"Specialist with Spirit" Professional Development Series

What is a Specialist with Spirit™? 
Specialists with Spirit™ approach their work and lives as a calling -- not just with a laser focused passion, but with vigor, integrity and a transcendent sense of accountability that permeates all that they do.  Specialist denotes more than a career or education; it also refers to specialization in the traditional sense --dedication to methods and craft. Spirit is the animating force that gives life to what we do. Both specialization and spirit are essential to produce positive, sustainable results.

Why do Specialists with Spirit™ matter to your organization?
Specialists with Spirit™ are engaged, careful and consider the immediate and long term consequences of their actions for themselves, people around them, their organization and society. They are energized by deep meaning and commitment. These qualities are essential given current challenges related to engagement, ethics and economic competitiveness.

• Engagement - According to a 2013 Gallup poll, only 13% of employees worldwide and only 30% of U.S. employees are fully engaged at work! This lack of engagement is due to bad managers, seemingly meaningless work and employees’ own lack of motivation. Disengagement negatively impacts quality and costs businesses roughly $500 million annually. The Specialist with Spirit™ series seeks to stem the loss and remedy the problem by increasing engagement at every level. Managers, once promoted, need resources to answer their calling to leadership. And employees need resources to tap into their intrinsic motivation so that inspiration flows from within. The Specialist with Spirit™ series provides those tools and resources.



• Ethics – Unethical practices threaten effectiveness, profitability, and global competitiveness. The hidden costs include damaged reputation, increased monitoring, inability to retain employees, loss of customers and lawsuits. These costs are notable because the World Economic Forum (2013) found that the work ethic in the United States is weakening. Furthermore, they ranked the U.S. 32nd   in ethical firm behavior. Firm behavior is the product of individual behavior – individuals translate their beliefs and being into actions, ethical and unethical. But how can we expect individuals and firms to behave more ethically when the cultural zeitgeist celebrates incivility, scandal, corruption and people operating in the shadows?  The Specialist with Spirit™ series addresses such threats to sustainability and competitiveness by exploring ethics and values that are common across cultures; providing tools to cultivate character strengths; emphasizing professional standards, and offering tactics to enhance the moral infrastructure of organizations.
  

• Economic Competitiveness – Economic competitiveness cannot be sustained by wealth, technical skills and financial infrastructure alone. The pillars that sustain it include institutions that provide high quality primary education, health care, higher education, infrastructure, legislation, and trustworthy politicians. We need Specialists with Spirit™ to strengthen these vital institutions so that they will be pillars of sustainable economic revitalization and growth.
  

What are some typical uses of the Specialist with Spirit™ series?
A benefit of the Specialists with Spirit™ series is that it can be applied to individuals, teams, business units, and entire organizations that seek similar results regarding leadership, ethics, motivation and other issues that are common in Human Resource management. The series is ideal for staff retreats, training and development. Typical uses of the approach include:

•        Leadership Development                                           •        Reaffirming  Commitment to a Profession
•        Emphasizing “quadruple bottom-line” results               •        Re-energizing long standing groups
•        Igniting Goal attainment                                            •        Creating shared Vision and Values
•        Quality Improvement                                                 •        Refocusing on the Mission
•        Enhancing work ethics                                              •        Onboarding and Orientation
•        Facilitating career transitions                                     •        Improving the Work Climate
•        Career visioning and development                               •        Valuing Diversity
•        Motivating Teams & Teamwork                                   •        Personal Enrichment & Growth

For Individuals
- Greater role clarity and perspective
- Insights about deeper meanings of work
- Skills to cope with challenges
- Inner motivation
- Compass for ethical decisions-making and accountability
- Greater work/life satisfaction
- Tools and tactics for progress

For Organizations
- Goal clarity 
- Commitment to quality
- Challenge to pursue noble goals, produce noble results
- Increased employee engagement, professional commitment
- Ethical decision-making
- Positive Leaders
- Positive Social Impact, Image & Legacy
- Competitive Advantages
- Sustainable growth 

What is the Specialist with Spirit™ framework?
The Specialist with Spirit™ framework is a developmental tool that recognizes the inherent tensions of living a calling and the circuitous and surprising ways that it unfolds over time. The Specialist with Spirit™ series is the product of Myers’ 15 years of research and practice. It has been implemented with business leaders, established adults and young adults from corporations, colleges and community groups.

 The framework shows that a Specialist with Spirit’s™ calling is comprised of three (3) primary dimensions, denoted by primary colors: Destiny (yellow), Duty (blue) and Disposition (red).  Incomplete shading of the circles suggests cultivating each dimension is always a work in progress. The three core dimensions are grounded in reflection that fosters learning, adaptation, resilience, and flourishing in a variety of circumstances. The series offers targeted exercises that are designed to help participants assess their strengths and growth opportunities, and to devise action steps to reconcile inherent tensions within and across dimensions. The spiral staircase denotes the need to cultivate and recalibrate these elements throughout one’s journey.  

---

Specialists with Spirit™ 
Professional Development Series
• The Power of a Calling (SWS1)
• The Calling to Leadership (SWS2)
• Discover Your Calling (SWS3)
• Navigate Your Calling (SWS4)
• Faith-based Series (SWS5)

Participant Feedback

“The metaphors were very powerful and helpful in my current state of being.” 


“The exercises were great and meant more personally than I ever thought they would.


"I was laid off and depressed so a friend recommended this series.  It changed my life! I began marketing myself and just started a new job.”     Technology Professional


"I feel like a lot of what I do is drudgery, and what I learned is that even the drudgery should be done with a good disposition because it has a role in your calling."

• Destiny (Yellow) A sense of destiny illuminates that path ahead. Often, discussions about destiny focus on dreams and desires that inspire us to refine our skills. But dreams change, expand and are sometimes delayed or denied. You can’t always get what you want.  Destiny is both what you want from life and what life gives you. How do you manage the circumstances that fate has handed you? What are the essential next steps on your journey? The Specialist with Spirit™ series offers tools to help you discover your strengths, make sense of your circumstances, and to establish goals to progress. 
  

• Duty (Blue) To what and whom are we willing to be ‘true blue’? Specialists with Spirit™ have a duty to themselves, others and society.  As employees, they also have a duty to serve their work, the organization and its customers. Likewise, the organization and its leaders have obligations to employees and society. Which duties are being fulfilled? Where are the lapses that require more attention? Which duties are overwhelming or unreasonable?  The Specialist with Spirit™ series provides a framework to examine and reconcile multiple and often competing duties that may or may not be vital to your calling.
  

• Disposition (Red) Disposition is at the heart of a calling. Disposition is the character that shapes us and coping skills that shape our responses to circumstances. The Specialists with Spirit™ framework recognizes that some character strengths are essential for everyone to live their calling, while others are needed for your particular destiny (e.g., leadership).  In addition, everyone’s character has light and shadow aspects that, ideally, evolve with experience. While some shadow traits may be latent strengths, others remain silhouettes that remind us that we are human, imperfectly pursuing a worthwhile calling. So we need effective skills to cope with that and other realities. The Specialist with Spirit™ series suggests techniques to identify and develop your essential character traits, as well as tools to cope with delayed dreams, multiple duties, growth challenges and seizing new opportunities. 
  

• Reflection (Gray) Reflection is a restful, enduring activity along the path of your calling. It entails creating quiet time to consider connections and perspectives that are influencing us (for better or worse), drawing upon inner and outer resources to adapt, and learning how to better integrate the core dimensions of our calling. Reflection also means creating space to rest, relax and just to be.  The Specialist with Spirit™ series offers exercises and tools for guided reflection so that you are energized for action, can chart your course and recommit to your calling.
  

The Specialist with Spirit™ series provides insights and instructions about how all of these elements combine to enrich your unique journey and contributions, regardless of your age, occupation or status in an organization. It is an invaluable resource for individuals, leaders, teams and organizations that want to improve their results by elevating the character, climate and quality of work (and life).