This Quiz Can Radically Improve Your Career

In my last article (Your Career Needs Four Engines), I made the case that to have a career that matters - and to simultaneously leave the world a better place than you found it - you should cultivate four qualities:

• Growth
• Grit
• Compassion
• Clarity

Now I'd like to give you a way to self-assess your progress towards these qualities.

In the chart above, each quality has four levels; the further to the right you make it, the better. 

If you want accurate results, take this self-assessment twice. Grab a piece of paper, and write down which level best corresponds to where you are today. I'm deliberately not giving you any guidance for this first round.

(I'm waiting...)

Done? Great. Now I have a few questions for you:

• What percentage of the time do you behave at the Level you chose for each of the four qualities? For example, if you chose Level 3 for Grit, what percentage of the past, say, 30 days have you engaged in specific actions that display "an increasingly intense focus on (your long term) goals"?
• How many of your responses are based in theory, rather than action? For example, perhaps you chose Level 3 for Compassion, mainly because you perceive yourself to be a compassionate person. But day after day, and week after week, are you actively being compassionate?
• For each quality that you selected Levels 3 or 4, are you willing to write down a few examples of that type of behavior? Give it a shot. (Yes, right now.)

If you just shifted down a few levels, don't be discouraged. Nearly everyone self-rates too high at first, until I push back a bit. Many of us are well-meaning at heart, but the reality of daily existence isn't quite as positive as our optimistic intentions.

Truth be told, in 50 words or less I can't provide you with a comprehensive and highly specific path to career success. But by taking this self-assessment, you've just taken a giant step towards being much more proactive and positive than many professionals. What happens next depends on whether you set this assessment aside and forget about it... or if you save it and keep reaching, day after day, for a higher level.

Bruce Kasanoff is a ghostwriter for a wide range of accomplished professionals. He delivers the Your Career Needs Four Engines workshop at events and corporate meetings.