I had a conversation recently with a young employee whose team was reorganized and who now finds herself doing work that she's good at but that she doesn't love. She's quite prepared to do the new tasks for the foreseeable future, but will eventually look for a new role that allows her to do both what she's good at and what she loves.

This reminded me of a conversation I had had eight years ago with a group of employees and subsequently summarized in a Café Jen post. A colleague described an exercise she had done as part of a workshop on transferable skills. She was given a grid and a stack of cards. The grid was divided into quadrants (see visual):

The cards identified activities such as working with others and big-picture thinking. Participants were asked to place each card on the grid according to the degree to which they loved the activity and were good at it.

One of the messages of the workshop was this: if you hate an activity and suck at it, don’t ever do that as a career (the red quadrant). Instead, try to find jobs that enable you to do the kinds of things you love and are good at (the green quadrant).

Another person in the group suggested that the grid may help you identify activities that you’re not yet good at but would love to try (the yellow quadrant). You might say to your boss, "Even though I don’t have a lot of experience in policy work, I’d like to give it a try." She also noted that it's important to acknowledge when you're bored with something that you're really good at (the orange quadrant). The employees in the group acknowledged that every job includes a certain degree of routine—even boring—tasks. But they insisted that you have to be honest when you're in a rut, that is, when you're able to do a job with ease but without challenge and without learning and growth. Similarly, it's important to recognize when a job is not a good fit, being neither something you love to do nor something you're good at.

One additional piece of counsel from the group of employees: If you can't be in a job that you both love and are good at (green quadrant), it's better to be in a job that you love but are not yet good at (yellow quadrant) than a job you're good at but don't love (orange quadrant). Jobs in the yellow quadrant can be scary but fun. Jobs in the orange quadrant can be easy but boring.

Being honest about how well your job fits with your skills and aspirations goes beyond admitting it to yourself. It includes revealing it to your boss. Granted, this can be tricky. Your boss might feel caught between wanting to give you interesting work and simply needing to get the job done. But you may be surprised. Good leaders recognize that employees need to be challenged to stay motivated.

Get to know the strengths and interests of all your direct reports.

Sometimes managers go repeatedly to the same few people whose competencies they know and trust. However, by relying too heavily on a few employees, managers may not learn the strengths of all members of their team. For instance, one employee said to me, "I returned from maternity leave to a new manager who has no idea what I'm good at."

What can you do if you're a manager? Take the time to get to know your employees. Have regular conversations with them about their interests, both as part of the formal performance management exercise and as part of informal day-to-day discussions. Most importantly, ask questions, such as these one suggested by the group I was speaking with:

The group recognized that managers don’t always get to know their employees’ strengths and interests because they don’t have the time to do so. But taking the time to check in with employees about how they are feeling in their jobs can help managers discover their employees' skills and aspirations. It may also help managers to retain staff who might otherwise leave.

The group acknowledged that employees are responsible for taking charge of their careers and asking for what they need to feel fulfilled in their work. One employee said that if you clearly ask for what you want, you'll be amazed at how much people will help you.

It may take your manager a little time to reassign work or to create an opportunity for you to do something new. It's good to be patient. Nevertheless, if such opportunities are not forthcoming, you may need to look for a new assignment elsewhere. But at least you will have given your boss a chance to look for novel tasks for you.

The group's final counsel was this: If your manager doesn’t ask you the question you’d like, offer the answer anyway.