How Personality Relates to Stress in our Careers
When water flows down a mountainside, it follows the path of least resistance. It will follow that path for millions of years, unless something physically changes that path of least resistance to another path of least resistance. You may decide to change the path of this stream with a structure, such as a dam. When you do, however, you interrupt the path of least resistance. This creates stress, which you will have to pay attention to in order to be certain the dam continues to hold. Relatively speaking, you could ignore the damn for a very short period of time (probably a few years) and find that without constant management, the dam will break and the stream will return to its previous natural path. Obviously, a structure under the extreme pressure and stress of a dam requires constant attention and management.
Our personality functions in a similar way. We can choose to work in a manner that follows the path of least resistance, or we can fight our own preferences constantly, which creates stress.
Why do some people love Contracting and Consulting, while others can't stand it? Because some people can figure out ways to match their personality traits to the Contracting and Consulting world, and others cannot.
Contracting and Consulting usually requires a speculative nature. If you don't enjoy the activity of recognizing and developing opportunities (Future-orientation), you will resist one of the most important components of long term success in the field. Working against your personality in this way can cause an intolerable stress and outright fear. The future is positively pregnant with possibilities (all right … spoken like the Future-oriented person that I am). If you don't perceive it that way, you'll be thinking:
- Oh my God, where is my next assignment coming from?
- Will I ever get another assignment?
- I had better charge a low rate to ensure that I can find an assignment.
- Maybe I should go back to captive employment.
You can only avert this recipe for disaster by using a combination of creativity, speculation, hope, and faith that you're good enough and everything will be all right. If you do not have these qualities, you will almost certainly want to take only long term assignments (two years and up) or stay out of the field, because each assignment change will be painful.
Using Your Self–Knowledge to Lower Stress in the Contracting and Consulting Lifestyles
Understanding which situations you handle easily and which represent an uphill battle can help you reduce stress. If you don't handle certain components that a Contracting or Consulting assignment requires, get help or don't accept the assignment. This applies to running your business, as well. The following table suggests some ways to mitigate stress, vis á vis a number of Contracting and Consulting issues:
| If your personality does not support: | Then: |
|---|---|
| Past-oriented tasks/issues Deep research Editing/proofing Business record keeping Factual analysis |
Team with or hire people who research, edit, and analyze facts well. Use an editor and take their input constructively. Use a grammar checker as a front-line defense (but don't rely on it). —or— Refrain from taking on assignments that require a lot of these functions. |
| Present-oriented tasks/issues Project organization/ management Document organization, indexing, etc. Tax preparation Applying for loans Trend analysis Scheduling Solution marketing Financial planning |
Team with or hire people who can organize your project, organize your information, perform trend analysis, and/or provide you with schedule management. Don't perform any organizational tasks on days when you must fill out loan application information (you’ll have little patience for this, and it will run out quickly). Hire out tax preparation and financial planning duties very important! Use a Contract or Consulting company to market your skills (you may want to do this, even if you have these skills). —or— Choose assignments where the client does not value organizational or trend analysis skills. You’ll still have to worry about the business skills, so hire out what you can. |
| Future-oriented tasks/issues Marketing Expanding existing assignments Discovering possibilities Connecting "unrelated" events/facts People interaction Public speaking, meeting facilitation |
Team with people who have a vision, an idea of how to market you or put together projects that you can participate in. Try to stay in a team environment, and accept direction from the leader. You may not make top dollar, but you can probably stay working with help from a Consulting or Contracting company to market your services. Try to avoid surprises by listening to others around you who have a sense for when assignments are €souring” or about to end. Act on these situations by alerting those that market your services for you. Avoid assignments that require innovation and flamboyance to make it work. |
| Physical Reality-oriented tasks/issues Page layout Physical document packaging Visual design |
Hire or team with page-layout artists, commercial artists, and visual design experts in both hardcopy and electronic media. —or— Avoid assignments that require mostly page layout and design work. |
Following some of these suggestions, along with what you learn from others in the field (and your own experiences), you will be able to lower stress by living within your most effective dimensions. You might even be able to manage a less-than-optimum Contracting or Consulting personality into performing relatively well, though I would caution against it.