June 23, 2006
Case Study: Professor of Passion
I conducted another career interview, this time with Michelle, a college English instructor. She’s a prime example of how following your passion leads naturally to success.
What is your current job title? Teaching Assistant, but the title’s a little misleading—I teach my own classes.
What do you do? I teach college English at a large university, mostly composition and professional writing.
What are you most satisfied with in your job? I enjoy having the freedom to design syllabi and lessons. I pick the readings, plan the lessons, interact with students. I get to use my creativity.
Michelle enjoys being a leader and helping people. This career is great for her because she gets to spend the day immersed in what she loves, sharing it with others, and helping them to improve themselves.
What are your career goals for the next five years? I want to work on decreasing my stress levels and develop my confidence, happiness, and grace as a teacher. I also need to make a decision about whether to pursue a Ph.D.
Stress management is critical, as Michelle realizes. You can do a much better job if you’re relaxed and in good health than if you’re fried and stretched to your limit. The more confident you are, the better a leader you can be and the bigger the steps you can take toward maximizing your value and success.
What are your career strengths? I’m strongly driven to improve at my job—to reflect upon it, constantly re-evaluate, and do it well.
There’s the Cycle of Continuous Improvement. As long as she remains committed to that process, she will continue to do great work. I would encourage her, as part of developing confidence, to work toward demonstrating her value as well—not only to students, but to her peers and supervisors. You can only go so far without others being aware of your unique contributions and strengths.
How do you use those strengths in your work? I listen to other teachers for ideas (often using teacher message boards or discussion groups online to discuss teaching). I take classes and read tons of books about teaching methodology. I’m constantly trying to improve as a teacher.
Way to go, Michelle! Obviously, she believes in education. We could all take a cue from her and learn as much as we can, in whatever venues we can find. The more we know, the more value we can offer.
What are your weaknesses? I communicate better in writing than speaking, so my speaking while I teach isn’t always the most organized or coherent.
Have you taken any action in the last five years to improve upon those weaknesses? I try different compensation techniques. For instance, I visualize what I’m going to say the day before teaching a lesson. I try to think through a few jokes I can add
into the lecture. I create a lot of visuals—handouts, Web pages, etc.—that I can use to guide me in my speaking.
Michelle is establishing excellent tools for herself. She’s picturing success and imagining herself in the role she wants to embody, using humor and stories to make connections with her students (her customers), and working with presentation materials to strengthen her delivery. We’ve all got endless resources available to us—use them!
In your work, what unique value do you offer? I have compassion for students. It really makes me mad when teachers say nasty things about students or think of
students in negative terms, because I try to respect my students.
Michelle’s students most likely trust her. This means they are likely to take classes from her in the future, recommend her to their friends, and spread the good word about her abilities. All this, of course, results in higher attendance and customer satisfaction, which makes her look great. Badmouthing clients is never a good idea. First of all, if you’re in that frame of mind, you’re probably not thinking positively and coming up with great ways to solve their problems for them. Secondly, rumors have a way of traveling quickly. You don’t want to tarnish your reputation with petty gossip.
Is your work in line with your passion? Definitely. I’m more passionate about English literature, reading, and writing than anything else.
This is exactly why she is so good at her job. She loves it.
What will you do to achieve your goals for the next year?
1. Try new teaching techniques often
2. Take a class on online teaching
3. Continue discussions with other teachers at the university and on online message boards
Michelle is a woman with a plan. Being focused and directed comes naturally when you love what you do.
Do you use relationships to help you in your career? If so, how? My partner also teaches college, so we constantly discuss our teaching ideas, policies, and methodologies. It’s a huge help.
Support from friends, your partner, peers, or a mentor is so important and helpful. We all need people with whom to exchange ideas and feedback.
Thank you, Michelle, for sharing your insight and for being such a great model of Career Intensity!
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