Victoria Volk: Hello there. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of grieving voices. This is going to be continuation from last week's episode where I'll be talking about skills and personality type as they relate to what's called the Youmap. If you did not listen to last week's episode where I talk about the Youmap more in-depth like an overview. And the first two pillars, I cover more in-depth, strengths and values, then I highly recommend you go back to that episode because it's going to lay the foundation for what I'm going to cover today.
Victoria Volk: So today, we're gonna be talking about skills and personality type. And skills are important to know just because, you know, we might think we know what we like to do, or we definitely know what we don't like to do. But just because we are good at something doesn't mean we like doing it or enjoy doing it or just because we think we might like something, and then we actually go do it that might not be the case either. We can actually be really good at something too and not enjoy it, and then overuse that skill. And then it becomes what's called a burnout skill. And so it's very important to discern for ourselves what our most preferred and least preferred skills are because we can really hone in on opportunities that may come our way.
Victoria Volk: We can find a resume or an application or things like that, organizations or any even volunteering, we can apply this knowledge about ourselves to these opportunities and make a more informed decision as to if that opportunity is really for me. And again, this is one aspect of the Youmap. Strength also plays a role and what you value is huge as well. Because if you are working for a company that lacks integrity, but you are integrity is very important to you. Probably not gonna be very happy in that work environment.
Victoria Volk: So, anyway, today, skills. We're gonna talk about skills. And skills are the abilities and expertise that contribute to an individual's capacity to perform competently in a role and those skills are usually portable across many jobs. According to Korn Ferry International, 85 percent of skills are transferable from job to job. And many people don't even realize how their skills can transfer to a role they haven't even held in the past. We see this a lot with veterans military people, personnel, often find themselves in law enforcement. Now you wouldn't think that someone who was in the military, like myself, let's say, as a medic, would end up in, you know, as a police officer, but that happens. Because there are so many different skills that we learn in that environment, you know, going through the different training and things like that are transferable to civilian world in, let's say, law enforcement. And so understanding what skills may be transferrable is important too if you're wanting to make a career change or you're like the military, you're coming out of the military. Well, what are you what are you gonna do with that experience and skills, and knowledge that you learned from the military, how are you going to translate that into the civilian life? If you are a veteran or you are in the military and this as part of you're finding yourself in that process right now. I encourage you to reach out to me. The military offers so many opportunities to learn.
Victoria Volk: And I think there's a lot of really intelligent and motivated people out there whose skills were utilized in the military, but maybe they're being underutilized in the civilian world right now. There are as many companies that love hiring veterans, and so I've actually come across many resources. So if this is you and you're struggling to find work, I encourage you to reach out to me because I have a lot of resources I could share. In that regard. But anyway, the most preferred skills are defined as a skill that you are good at and enjoy using. The keyword, "enjoy using". A skill, a client hasn't had a chance to use yet, but believes they would enjoy using also. So like I said, you know, you may not have had the chance to do that certain thing, but you believe that you would enjoy it. So that's a preferred skill as well. A least preferred skill is defined as something you're good at, but you do not enjoy using. It is something you are not good at and do not enjoy using. And it's also something you may haven't had the chance to use, but you believe you would not enjoy using that skill.
Victoria Volk: Now, you can have a skill that you're not good at, but you believe that you would enjoy. Could be something that we would work on or could be flagged for development. So then we would assess, well, what could you do to build your knowledge around that skill and gain more experience and things like that? Especially if it's a leadership role, you know, what are other ways in your community that you could get more familiarized with leadership roles or things like that, for example. So anyway, we have these we go there's a whole list of these skills. And then we do some math, and we figure out the total number of most preferred skills. And we figure out total number of the least preferred skills and we calculate a percentage and and this percentage will tell us if you are a specialist or if you are a generalist where you like to wear many multiple hats at work. And then we can also determine based on some calculations, if you are using burnout skills, too many burnout skills, or if you're being underutilized. So we really glean a lot of information from this part of the Youmap assessment. And you can actually see in different categories as well.
Victoria Volk: For example, let's say most of your preferred skills might be for example, expedite or make arrangements, manage time, plan, or organize. That tells me that you love and you love managing processes and projects. However, if you don't enjoy adapting to change or customer service, or multitasking, these would probably be burnout skills under management process under managing processes or projects. So those are things important to know because if you're going into a certain job, a new job, or you're looking to transition and customer service is like one of their main things. And that's part of your job description and but that's a burnout skill for you that might not be the best role for you to take on.
Victoria Volk: And so all of these, it's not just a matter of spitting out this information and now you know what your skills are and things like that. There there's so much more to this and it's a really deep assessment compared to probably many others that you've taken. In how and what we do with the information. So it's not just it's like, okay, now I know this stuff, but now what? And for the work that I do with grievers, it's not enough to just know themselves. It's and for anybody in general, actually, it's not just grievers, but it's not enough for us to just know ourselves or know these things about ourselves and see it in black and white on paper in the u map, but it's what do I do with this information? And so this is where the coaching comes in. And there are three different levels to the coaching. You can just get the Youmap, which involves no coaching whatsoever, or you can get the u map and a mini debrief, which is a brief overview, or you can go through the full coaching that goes through every pillar more in-depth specific to your u mab. And so that's where they differ a little bit, but just having this knowledge is great. And but again, it's how do you implement it in your life? How do you use this? Information as a guide moving forward. As, you know, what's the word I'm trying to think of? A roadmap moving forward. And on something to fall back on to discern opportunities as they come your way or even to assess relationships in your life. If you know, maybe your loved one, maybe you want him or her or, you know, someone special in your life to take the u map and you can gain a better understanding of each other, right, before you dive into marriage or, I mean, it's a really great way to talk about what it is that you bring to the relationship individually. And I did touch more on a lot more on that on in the last episode.
Victoria Volk: So again, I'd encourage you to go back to that one. So now that we've talked a little bit about skills. Let's move on to personality. So the fourth pillar explores your personality and the interests aspect of the personality is determined by the person's traits. So in the u map, we use a personality inventory, and there are six different interest types, realistic, which are the doers, investigative are the thinkers. The artistic type are the creators. The social type are the helpers. The enterprising type are the persuaders and the conventional type are the organizers. Now for example, I am artistic investigative. So those two together makes what's called the idealist. I am the creator and the thinker. So how the Youmap uses the descriptor words for artistic investigative are intensely verbal, private, opinionated, somewhat antisocial, highly idealistic, perpetually thinking, extremely perceptive. And the idealist is most fascinated by the work that is in their head exploring ideas and creating They are soulful, deep thinkers, and they are also passionate. They need intellectual challenge and creative stimulation or their minds tend to wonder. And you would be amazed when you actually get your Youmap, how spot on it is. And this is me to a t. They have very high standards and ideals and crave being alone, which I do. They need autonomy to think and create, which I do. They tend to work long hours to see an idea through to completion I do. Idealists are intellectually curious and need to be challenged. And any work that involves repetitive tasks is bad fit. So is highly technical work or anything that involves working directly with customers, which I work directly with clients, but working in customer service when in my younger years definitely taught me a lot. But I definitely need and it's not that I hate customers. I don't it's not that I dislike customers. I've seen my clients as my customers of course. But it's those short-term interactions where you really don't get to connect with people I'm much more of a let's connect more deeply one on one or in a small group. And, you know, it's just very different dynamic So what the u map personality type gives you is kind of, like, really what what is your best match for the type of work that you could be doing? So we take these six interest type.
Victoria Volk: And I'll go over just each of them briefly again, more in-depth sold the realistic or the doers. Individuals with a realistic career code tend to prefer work that involves practical hands on solutions to problems. They value things they can see, touch, and use. They'd rather work with their hands than sit behind a desk for example. Well. And then we also get occupation samples or, you know, different ideas for occupation based on the different interest types. So the realistic or the doer would be the ambulance driver, the EMT technicians, veterinarians, elect things like that, investigative, the thinkers, those with an investigative career code are intellectual, curious, and reserved. And they like to solve problems and engage in challenges in their work. They do not like routine work that forces them to check their brain at the door. In fact, their work often involves ideas and heavy mental lifting. So they also tend to avoid careers that involve leading or influencing people and selling. So some ideas for the invest gate of thinkers are fire investigators, registered nurses, software developers, analysts, market research, analysts, database, architects, things like that. I which really is funny because I really geek out over like kitchen gadgets and like any any types of gadgets. And I love learning new software. So That is totally me. Artistic creators, this type of code, they're imaginative, creative, original, independent, and expressive. In general, they tend to avoid work that involves highly structured or routine activities. And these individuals are inspired to create weather through activities such as music, writing, drawing, dance photography or art, which in my previous years, I had a photography business. So it's kinda interesting, you know, reading through these and recognizing, like, oh, I used to do that. And, you know, it's like, it's not that we don't know ourselves.
Victoria Volk: It's like we know these things intuitively, but it's like we don't understand ourselves. Like, why do I do the things I do? The Youmap helps explain that. Moving on to social, the helpers, individuals with a social career code are interested in serving society and making a difference in people's lives. They like to help people and their work is often centered around people. Like social careers, nonprofits, education, healthcare. They are helpful, friendly, loyal, generous, you know, these are our teachers, dietetic technicians, midwives health educators, patient representatives, for example. Moving on to enterprising, the persuaders, these individuals you'll often deal with business, leadership or politics, involved in making decisions, starting up and carrying out projects, selling ideas or things. They are generally energetic, ambitious, dominant, outgoing, and and competitive. So think about financial services, sales reps, CEOs, judges, human resource specialists, supply chain managers, people in charge basically. The conventional, the organizer type are the glue that holds organizations together. They provide structure, process, and order that all organizations need to run smoothly. People with this career type are generally methodical detailed oriented, cautious, organized, responsible, and quality oriented. So for example, insurance claim clerk or medical secretary's accountants, pharmacy tax, loan officers, research assistance, or financial analysts, So these six personal personality types provide a glimpse into a person's internal, interpersonal and environmental preferences. And when we hone in on their two strongest codes, for example, like I mentioned, mine are artistic and investigative, more specific preferences are then revealed. And so then we take this information, all of this information, your strengths, your values, your skills, and your personality inventory type. And you have what's called a workbook.
Victoria Volk: And the workbook is where you really answer questions that integrate this information more deeply. It helps you gain a better understanding and assimilate all of this information because is a lot of information that you receive in a u map. We also have what's called dealmakers and breakers. It's a worksheet for that. We have an ideal day worksheet.
Victoria Volk: There is so much information that you receive with the Youmap. It's not just this assessment you take and you get this printout and then it goes in a drawer and it sits for years and years. This is something that you can use in your daily life, like I said, in your relationships for better understanding, and probably nurturing compassion because in understanding that we're all different, you can be more compassionate towards others in your grief. Like, if you've lost a breadwinner in the household, like, what are you gonna do now? Right? Like, if you have to go out and get a second job or you have to get a job maybe for the first time after many years of not being in the workforce because now you have to go to work for whatever reason. Or you've been a stay-at-home parent and now you're gonna enter the workforce again after being home with your kids for a while.
Victoria Volk: There are so many different scenarios where we find ourselves having to reinvent our lives, reinvent ourselves. Maybe you've had a change in health. In their the career that you had, you can no longer physically do that. But what can you do? There is something else you can do. You can still contribute to the world, you can still make a difference in people's lives and as long as you're not dead, you still have something to contribute You can still contribute to the world, you can still contribute to your life, and you can create your life with this information armed with this information, how you see it, how you want to see it, that fits you, who you are, and where you are in your life. And how you want to move forward. And this is the whole goal of Do Grief Differently and the Youmap together is moving forward, onward, and upward in a positive direction and creating lasting transformational change that leads you to have a fulfilling, soulful, self-honoring life.
Victoria Volk: Because when we honor who we are, what we get back is joy. How can it be any other way? If you're interested in the Youmap, you wanna learn more there's a link on my website where you can email me victoria@theunleashedheart.com. If you are interested in working with me and receiving your Youmap and diving deeper. If you're a veteran or you're in the military and you're gonna be sitting soon, coming into civilian life, and you're kind of feeling overwhelmed. Like, what are you gonna do? This is perfect for you.
Victoria Volk: We actually have a specific workbook that is specific for military personnel. If you're an entrepreneur, or if you one that's geared more towards life coaching, there's a specific workbook for your specific situation. If you are looking for employment, there's a workbook specific for that.
Victoria Volk: So lots of information to share and help help you process. And I'm more than happy to do that and be there for you in that journey. And I hope this was helpful and maybe you understanding, yeah, there really is a lot more to us as human beings. They're we're complex. We're so complex. And any tool that can help us better understand and just kind of make sense of everything, the better off we are for it and those we love. I encourage you to go back and listen to last week's episode if you haven't yet and check out my website for more information and reach out to me because life's too short to be staying in a cubicle you don't wanna be in or doing something that is sucking the joy out of your life. Right? And perhaps like me, you'll receive the Youmap and it'll be life-affirming like I am doing exactly what I meant to be doing. This is a perfect fit for me. And that's what the Youmap did for me. It was very life-affirming, but what it also did then was it gave me the language to articulate what it is that I really do. Thank you for listening. And remember, when you unleash your heart, you unleash your life. Much love.
