The Seductive Seven in Personal Life

Originally posted on another site. The Seductive Seven is from @Kristen Cox and her work to Stop Decorating the Fish. She and her husband @Randy Cox are helping to expand the overall Theory of Constraints understanding and leadership in Utah and the world. I highly recommend looking up their work.

OK. Confession time.

I think "Seductive Seven" is brilliant in multiple ways. First of all, from my writing side, I love the alliteration. Second, how often do we look at our own lives and careers and fall victim to them as well? After all, companies are made up of individuals with career goals.

Even I have been victim of my own seductive seven: I went 18 months unemployed. I have a modicum of agile knowledge and project management knowledge. I have some experience leading teams and communicating vision. And I excel at learning information and then taking tests. So I thought with my own career, especially after my last layoff, when I already had my PMP and was working towards my PMI-ACP, that, maybe, I didn't have enough certifications. So I piled more on. And like a moron, I thought that would help resolve my woes.

I don't regret getting all of these certifications. Each is valuable and has shaped my thought and work processes in my own life (I really adore my Kanban certificate) but, the certificates themselves did not solve my overall need. I needed (and found) a job.

But, this pursuit of certifications, did involve several other of the seductive seven: 

1. More Money (Certifications aren't cheap to get nor to maintain the associated memberships.)

2. More Technology (While not electronics and high-tech, each certification like the difference between the CSM and the PMI-ACP, has its own "technology" if you will.)

3. More Reorganization (Each job interview failure only told my mind, at the time, that I, apparently, wasn't well-enough certified.)

4. More training and communication ('nuff said!)

5. More data (I certainly researched what people with these certificates made as far as their careers went. Dice and Indeed even had calculators that told me what I should be making with those certifications.)

6. More accountability and assigning blame. (I kept pushing it back on my shoulders. I assigned blame on myself and took accountability to change it. In fact, one of those certifications has proven to be a waste of time and is certainly not Lean like it claims.)

7. More strategic planning (I kept getting coached and trying to see how my certifications would help me get my job. Everyone kept being so shocked that I wasn't getting offers, when what I needed to do was go back to basics and learn how to better speak about my skills and accomplishments.)

I should have been more focused on sharing my vision and how I could use my skills, experience, and knowledge to help the company. The certifications could have come later.