Portrait of Personal Strength

Over the past ten years my work experience has centered on finance, ranging the full spectrum from back office operations, to sales & trading, and now investment banking. Throughout the course of my professional development I’ve worked under several superiors, all with vastly different managing styles. Throughout my career however; the expectations of the analysts have always been consistent. Analysts must have the capacity to deliver accurate results in a demanding high pressure environment. As an analyst it’s critical to develop a “sense of urgency” regarding all deliverables and perform with minimal oversight. After reviewing my Myers Briggs Type Indicator summary, I believe that my personality traits (ENTJ) are well suited for this line of business. During my ascent up the corporate ladder, I cultivated many relationships rooted in trust, accountability, and respect; however, since my transition to a new position last year, I have experienced what I would consider the first real “challenging” relationship of my career.

To provide some context, the team that I work for is comprised of 5 members: 2 Managing Directors, 1 Director, 1 Associate and 1 Analyst. The associate on my team (for the sake of anonymity I will call him David), who I report to indirectly, has held the same position for five years and has had no exposure to any other sectors of the financial industry. As such, David has a very limited perspective on the banks operations and is very resistant to change. His perspective is so narrowly defined that he disregards and dismisses any suggestions that could create new efficiencies in existing processes and procedures. Prior to my arrival, David was solely relied upon for the completion of moderate to complex day-to-day tasks and in turn developed an overinflated sense of self. His pursuit of self-aggrandizement continues to put negative pressure on our working relationship, as he has a tendency to view me as the competition, rather than his colleague. Lastly, David feels it necessary to micromanage my work. This micromanaging, combined with his inability to prioritize effectively and his lack of organization, creates a work environment in which it is close to impossible to complete our deliverables in an efficient manner in conjunction with our managing directors’ wishes.

I fundamentally believe the majority of my frustration with David stems from the fact that I am unable to leverage some of my top six strengths. I am admittedly competitive and ambitious in the workplace, attributes which drive me to work hard and strive for the respect and trust of my superiors. Until recent management intervention, David would only assign me tasks that were menial or those he deemed “not important” enough for him to do. He consistently left me off meeting planners and conference calls, provided negligible mentorship, and failed to help me locate resources that would assist in completing deliverables efficiently. As a result, the quality and timeliness of my work product began to suffer and I felt as though I was not growing professionally. As a competitive and ambitious person, this scenario proved incredibly frustrating. In essence, David made it virtually impossible for me to leverage my strengths in order to succeed in my new position. For a period of time, I was unable to perform at my best, and thus did not garner the support and trust of our supervisors, who were largely unaware of what was transpiring. Without an initial foundation of trust, the team could not provide me with more responsibility necessary to develop my skills for promotion, thus leaving me stagnant in my current position.

Two additional strengths that I bring to the workplace are that I am very methodical/analytical and organized. In contrast, David tends to manage multiple competing priorities at once. His lack of organization and direction creates mistakes in his work product and leads to undue stress. On multiple occasions I have offered assistance to ease this burden by streamlining our databases but his inability to relinquish any control has unfortunately prevented me from using these strengths to help the team become more organized and efficient.

Lastly, I also consider self-confidence to be one of my greatest attributes in the workplace, as it enables me to efficiently complete my work without second guessing myself and my work product. David routinely makes a concerted effort to criticize my work and point out the most trivial mistakes (rounding error to the 1000th) to management when he has the opportunity. This has truly undermined my self-confidence and has made me question my value to the team and my ability to succeed in my current role.

For the first time in my professional career, I am forced to play a passive-aggressive “game” with David so the collective group can move forward and accomplish our goals. Tapping into the strengths in the bottom portion of my strength pyramid has not been an easy transition for