©Arlene Taylor PhD

Almost anyone can choose a job/career and then learn the key tasks that are required. For example, most human beings can learn to exhibit caring behaviors and people skills although it will be easier for some than others. The degree of success achieved lies in how much energy it takes to learn the key tasks and sustain repetition on a daily basis. Individuals with differing preferences tend to approach similar careers from differing perspectives, with differing emphasis, and with differing degrees of accomplishment and success based on what their brain does easily.

Confucius said, Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. When evaluating employment options, begin by identifying the key tasks that the job or career requires. Understand the type of activities that energize you, and proactively select the job/career that will give you the best fit possible based on your own innate giftedness. If you are having difficulty evaluating a work opportunity, look for a job or an organization that allows you to contribute based on your own innate giftedness even if some of the tasks and activities use skills from nonpreferred portions of the brain and/or don’t match your formal education.

Following is a brief summary.

brain lead 
Left Frontal Lobe

An individual with this lead tends to:

  • Excel when difficult decisions need to be made that involve resource allocation, money, and structure; when priorities need to be understood and identified.
  • Be gifted at setting goals and discovering ways to achieve them.
  • Prefer to delegate operational implementation, routine maintenance or follow-up, and the tracking of details to others.

Search for work that allows you to:

  • Direct
  • Prioritize steps that need to be taken
  • Monitor (research) outcomes
  • Redirect

Contribution: functional analysis and evaluation

Key: a data-based project or program and the ability to make decisions and set/achieve goals

 

brain lead 
Right Frontal Lobe

An individual with this lead tends to:

  • Excel when something is beginning, getting started for the first time, or when it’s being turned around or reinvented. Once the project is working as envisioned, it needs to be passed to others to maintain. Otherwise, in a push to improve, reinvent, or change it, the project can be ruined.
  • Be gifted at anticipating and making changes

Search for work that allows you to:

  • Begin or start a project or program, even if it involves temporary work (e.g., a political campaign, a time-limited campaign)
  • Restart or turn around a project / program
  • Brainstorm (research) solutions to problems

Contribution: envisioning and enthusiasm

Key: a short-term project or program and the ability to be somewhat independent and innovative

brain lead 
Left Posterior Lobes

An individual with this lead tends to:

  • Excel when something concrete needs to be dependably sustained, whether the something involves service or production.
  • Follow routines / maintain projects as long as there is an understanding of why it’s important to do so.

Search for work that allows you to:

  • Maintain
  • Continue the process, maintain the status quo
  • Follow through on routines
  • Be protected from constant interruptions

Contribution: dependability and service production

Key: a long-term project or program and the ability to produce dependably

 

brain lead 
Right Posterior Lobes

An individual with this lead tends to:

  • Excel at building connections, harmony, good will, and peaceful foundations and can do this in a wide variety of settings.
  • Like to encourage others, help to build consensus and compliance (if the “why” is understood).

Search for work that allows you to:

  • Read nonverbals
  • Provide feedback
  • Offer encouragement
  • Provide nurturing

Contribution: connecting and encouraging

Key: the ability to experience harmony among people and in the environment