Are you being sabotaged by your talents?

An interesting employee assessment tool I read about called the Hogan Development Survey http://www.hoganassessments.com/assessments-hogan-development-survey provided some insight into how sometimes we can be our own wost enemies when we think that we are actually exhibiting leadership, creative thinking, and being a good team player.  What is ironic is the number of times employers or even clients actually encourage or expect us to embody one or more of these traits, then turn it around and criticize the trait's negative aspects.  Here is a list of what Hogan identifies as derailers, or the dark side of being both creative and corporate:

1. Excitable: moody, easily annoyed, hard to please, and emotionally volatile
2.  Skeptical: distrustful, cynical, sensitive to criticism, and focused on the negative
3. Cautious: unassertive, resistant to change, risk-averse, and slow to make decisions
4. Reserved: aloof, indifferent to the feelings of others, and uncommunicative
5. Leisurely: overtly cooperative, but privately irritable, stubborn, and uncooperative
6. Bold: overly self-confident, arrogant, with inflated feelings of self-worth
7. Mischievous ( I would call this "willing to challenge status quo", something we are often called upon as archietcts to do): charming, risk-taking, limit-testing and excitement-seeking
8. Colorful: dramatic, attention-seeking, interruptive, and poor listening skills
9. Imaginative: creative, but thinking and acting in unusual or eccentric ways
10. Diligent: meticulous, precise, hard to please, and tends to micromanage
11. Dutiful: eager to please and reluctant to act independently or against popular opinion

Buildings go boing!

Architecture is motion.  No building is static.  Buildings breathe, absorb and reflect light, materials patina over  time, people adapt space to their needs.  It’s kinetic.  Designing is not unlike illustrating a comic book.

When was the last time you mattered?

Just asking. Because it’s way too easy to spend your day dealing with the demands on your time that come from the merry-go-round that is a workday. Architecture in practice often seems void of creative opportunity, but overloaded on demands to accomplish the impossible (and document it all). Some days, it’s all you can do to deal with the immediate. Look at your life right now from a view of 20,000 feet. Are you moving in a direction, or spinning in circles? Are you doing what you always dreamed you would or did you take a detour and not even notice?


Is your life’s work truly relevant or just a string of jobs? You are not a commodity. Have ideas and make buildings. Find your passion and get going on the work that matters to you.