Monthly Archives: January 2019

Frances Cole Jones is the author of How to Wow: Proven Strategies for Selling Your (Brilliant) Self in any Situation and The Wow Factor: The 33 Things You Must (and Must Not) Do to Guarantee Your Edge in Today’s Business World. Her blog was voted one of the top 100 websites for women by Forbes. Frances appears frequently on ABC and Fox News, is a body language expert for The Insider, a business etiquette expert for Demand Media’s eHow video series, and a job interview expert for About.com.

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If “Devil’s Advocate” were a video game, you’d play it on repeat. You’re not intentionally trying to be stubborn or difficult; you just like considering all the options and potential risks before making a decision. Some people might perceive you to be quiet or shy, but that’s simply a result of taking your time in building relationships, both in and out of the office. Ultimately, you know your thorough approach will lead you to the right choices.

If you believe, you can achieve. That’s not just a chance to show off your rhyming skills, but rather a reflection of your strong core values. You’re dependable to friends, family, and coworkers; they know they can count on you even if you never practice a physical trust fall with them. While money and prestige are nice-to-haves, what’s most important is doing work that matters. Because of that, you may find yourself drifting if your job doesn’t give you the opportunities to practice your values.

Have you ever encountered a situation at work and immediately thought to yourself, “That’s not fair?” There’s a reason we have rules; it’s to ensure that everyone is treated the same. You’re incensed by people getting special favors because of who they know or how they behave. You also value consistency within work processes. Why put effort into changing something that’s already working well just for the sake of change? That’s only going to slow things down and decrease efficiency.

Life is a 10,000 piece puzzle and you’re looking at the world from a bird’s eye view, putting each piece together. You’re an expert decision maker because you can collect, coordinate and combine multiple elements into a single, comprehensive solution. You instinctively perceive how seemingly disparate items should come together, arranging and rearranging everything in your head. You’re not rigid in your decisions. Should you find a better plan, you’re willing to pivot. You have little patience for antiquated processes and obstinate naysayers.

When others see complexity and chaos, you see patterns and opportunity. When roadblocks threaten to derail plans, you quickly identify alternate pathways to success. You play through different scenarios in your mind, visualizing repercussions through a long chain of events and picking the most effective path to reach your goal. Your life can be summed into three words: evaluate, determine, strike.

Some people lift weights to grow stronger. Your idea of exercise is thinking through tough problems to strengthen your favorite muscle: your brain. Introspective by nature, you crave quiet time to reflect privately on your thoughts. When you stare off into space, you’re not an unproductive daydreamer. You’re refining your thinking and distilling your disparate thoughts into a single, well polished idea– the likes of which no one on your team may ever have considered. Nothing zaps your energy faster than a team dominated by groupthink.

When Jack Nicholson said, “You can’t handle the truth!” he certainly wasn’t talking to you. Life can deliver sticky situations, but the best way to handle them is to take a stand and look at all the facts. Other people may need a little bit of a nudge in that regard, and you’re happy to provide it. When you’re in the room, people know it. You’re ready and willing to lead, even – and maybe especially – if it means taking risks.