My Name is Johan Olwagen - Ollie - and I am the Executive member at SIOPSA for member value proposition.

First up, thank you for the interest you have shown.  Secondly, It is always rather frustrating when you get into the world of work and then realize maybe this is not me...fully.  I think we can all do what we have to do - in your case C.A., but is it reaaaly what we want to do.

Whatever the career choice we make it is always half-informed, based on perception, intellect, prior knowledge, experience etc, but until one is there, you don't quite always know what it actually entails.

For me,  a career is something you need to feel passionate about. If it makes your heart sing, you're in the right space. If not....

I am going to be "talking" to you as a psychologist first and talk about my experience.  In that maybe you get a feel of the career.

Me, I do people and I do behavior.  I try to investigate, analyse, understand, interpret, re-interpret, reflect on and deal with people and behavior change.  I do not sit day in and day out and analyse people, but my job requires me to understand people and to facilitate change.  Sometimes I get it right, spectacularly, and sometimes I also wonder what that was all about.

I saw an Executive group yesterday who need to work better together as a team and who need to drive their business. Today the CEO tells me that this was the best session he has ever had with his people, because they stopped talking about work, money, projects, technical specs, etc.  They talked about what they need to do together to really get the best for the business and the best for their teams.  Some of their frustrations were that they actually do not have time to deal with the soft issues, but they are so busy doing that they cannot reflect on the business strategy and how best to execute this through their people.  So we dealt with that.

Today I assessed a bunch of managers:  By assess I mean did psychometric assessments on them - other times it is assessment and development centres, essentially simulations of work situations, that managers get confronted with. 

I always want to understand what they are able to grasp (cognitively) and at what level in the organization this would fit with.  As you know, some CA's do the books, others run audit teams or are the FD's and others run the business.  All CA's, and very bright, but clearly wanting to operate at different levels from day to day to long term strategy.  I might not want to advise the company to appoint the guy who does individual client books, and adds value there for his clients, when they are looking for someone to manage a merger and re-position the company in the market place - different ways of thinking

I might also want to see if they are not only smart at the appropriate level, but whether they use their smarts as well.  Are they emotionally intelligent?  Are they switched on and do they know when they get switched off.  Do they know ho to tune into others and manage them effectively, considering that people are going through tough times.  Can they show empathy or is their style one of: " Which part of get on with it, did you not understand?"  A style that can sometimes be appropriate, but you got to choose the right time for this.

Sometimes the job requires more thinking from people and other jobs expect you to knuckle down and get on with it. Sometimes you have to adapt and make sure you deal with the challenges in a resilient way. Other times you have to forget you and influence your clients, and so how you behave is important. 

I could bore you with how we assess values, interests, preferences, team roles etc, but I think you got it

When I give feedback to management on the assessment results, I want them to understand what they are good at, and reinforce that.  So I take a positive look at the value people can add.  Sometimes the strength at one level in the organization, can become a challenge at another level - e.g. doing it all myself, cause I can do it faster, better and more correctly than what I think you can.  So sometimes I need to help the people look at the consequences of their decisions.

I coach people one on one, when they struggle.  Sometimes they just don't know; other times they don't know how much they know, and they need to start seeing it, and other times they know, but neglect to use this knowledge

I Do leadership development and work with integrated teams to get to be better as leaders and followers

I know some people like it short and let's get on with it; others say:" No run this by me again, I don' follow and I can't see this working, so I am not sure I want to go there"

Others say, but did you ask me, and others say, why don't we...  Throw them into the same pot and you have interesting dynamics.  Sometimes the finance guy drives the values and sometimes the HR person is tough as nails.

My colleagues will work with diversity issues - both culturally and in their preferred way of thinking and sometimes they say: Enough!!  We cannot work with the individuals or teams anymore, it is the organization that is toxic and we need to work there and ensure we do organization development.

Sometimes we need to get the sales guys to talk to the finance guys and get them on the same page; sometimes we got to get to get the sales guys to sell, when there ain't no selling in the economy. Sometimes we need to sell the brand to the consumer and sometimes we just need to do nothing, because people and organizations have a wisdom of their own and will change when they are ready.

And always we need to look at, is this the best they can be; are there other angles to look from; can we really add value?

I said I do people and behavior. Maybe some people do money and others do processes, whilst others do ideas.

What I do know is that organizations need us all.  Sometimes it is skewed in one direction and sometimes we need to reshape it - but overall we gotta get people to manage the change and still feel good and sometimes they gotta feel bad, cos hey didn't do the right stuff, but we need to help see them through this.

You know what:  I see a lotta C.A. (S.A.) people.  They can do the numbers and the processes.  And Then I see the wise ones who also feel the way you do, and they branch out into the people thing as partners and I know a couple of HR Directors who were C.A.'s

Life is a journey and we have to take the highway sometimes and we have to get off the beaten track

Being a psychologist and especially and Industrial and organizational psychologist is not always easy.  You work with the Human Capital of the organization.  Where do we work?  In corporate, at varsities, at consultancies - big and small- at NGO's and community organizations. 

Do we make the money CA's can?  Nah, but then we would've changed to CA, as some have done (OK, MBA)

Do we make money.  Yes. But me.... I think the money comes when people see I am passionate about what I do and how I connect with them - sometimes smash with them- and then they come back.

Call me if you need short and practical answers

Ollie

082-552-9542

Thank you Ollie, for your time and assistance, I'm sure this will help a lot of members and students. Your passion is exciting!