Know your SHAPE to Grow your Career

What is your SHAPE?

Have you ever felt a restlessness in your work? Wondering if there’s something you’re better suited for?

At Scatter, we believe that God has uniquely wired you for the glory of his kingdom. We call that your “SHAPE.” And the more you discover your shape, the more you can live out your full potential as his image bearer.

But the problem is that many of us often struggle to define our shape.

Maybe you want to work with people or work with your hands to build, design, code, or create stuff for God’s kingdom. But that’s not specific enough. Not in the current job market.

As good as those intentions are, putting them on a resume or cover letter sounds vague and generic. Unfortunately, the odds are that you will be passed by in favor of someone who can clearly express who they are and what value they bring to the company.

So, what can you do?

To succeed in your career or personal goals, you must get to know yourself by digging deeper and really understanding your God-given shape.

And Scatter Coaching wants to help.

That’s why we partnered with The Identity Profile Self-Awareness Tool (IPSAT) to help you learn how to grow your self-awareness and lead yourself better. Using IPSAT, you won’t just have a better idea of how to market yourself on a resume or cover letter, but you will be able to understand how God wired you as his image-bearer and how to utilize your talents in his kingdom.

What is IPSAT, and why should you care?

IPSAT is an online course with 8 modules and two one-on-one coaching sessions designed to help you to understand and express your shape.  

IPSAT was tailored to help every day Jesus followers who are aware of some of their strengths and weaknesses but either don’t know how to express them in the right words or are missing some key components of their shape.

“A lot of times, people don't have the actual succinct words to communicate clearly who they are,” Margaret Sinsel, an IPSAT coach, explains.  “Sometimes we focus just on personality, or maybe we focus just on a skill that we have, like ‘I'm a journalist, and I'm excellent at writing.’ But we leave out these other aspects of who we are.”

“What the IPSAT actually makes you do is narrow down into 100 words your personality, your strengths, your skills, your passions, your values,” Margaret adds. “That really helps you communicate clearly, ‘This is who Margaret is.’ Like, if you want a snapshot of me, you're going to know a little bit about how God made me and all those elements woven into 100 words or less.”

What makes IPSAT different?

What sets the IPSAT apart is the way each module gives you a piece of the picture and helps you pull together the different elements of your unique shape and communicate it clearly to others.

IPSAT utilizes and builds upon assessments such as Myers–Briggs Type Indicator or Gallup CliftonStrengths. Taking these assessments and others are included in IPSAT to help you lead yourself better.

“No other [self-awareness tool] that I know of takes all five [identity aspects] and weaves them together,” Margaret explains.

However, by themselves, these assessments are not enough. Margaret explains that doing individual assessments creates a “silo effect.”

The IPSAT helps you see the fuller shape of who God made you to be.

Your 8th module walks you through developing a self-leadership action plan, and your experienced coach then works with you to unpack and shape your goals and next steps.

What participants are saying

For Katie Denyes, an internship program manager at a non-profit organization, one of the best aspects of the IPSAT program was the ability to talk through all this with a coach. At the end of the program, Katie was able to chart a clear career path with immediate next steps.

“I'm a verbal processor,” Katie explains. “So, it works really well for me to be able to dump out all of my thoughts. My coach reiterated the thread I've been spinning in my verbal brainstorm.”

“My coach was able to pull out, ‘Oh, this is the word that you're looking for,’” Katie adds. “‘Yes, thank you. My brain has been struggling to find that one word for 10 minutes, but that’s exactly what I meant.’”

Madison Trentham, an operations specialist, agrees that the IPSAT coaching helped her gain clarity about her next steps.

“I've had coaching experiences before, where they kind of asked the same questions you see online, and it feels very dry,” Madison explains. “But with the IPSAT coaching, the questions were very specific. It was like I could see where I was headed and to see what [my] strengths were.”

It also helped me learn “to communicate what I was looking for” in a job, she adds.

Discover practical implications for growth

In addition to two coaching sessions, IPSAT provides interactive video lessons, downloadable note guides, and worksheets to help in the process of better understanding your shape.

In Madison’s case, IPSAT offered a helpful “ah-ha” moment. Madison realized that she often expects others to approach a task the same way she does. This insight has already improved working relationships with others on her team.

“There are things that are innate in you that because they are so simple, you don't realize other people don't have and sometimes forget that,” she explained “You forget that we're all made uniquely.”

And IPSAT helps you identify how you were made uniquely, not just as an ideal job applicant but also in your personal relationships.

Imagine how your relationships might improve if you better understand how you’re wired – and where you need people with other shapes to work with you.  

“There might be 50 people who are all great team players, but how are you specifically a good team player?” Katie observes. Well, thanks to IPSAT, I know that “I'm a ‘near and now future leader,’ I am someone who is pragmatic and who is authentic.”

Such definitive answers make Katie stand out among the crowd and give her confidence about her next steps.

In today’s job market, with so many options and so many applicants, this clarity and confidence are needed now more than ever.  

“It's not enough to know that you are skilled, especially today,” Katie remarks, “You need to know how you are skilled and how you aim to keep growing. And I think IPSAT is one of those tools that help you get there.”

What’s included, and how long will it take?

The IPSAT program is self-paced, but Margaret recommends participants aim to complete the modules in 6 weeks to keep up the momentum and make the most of their coaching sessions.

“You've almost completed all the modules before your first coaching call,” Margaret explains. “Your coach will help talk you through all that.”

In addition to the two coaching sessions, you will receive life-long access to the program and all your assessment results. Coaching can be booked again but will require a separate process.

Use code Scatter Discount for a $300 discount!

So, what are you waiting for?

Are you ready to really delve into your shape and discover how God shaped you for the glory of his kingdom?

Get a leg up with IPSAT and discover a little more about living out your unique, God-given shape.

To read more about your SHAPE check out these additional blogs: What was Joseph's SHAPE? and Let Your Shape Guide Your Role in God's Kingdom - Pt 1.