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AUGUST 2004 -------
Jobs, careers and occupations People often ask about Birth Order in relation to careers, jobs or occupations. Birth Order is not an absolutely accurate predictor of compatibility with a particular occupation but there are general indications of what might be a good job for someone with a particular Birth Order. We can describe how Birth Order relates to work by looking at the roles each Birth Order can play in a business. The Only Child makes the best CEO because of the ability to organize time, space and things. An Only Child executive can withdraw into his or her world to strategize rather than get distracted by minutiae. This person can delegate to others to make an organization work. The First Born often fits into R&D - research and development. In this department the First Born can indulge his or her natural bent to research thinking. When R&D stretches into long periods of time the First Born can keep going, moved by the dream of discovery. The Second Born will do well in the accounting department. In accounting the Second Born must pay attention to details, must achieve perfection and has a clearly defined task to perform. This fits the Second Born love for details, drive toward perfection and desire for clearly defined objectives. The Second Born can work every day crunching numbers that would bore other Birth Orders. Put the Third Born into sales. This person will sell tirelessly, effectively with relish. Finishing one sale motivates the Third Born to go on to the next. In this position the Third Born can indulge desires to help people. Money is a by-product of the joy of selling. With a sense of humor, a multitude of ideas, and a genuine compassion this sales person is a delight to the customer. Make the Fourth Born the sales manager, the production manager, or put him or her in any position overseeing people. The Fourth Born knows people, can communicate with them and can handle negative feedback. All the knowledge gained from having to cope with four older siblings serves well in the management position. The most common mistake made in personnel is putting a Second Born in the executive position. This often happens because the Second Born does so well at whatever he or she does, especially accounting. A board of directors looks at the Second's performance deciding that this is the prime person for the CEO position. However, because the CEO must constantly keep the big picture in mind the Second Born who naturally focuses on details is stressed. The stress is commonly passed on to the rest of the company by policies issued by the harried CEO. Another common mistake is promoting the most successful sales person to sales manager. The company loses a good sales person and gains a poor sales manager. Why? Because the Third Born as sales manager tries to motivate sales people rather than manage them. The sales staff is already motivated because of their personalities. They don't need motivation. They need direction, support, and freedom to do their work. So the Birth Order profile of the successful company has an Only CEO, First Borns in R&D, Second Born accountants, Third Born sales people and Fourth Born managers. School School is soon starting. Now is a good time to think about how children think because that determines how they learn. They will each think differently according to their Birth Order. Onlies think organizationally. They treat a block of information with a goal of getting it all packaged up so it can be put away complete, not requiring any more thinking. In the process of organizing they want to get their questions answered so there aren't any loose ends. This type of thinking is usually most acceptable to parents and teachers. This kind of thinking is the sign of a good student, isn't it? First Borns research. They want to know what others think, which includes knowing what the teacher thinks, what parents think and what peers think. Out of this thinking the First Born develops his or her own thinking. Since this child does not initiate thinking, parents and teachers may feel frustrated. They may pressure the child to "do his own thinking" not realizing that the child needs the stimulation of others' thoughts. Second Borns focus on details. This child can become absorbed in a project, focus on details within the project and shut out distractions. The result is that this child will produce the best homework, write the best papers, do the best artwork. If the child gets frustrated in driving toward perfection parents often make the mistake of saying, "just do the best that you can." This statement reinforces the perfectionism of the child causing even greater frustration, often making the child give up. It is better to say, "just do what you can," to relieve the burden of perfectionism. Third Borns are lateral thinkers, always coming up with alternatives. They are full of ideas which parents and teachers may take to be a distraction when they want the child to focus on something. These children can be frustrating with their creativity that resists following rules. Listening to ideas is satisfying for this child. It can lead to better school performance by this child. Fourth Borns are analytical thinkers. They like to look at things from every angle, consider every possibility, and ask every "what if" question possible. Too much information at one time can be overwhelming for this child as he or she analyzes everything. Pressuring the child to go faster only exacerbates the problem. Sometimes these children are unjustly considered "slow" just because they take so much time to analyze. It is best to give the Fourth Born time to do the analytical thinking. First Born Core Issue The core issue for this month is that of First Borns. The First Born core issue is that of hiding what they want from themselves by dreaming about things in the future. This came about when the First Born sat on the couch while mother took care of the new baby. The First Born decided that mother did not love him or her anymore, and believed that he or she could not get anything any more. To cope with this the child subconsciously chose to hide desires from self. To replace desires the First Born dreamed of the future that was beyond his or her grasp at the moment. Hiding desires causes the First Born to take energy from doing daily tasks to focus it on contemplating a future that is inaccessible because the daily tasks are not getting done. We encourage a First Born to stop the dreaming to get tasks done in the present in order to progress toward a goal. Improve your relationships. To know someone makes you able to love that person. Birth Order guides you into knowing that person. Tip to Clergy: When you are doing premarital counseling, you can make a reasonable prediction of how the relationship will be by looking at the relationship with parents of the same sex. Looking at how the man got along with his father and how the woman got along with her mother lets you see how they are likely to get along with each other. A boy has companionship with his father and a girl has companionship with her mother. Since every marital relationship includes companionship it is this element that affects the quality of the marriage. By looking at parent/child relationship in this way you can determine what kind of help the couple needs in order to have a good relationship. You may want to refer them to a professional in order to help them. Sincerely,
Cliff Isaacson The following books by Cliff are available by calling 1-800-214-0795:
The Birth Order Challenge Hardback $19.95 Credit Card payments are accepted. |
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