Variety is the spice of life: what spices are you?

One of the best things about being fifty, and having got to a position of some seniority in my chosen profession, is that younger colleagues ask me for advice. This gives me the chance to preach, to recommend things which I wouldn’t but should have done, and to sound wise. Three reasons to be thankful.

My first professional training was as an engineer, before changing tack completely and training instead to be an accountant; but engineering hasn’t left me, and colours a lot of thinking, including the use of models and diagrams. For years now, I have talked to colleagues about my Top Trumps model, which I intend to blog about sometime. More recently, I have started to use the picture of spices in my discussions.

We have all seen stalls looking like the following on our travels:

With today’s knowledge of DNA, we are starting to gain some understanding of the similarities and differences in how we are all made. In terms of talking to colleagues about strengths and weaknesses, developing, gaining new skills, alleviating or getting round weaknesses, spices can provide an image.

When I was made, the spice master got his mixing bowl, and clicked teaspoons of different spices into it: “we’ll make this one academically clever, good at passing exams; we’ll make him mathematical; we won’t give him any language spices, and for good measure we’ll put something fiery in, to make him speak too fast; we will skip past all the sporty spices, though to make him quirky, we will make him good at chess. We will give him the shyness spice, but we will also make him kind and a good listener, and trustworthy. We will give him the spice which makes him poor with alcohol, and we’ll give him the looks which will make him god’s gift to women [a fair degree of poetic licence here]. To be a bit unkind, we will give him travel sickness and eczema.

These were all mixed together, and made me. Fortunately my career wandered into giving taxation advice, to entrepreneurs and families, and for such work the ability to earn trust, and keep confidences, is paramount. In my 20s, I managed to learn to manage my shyness and gain some confidence, and I also started to appreciate which spices I had most of, and couldn’t be changed.

Colleagues are all different. Academically bright; commercially savvy; good looking; naturally smart in appearance; sporty; matey; quiet, determined; energetic, tall, short, fat, thin….I think part of career progression is having some understanding of the spices you are made of, of the spices people think you are made of, and making the best recipe you can.

Not easy, but can be delicious, and better than not knowing what’s in your food.

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