitment opportunities.
Considering options that allow for preparation beforehand, even if brief, so that introverts can showcase their more reflective analytical skills rather than have to focus on thinking on their feet.
If assessing in group contexts, note that it’s not just about who talks the most but about how valuable the contribution is. Introverts, for example, may take the role of summing up a conversation or providing a single breakthrough idea at the end, rather than participating throughout the conversation. As Susan Cain points out, ‘research shows there’s no correlation between the most talkative person in the room and the best ideas.’
A focus on telling success stories which can be really powerful for all candidates and help to provide a more level playing field, as Mark Bregman suggests in Are Recruiters Biased Against Introverts.

At the end of the day, recruitment is an opportunity for people to showcase their skills to enable them to gain a position. The recruiting organisation wants to find the person who will meet their needs across all aspects of behavior. It’s important to ensure that the immediate contexts of recruitment are not a barrier between these desired outcomes. Let’s work to ensure all people have the chance to present their competencies, experience and qualities in the most positive light.

Author note

This post was originally a guest post for recruitment agency WorkSearch and published on their site in 2017. Their site is no longer live so it is reproduced here with minor amendments. Thanks to Bree Rackley for social media and guest posting support for the initial guest posting.

I hope these insights are helpful to you in being inclusive of both introvert and extravert preferences in recruitment. Reach out to me for coaching if you need some support at any time.

Warmest wishes

Terri

About the author, Terri Connellan

Terri Connellan is a certified life coach, author and accredited psychological type practitioner. She has a Master of Arts in Language and Literacy, two teaching qualifications and a successful 30-year career as a teacher and a leader in adult vocational education. Her coaching and writing focus on three elements—creativity, personality and self-leadership—especially for women in transition to a life with deeper purpose. Terri works with women globally through her creative business, Quiet Writing, encouraging deeper self-understanding of body of work, creativity and psychological type for more wholehearted and fulfilling lives. Her book Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition and the accompanying Wholehearted Companion Workbook were published in September 2021 by the kind press. She lives and writes in the outskirts of Sydney surrounded by beach and bush.

How to connect with me

Join my mailing list and receive your free Chapter 1 of Wholehearted or my Personal Action Checklist for more Meaning and Purpose. Just click on the link to choose and it will be with you in no time plus I’ll be in touch with inspirational insights and offers.

Book your Self-leadership Discovery Call with Terri here.

Connect on social media – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn. I especially love Instagram.

Read Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition

Want to learn more about personality, creativity and self-leadership for positive transition to the life you desire?

Head over to read about my book Wholehearted and the accompanying Companion Workbook now.

Available in paperback and ebook from retailers listed here:

Wholehearted

Companion Workbook

Further related reading on Quiet Writing:

introversion work life

How to make the most of recruitment opportunities as an introvert

January 16, 2021

introvert recruitment — Photo by **Sora Shimazaki** from **Pexels**

Going through recruitment processes as an introvert can be challenging. Here are some practical strategies to make the most of opportunities for jobs or promotions as an introvert.

Traditional recruitment practice and introverts

Key aspects of traditional recruitment practices seem to work against everything that’s natural for introverts. Interviews can be particularly demanding. You talk to a person or panel of people you probably don’t know, focusing on yourself, especially your best points, being as confident and outgoing as you can. Add in the constraints of a limited amount of time in the high-pressure environment of being assessed and it’s enough to start making excuses not to put yourself in that position.

It’s often hard to feel at your best as a quieter person who generally takes more time to reflect before talking. Other hallmarks of introverts that can make this challenging are a tendency to be more reserved and writing as a preferred style of communication.

It’s important to remember that recruitment is an assessment situation and an inherently challenging situation, regardless of personality type. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses to draw on. And there’s often valid reasons why the recruitment approach might want to test your ability to draw on your resources and think on your feet. Whatever the process or emphasis, you can learn to work your natural strengths to make the most of recruitment opportunities as an introvert.

Learning about the ways that you quietly influence

One of the reasons I am passionate about this subject is because I have been there. As an introvert at the extreme end of the spectrum, I’ve learnt the best practices to make the most of recruitment opportunities. I’ve worked hard on my skills over time with the support of a coach, with the insight of feedback, from reading about introvert strengths and from learning about my specific personality type (INTJ in Jung/Myers-Briggs terms).

A book that has helped me enormously is Quiet Influence: The Introvert’s Guide to Making a Difference by Jennifer B Kahnweiler. It focuses on the natural strengths of introverts and how use these skills to have impact. These skills can be applied to recruitment contexts to build skills over time and position yourself more effectively for the positions you desire.

Kahnweiler identifies six strategies that introverts can embrace to achieve influence:

Taking Quiet Time
Preparation
Engaged Listening
Focused Conversations
Writing
Thoughtful Use of Social Media

You can identify your specific strengths in this blend of introvert strategies via a Quiet Influence Quotient (QIQ). This is valuable for understanding how you can have impact in your own unique way as an introvert.

Learning to work your quiet influence in recruitment contexts

From these strategies, the two areas that introverts can really exploit to maximize recruitment opportunities are Preparation and Writing. Here are some tips in these areas to help you make the most of your introvert strengths for recruitment outcomes.

Preparation

The biggest factor for introverts in successful job applications is preparing well and thoroughly. Whilst extraverts can generally think quickly on their feet, introverts often need more work beforehand to have the key points at their fingertips.

The downside is this takes time. The upside is, whatever the outcome, the time invested means you are able to talk about yourself, your experience and your results positively, clearly and confidently. It’s important to strike a balance between productive preparation and over-doing it. As Kahnweiler points out, ‘The right amount of preparation sets you apart. Too much preparation, however, can kill your confidence.’ (p. 69)

Preparation strategies

Preparation strategies that I have found useful for recruitment situations include:

1 Develop a bank of case-studies of achievements:

Over time, I’ve worked to capture each of my key achievements, unpacking each example to describe the Situation, Task, Action and Results (STAR) and the skills used to achieve the outcome. This resource provides useful templates and prompts for you to do the same, with a focus on action verbs to present yourself in the best light. It’s useful to map the stories you create against any specific, critical selection criteria. Once you have these examples, ‘plug and play’ them in response to questions posed in writing or at interview.

2 Be able to articulate the skills you have used over time

People sometimes have trouble talking about the specific skills they have used in practical situations. Having the language to describe the competencies, skills, knowledge and experience applied, for example, in areas like ‘strategic agility’ or ‘business acumen’, can be a powerful tool. The book, FYI® for your improvement, based on the Korn Ferry Leadership Architect™ Global Competency Framework (formerly Lominger) is a useful guide for talking about skills in language that connects. Whatever resource you use, ensure you can talk about competencies and skills using words that clearly communicate your understanding and what you have achieved.

3 Practice

Use your writing skills and other strengths to prepare, and when you know you need to perform, it’s time to practice. Don’t fight the need to shine. Practice talking about yourself using the examples developed. Hearing yourself talk out loud about yourself is one of the best ways to prepare for the situation of actually doing it, as uncomfortable as it might be.

Writing Skills

Writing is often a preferred communication method for introverts, with a preference for email over phone contact and written strategic approaches over verbal ones. Your role in writing a recruitment application of any type is to make a persuasive case for selecting you. The first step in any recruitment process is usually in writing, whether it be a written job application or an online profile. Ensure your written communication presents you in the best light and showcases your skills.

You can use your strength in writing in the following ways:

Be outcomes focused: Be succinct, on point and emphasize the outcomes you have achieved.
Use data and numbers to make your case: Use figures to show outcomes such as percentage change year on year or financial figures to show scale, impact and results.
Be creative in how you write: Kahnweiler suggests including infographics, visuals, charts, bullet point and other graphic elements.

Other quiet influencing strategies:

The other strategies outlined in Quiet Influence can also be used to great effect and in combination with each other. For example:

Taking quiet time to reflect on your skills is one of the most valuable things you can do to mine the gold from your experience.
Engaged listening will help you perform in face to face situations as you concentrate on what is being looked for. This will help you respond with the best examples and competencies from your experience.
Focused conversation is what interviews are all about and something that introverts are naturally good at. Shift your mindset to seeing any face to face interaction as a situation where you can listen well and dig deep to provide quality responses.
Use social media and ensure your profile is professional on online platforms so you are noticed. Actively engage with social media to connect with potential employers. Follow industry experts and organisations of interest to increase your knowledge and profile.

Who can help you?

Seek support as you go through the recruitment process through coaches, mentors or trusted colleagues who can provide feedback and help you practice. You don’t need to do it all alone, even though that may be your natural preference. Asking someone to give feedback or take your through your paces in an interview situation will help immensely for the real thing.

Book a call with me to chat ways to work through any confusion you might be feeling and work out how to rebuild. The first call is free and we can work out the best next steps for you in that call.

What if I’m not successful?

If you’re not successful, seek feedback and learn from the experience. Identify where you can take action to improve your chances. See each recruitment process as a valuable learning experience. Whatever, the outcome, take heart and learn so you can present yourself confidently for new opportunities.

Do I need to act like an extravert?

Susan Cain in her book Quiet describes the ‘Extrovert Ideal’ as:

“…the omnipresent belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight.” (p4)

Cain advises introverts not to embrace the Extrovert Ideal as we can lose the very characteristics that make us unique. The contributions we can make are often because of the strengths and gifts of introversion.

Through learning to prepare, write strategically, listen intently and use social media thoughtfully, you will enhance your opportunity to be seen. When called on to perform in an interview, provide a presentation or solve problems, you will shine all the more if you have prepared from the foundation of your natural abilities.

The most powerful action we can take is to embrace our introvert strengths and present ourselves in the strongest light to achieve our goals. As Steven Pressfield says in The War of Art: “Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.” I wish you every success in your recruitment learnings and journey.

Author note

This post was originally a guest post for recruitment agency WorkSearch and published on their site in 2017. As their site is no longer live, it is reproduced here with minor amendments to reflect current times. Thanks to Bree Rackley for social media and guest posting support for the initial guest posting.

I hope these insights are helpful in making the most of recruitment opportunities as an introvert. Reach out to me for coaching if you need support at any time.

Warmest wishes

Terri

About the author

Book your Self-leadership Discovery Call with Terri here.

Explore your personality further in Personality Stories Coaching.

Read Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition

Want to learn more about personality, creativity and self-leadership for positive transition to the life you desire?

Head over to read about my book Wholehearted and the accompanying Companion Workbook now.

Available in paperback and ebook from retailers listed here:

Wholehearted

Companion Workbook

Further related reading on Quiet Writing:

planning & productivity work life

Online tools for living, working and connecting

April 1, 2020

In this time of COVID-19, attention shifts to online tools for living and connecting. Here I share the online tools I use for working and communicating virtually so you can get some ideas for your situation.

As a life coach with an online business, I work globally from my home office in a coastal village on Sydney’s outskirts. With 3+ years experience of developing my online coaching business and 10 years blogging experience, I have spent many hours honing my skills and wrangling technology.

Time is of the essence now as we shift rapidly and out of necessity to online tools and ways of working. So here are my tips and the online tools I use for living, working and connecting from home. I hope they are helpful for your creative business and life at a time of physical distancing. We can still be social and connect – just in different ways. And it is a fabulous time to upskill and try new things in this environment where so much is changing and we are all having to do things differently.

Zoom meetings + webinars (free + paid)

Zoom uptake is going through the roof now – adding 2.2 million monthly active users this year compared to 1.99 million in all of 2019. It has been my preferred online videoconferencing platform for three years. Zoom aims to keep under 150 milli-seconds of delay ensuring an immediacy and naturalness in conversations.

It’s easy to download and use without needing an account. You can also sign up for a free account which enables you to host unlimited 1:1 video conversations and group conversations for up to 40 minutes.

I choose to have a Pro Account because I offer longer online group coaching sessions where women connect across the world. You can record sessions for those who can’t get there or want to watch back afterwards.

It is great to see so many people embracing Zoom for virtual book clubs, online yoga classes, family catch-ups and online orchestras and choirs. I have been heartened by the creative ways people are coming together via Zoom and other similar platforms.

I have just stepped into Zoom Webinar and ran my first webinar this week on Living, Working and Connecting Online in Times of Change. It was exciting to test out this new option for my business and extending my reach. Zoom is definitely worth looking at as a webinar platform. One big advantage is if you are used to using Zoom meetings, you have a great base for easily shifting into webinars via Zoom. It also has a good free premium option.

To find out more about Zoom meetings + webinar options:

Getting started : Zoom has plenty of help available in video + text

How to get started with Zoom – a good step by step guide

I want to have virtual drinks! – Step by step tips on House-party, Zoom and other options for connecting online.

17+ best webinar software platforms – a good overview of webinar platform options

Teachable ecourse platform (paid)

You may also see this as a time to develop and offer courses online. It is an opportunity to see how you can offer and monetise your skills in new ways. There are plenty of online course platforms to choose from.

I choose to use Teachable and currently offer Personality Stories Coaching and Sacred Creative Collective group coaching (in part) via Teachable in Quiet Writing courses. And I have plans for further ecourses via the Teachable platform.

The advantages of Teachable are: flexibility, comprehensive structure and options, integration, great support and community. Pricing starts from $29US per month billed annually. I choose the Pro plan because of what it offers me as a platform now and for the future. But the Basic plan offers good value for getting started.

It’s a perfect time to explore converting what you know into an online form to share with others. People are looking for support, information and skills via online options now more than ever. Even before the impacts of COVID-19, it was predicted that e-learning will grow to $325 Billion by 2025. This will only step up further now as people have a greater need for online learning and are more accepting of it.

There are a range of online course platforms available at different price points. You can always use email as a low-cost, low-tech course delivery option too.

To find out more about Teachable + other platforms:

Teachable Knowledge Base is a fantastic resource to find out how to develop your skills with their platform

10 steps to creating a wildly successful online course – via Thinkific – another great online learning platform

13+ best online course platforms (Ultimate Guide for 2020) – an excellent, comprehensive round-up of online course and learning platforms

How to create a self-paced email course – tips for using email to create a self-paced ecourse.

Personality Stories on Teachable – click the image to find out more!

Facebook Live for connection (free)

Facebook Groups and Facebook Live within your private groups is a great way to connect with your family or community. Groups can be private, limited and controlled. Using Facebook Live within such a group means it is viewable only by that group.

I currently use this option for my group coaching program and use FB Live to connect within our closed group. This enables me to share content live and connect with the group. You could also use it for families and other groups.

I use OBS – Open Broadcast Software to stream to Facebook enabling me to flip between speaking and sharing my screen and presentation. OBS is free and powerful for shifting between streaming yourself and other activities or presentations from your desktop. You need to invest time to learn OBS but I was able to master it via help from YouTube.

Facebook is focusing more on the live-streaming aspects of its business so expect more to evolve in this space. Zoom meetings or Webinars are an option for this functionality too using the share screen option.

To find out more:

Tips from Facebook on using Facebook Live – good introductory tips

Facebook focusing on live streaming as usage spikes during COVID-19 lockdown – recent developments on FB Live and why people are using it.

How to use Facebook Live – the ultimate guide – a good overview with step by step guides

Loom for short feedback/how to videos (free)

Another tool I use in my online teaching and coaching that has many applications is Loom. Loom enables you to film your desktop while talking about it. You create a video combining yourself speaking with the ability to film a document or task. I use it to provide feedback on coaching goals and actions to individuals within a group coaching program. Clients send their plans to me. I then review and mark them up on Word or Adobe pdf. Then I film from my desktop via the Loom app as I talk through my feedback.

Loom is useful for demonstrating how to use technology as you can film your desktop. It is excellent for walking through a document or creative work and providing feedback so potentially useful for coaches, teachers, parents, editors and virtual co-workers. You can also use it to create videos for online courses.

Loom is available free with pricing plans for advanced recording and editing. The advanced plan (usually $4US per month billed annually) is currently free for parents and teachers and students given COVID impacts. The limit of recordings on the free plan has also been removed till 1 July. So the time is right to try out Loom and see how you can use it!

To find out more:

Loom Featured Use Cases – find out ways to use Loom in different situations

How to use Loom video for your online business – a good introduction on its many uses

How to use Loom video-recording – a valuable step by step guide

The Loom Blog – fun for exploring how to’s and applications

Trello for organising and planning (free)

Last but definitely not least, I use Trello as the umbrella planning tool for where all the pieces of my business fit together. Trello uses boards, lists and cards for your planning, project management and list-building. It’s where I keep track of the whole, so important to me as an INTJ personality type.

It is also a way of working collaboratively as you can create group projects or give access to specific boards to others. I primarily use it as a personal tool but am exploring co-operative use for the non-profit work I am involved in with AusAPT. Creative business owners often use it as a way of communicating with their virtual assistants.

You can get loads of functionality free, but there are also pricing plans for businesses and enterprises for multi-users.

To find out more:

Mastering Trello for Business is highly recommended as a place to start. Only $29USD, it’s jam-packed with valuable tips and beautiful boards you can copy to get started.

How to use Trello like a pro – Trello’s tips for getting started

20 creative ways to use Trello and organise everything – ideas for how to use Trello to organise and track things

How to organise your entire life with Trello – life hacks for working with Trello to get organised

Using Trello for Project Management – an easy, step by step guide – using Trello to manage projects

Teams in Trello 101 – a look at how to work with teams with Trello

I hope these tips for online tools and how I use them are helpful. Let me know if you find them useful or have any tips for me and the Quiet Writing community! All best wishes for negotiating ways of positively living, working and connecting online now and into the future. And good luck too with managing all the beautiful companion animals who always seem to want to get in on the action!

coaching work life

Coaching as a skill + how to skill up in the best way!

August 30, 2019

In this post, I share my learning about coaching as a skill and how to get skilled up in life coaching via the Beautiful You Coaching Academy!

Coaching as a skill

Coaching is a skill like teaching, writing, painting, counselling, copywriting or managing social media skilfully.

As I trained to become a life coach and developed my skills, I realised it is a skill-set I can hone and combine with other unique skills gained through life experience and formal and informal learning.

You might be seeing quite a lot of life coaches and coaches generally out there and thinking that it is a crowded market. Furthermore, you might think there’s no room for you.

It is true that the field is attracting growth and people wanting a new life direction. It’s attractive because it works as a skill to guide and support others in their personal development. Being a life coach is very satisfying and fulfilling work.

Coaching is also a flexible skill-set you can combine with others to create a new life. There is abundant space for you to bring your unique skills and experience together with coaching to see where it takes you. And to fulfil long-held dreams you may have.

Coaching is a skill you can endlessly combine with teaching, parenting, creativity, personality, self-leadership, design, wellbeing, spirituality, mindfulness, business and marketing, just to name a few skill-sets. If you think of coaching in this way, it helps you open up the possibilities for you and your situation. It’s potentially the gateway to a whole new way of life.

My skill-set I blend with coaching as a skill

I began my coaching journey with a background as a teacher and leader in the adult vocational education sector in Australia. Teaching and mentoring are key skills in my skill-set gained over time through formal study and practice in the workplace. I supported the skills training of thousands of students as well as going on to become a leader of teachers and support staff. As a leader, I worked on mentoring and coaching others and leading innovation in online learning.

My passion is writing and creativity. I have worked on writing as a skill nearly all my life including as a teacher of writing. I am a published poet and writer and I’ve blogged for nearly ten years. A learning and language expert, I have studied to Masters level and have two diplomas of education. Such is my love of learning!

Weaving skills together

Alongside becoming a coach, I also trained as a Jung/Myers-Briggs personality type practitioner and coach. Becoming a personality type coach fulfilled a long-held dream. I am now active in national and international type communities including speaking in Australia and the UK at the British Association of Psychological Type on type and transition.

In my coaching, I weave these passions and skills – creativity, personality and self-leadership – together with coaching skills. All my learning in these three areas is at the heart of my offerings and work. I blend them together into a unique blend focused on wholehearted self-leadership. Plus I’ve written a book, Wholehearted: Self-leadership for Women in Transition which is accompanied by a Wholehearted Companion Workbook for practical application.

And I keep working on my coaching skills and being coached – it’s that important as a skill in my life and can be in yours.

Many unique blends of skills

I share my story to show how life coaching as a skill can weave together with other skills. There are as many unique blends of skills as there are people in the world.

I am amazed as I connect with fellow coaches in the Beautiful You Coaching Academy community that no two of us are the same. We are all pursuing our passions, vocation and desired feelings and supporting our clients in different ways depending on our background. There might be similarities in some passions and skills, but the blend we each bring and how we put it together makes each of us and our offerings unique.

There are so many ways you can combine coaching as a skill with your existing, emerging and desired skill-sets.

What skills you could blend together with coaching to create your unique offerings in the world?

Adding coaching to your skill-set

In the Beautiful You course, you are taught about coaching as a skill and the practical ways of working as a life coach. The course explores:

1:1 coaching
group coaching
branding + your niche
events
podcasts
blogging
social media
running a coaching business
speaking

You learn about coaching skills of: goal-setting, questioning, listening, facilitating rich coaching conversations and skillfully managing a coaching series every step of the way.

Coaching as a skill combines with various delivery methods, income sources and ways of getting your unique message out into the world. Combining life coaching as a skill with other disciplines, skills and business approaches yields so many opportunities. Your personality and passions help you work out where to focus and how to blend your skills best in line with your gifts and strengths.

The training is just the start. There is ongoing support and encouragement via Beautiful You after your course as you further develop. You connect with a fabulously diverse and global community to continue to learn with and from. Making new and deep friendships is an ongoing legacy of the course.

In addition to being a skill, life coaching is a pathway to deeper purpose and meaning, for both you and the people you coach, and that is priceless.

As Beautiful You CEO Julie Parker says in an Inspired Coach issue:

It’s all about connecting with those whose message authentically aligns with your own.

And there are so many unique ways to do that!

Be in action!

So consider how life coaching might play a role in your life! How might you add it to your unique skill-set, body of work, knowledge and experience to shape a new life?

Add the heart-centred, flexible, creative and vitally important skill of coaching to your skill-set. See what magic you can create in the world.

As Steven Pressfield invokes us in The War of Art:

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.

Head over to the Beautiful You Coaching Course page for more information.

I look forward to the possibility of working with you! Any questions? Just send me a message using the below form! Or to book a free, no-obligation Discovery Call, go direct to this link.

Keep in touch

Quiet Writing is on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter – Please visit to keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. There are regular posts on coaching, books, tarot, intuition, influence, passion, creativity, productivity, writing, voice, introversion and personality type.

Subscribe via email below to make sure you receive updates from Quiet Writing on life coaching, writing, personality type and other connections to help you express your unique voice in the world your way.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

work life

Show Notes

Transcript of podcast

Introduction

Transcript of interview with Meredith Fuller

About Meredith Fuller

Links to explore:

My books:

Free resources:

My coaching:

Connect on social media

Share this:

Like this:

What advice would you give to someone too scared to leave the consistency of working for the government but knowing they are no longer excited or challenged by the work anymore?

Here are 6 tips for changing from consistent but unexciting work!

1. Look at your why

2. Look at your options

3. Get a vision of what life might be like

4. Take inventory

5. Check your mindset – look at the fears

6. Get support

So summing up, here are my 6 tips for transitioning from consistent but unexciting work:

Watch the video here to review:

Knowing it’s time to make a plan for a transition

Read more:

Share this:

Like this:

Introvert and extravert are personality preferences

The Extravert Ideal and recruitment

Inclusive approaches to recruitment

Reflecting on the job roles we are recruiting to

Challenging stereotypes about key job functions

Rethinking our recruitment practices to make space for preferences

Inclusive strategies for getting the best from introverts in recruitment

Author note

About the author, Terri Connellan

How to connect with me

Read Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition

Further related reading on Quiet Writing:

Share this:

Like this:

Traditional recruitment practice and introverts

Learning about the ways that you quietly influence

Learning to work your quiet influence in recruitment contexts

Preparation

Preparation strategies

Writing Skills

Other quiet influencing strategies:

Who can help you?

What if I’m not successful?

Do I need to act like an extravert?

Author note

About the author

Further related reading on Quiet Writing:

Share this:

Like this:

Zoom meetings + webinars (free + paid)

To find out more about Zoom meetings + webinar options:

Teachable ecourse platform (paid)

To find out more about Teachable + other platforms:

Facebook Live for connection (free)

To find out more:

Loom for short feedback/how to videos (free)

To find out more:

Trello for organising and planning (free)

To find out more:

Share this:

Like this:

Coaching as a skill

My skill-set I blend with coaching as a skill

Weaving skills together

Many unique blends of skills

Adding coaching to your skill-set

Be in action!

Keep in touch

Share this:

Like this:

PRIVACY POLICY

COOKIE POLICY

Instagram