The Most Important Thing You Didn’t Learn in Business School that Will Determine Your Success

Now that you have the technical and analytical skills afforded by your MBA, you might think that the keys to success are at your disposal. One of the things I have learned in my many years as a career coach is that some of the most important professional development work happens after the degrees are handed out.

I am going to tell you something that your professors never told you. The secret to success is not related to your grade point average or coveted internships. The secret to success is being self-aware because knowing your strengths and weaknesses will help you determine if a job is right for you, give you insights to navigate internal politics, and will give you a competitive advantage that is crucial in today’s business world.

Self Assessment should happen early on.

If you have done the work of understanding yourself better, you can come to job interviews prepared to explain how your competencies and experience match the needs of the organization and the position for which you are interviewing. You will have additional information to speak on how you can help the company, division or department solve its problems and how you can contribute to its success.

One of the first things new drivers learn to do is to check their blind spots. Undertaking self-assessment before stepping into the depths of your career can help you avoid dangerous blind spots and derailments. Learning to lead is like driving, it’s crucial to always check your blind spot and assess current road conditions before proceeding.

Here are a few ways to determine your strengths and assess areas of growth:

1. Take a Personality Assessment like The Myers Brigg Type Indicator – This test is administered in workplaces around the world and is one of the most popular ways to gain insight about yourself. It assesses your personality type and behavior patterns based on the way you use perception and judgement. It identifies your strengths and weakness based on 16 personality traits. Take the test here.
2. Find Out Your Key Strengths by Using Strengths Finder 2.0
This assessment helps you find your natural talents and the best way to understand your work environments. It also provides you strategies to help your natural talents to flourish. This book focuses on helping you develop your strengths and on the premise that a career where you utilize your core strengths is the best way to thrive. Learn more about it here.
3. Understand Emotional Intelligence
What makes you tick? What are your emotional triggers? Decades of research demonstrates that emotional intelligence is the critical factor to build good professional relationships that will be instrumental in your success. Some have suggested that emotional Intelligence might be more important than your IQ. Emotional Intelligence involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this info to guide one’s thinking and actions. You can only understand this if you understand yourself and your emotional triggers. Learn more about it here.
4. Invest in a Career Coach
Coaching might sound out of your reach but it is absolutely instrumental to your professional development. While your MBA gave you a valuable set of tools, a professional coach has expertise on how to navigate organizational structures and make sure that your work is being noticed and valued by your employer. A coach will help heighten your self-awareness and people skills; particularly, in the areas of empathy, self- regulation and ability to navigate change. While trusted mentors are great advisors they may be too invested in your growth and not adequately skilled in assessing areas where you need to improve. Colleagues might seem ideal because they are navigating the same waters you are but lets be honest they are more interested in their own growth or lack the experience to give you appropriate feedback. A coach is invested in you but also keeps his/her eye on the big picture, sees how you fit in, designs a strategy that captures your strengths and can scope out problem areas.

Utilizing tools like, Strengths Finder 2.0, MBTI and learning about emotional intelligence are great ways to get started on the path to understanding yourself and leveraging your strengths. This is a sure way to make sure that you are on the right path, as it would be a shame if you thought you were a quarterback when you are actually a wide receiver. Identifying your personal strengths and areas for development is also great way to know what you need from a professional coach. The right coach can help you understand how your technical and people skills can be maximized.

But remember even a coach cannot help you if you are not willing to take a hard look at yourself and assess your strengths and areas for growth. Staying curious will help you keep a growth mindset and help you continue to expand your skillset. Only by experimenting with fresh approaches and being open to redesigning some aspects of your life will you find career success and personal contentment.

Monica Blake, PCC., is a Professional Certified Coach with expertise in Executive, Career and Life Coaching. Monica earned her coaching credential from the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She is also a Business and Human Resources Consultant and a Motivational Speaker. For the last 15 years she has helped hundreds of individuals reach their personal and professional goals through her In Action coaching practice which is founded on three decades of human resources executive and senior leader experience at internationally recognized companies including Mars Inc., ExxonMobil and General Motors. Monica can be reached via email at monica@inactioncoach.com