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Blog by Tyra McNeil, Intern at The DeBruce Foundation
As an Intern for The DeBruce Foundation, I’ve learned a lot about the Agilities™ and their benefits on paper. Experiencing the Agilities firsthand, however, has shown me an even more powerful story of their impact.
Introduction to the Agilities
I received my first introduction to the Agilities in 2023 through my involvement with Youth Lead KC and ProX Internships, partner organizations of The DeBruce Foundation. During my time with both organizations, I used the Agile Work Profiler™ to identify my Agilities — the work skills used across all careers that I perform best and enjoy most. Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, The DeBruce Foundation identified there are 10 Agilities used throughout nearly 1,000 occupations (and 60,000 jobs!)
How Organizations Worked Together to Expand Access
Through my experiences with ProX Internships and Youth Lead KC, I created a success plan that used the Agilities to support my transition from high school into my professional career. The Agilities became a key component of that plan by helping me identify my top work skills and giving me a new way to talk about my strengths. By identifying my Agilities early on, I’ve been able to use them in professional experiences to grow and gain confidence in my career choices.
Looking back, I’m grateful organizations like The DeBruce Foundation, ProX Internships, and Youth Lead KC work together to make resources like these available. Partnerships like these help expand access to career resources and help students explore career pathways, connect their strengths to future opportunities, and build confidence as they prepare for what’s next.
As part of the Youth LEAD KC program, students were tasked with completing the Agile Work Profiler to discover their top Agilities and incorporate them into their Success Plan.
Agilities in Use
Since learning my top Agilities, Serving and Caring, Organizing, and Selling & Communicating, there has been no limit to how I use them in my professional career. Leveraging your Agilities can help you find fulfillment in the work you do, build professional skills, and explore career pathways you might not have considered.
Building My Serving and Caring Agility
During my time as an intern for Youth Volunteer Corps, I had the opportunity to work directly with my Serving and Caring Agility. During this experience, I worked with several service organizations, like animal shelters and food banks. This kind of work enabled me to explore this Agility in depth. By helping others, I built relationships and established connections, walking away with a strong sense of empathy and purpose. Taking the time to dive into this Agility, I’ve learned that Serving and Caring represents the things that I enjoy doing and want to incorporate into my career.
My Organizing Agility in the Archives
On campus, working at K-State’s Hale Library, I’ve utilized my Organizing Agility to archive and store historical artifacts. By leveraging my Organizing Agility, I developed new methods that helped researchers and historians quickly find what they needed. Using my Agilities in everyday work like this helps improve efficiency and determine the best approach to difficult tasks. Learning to leverage my Agilities allows me to not only feel confident in the work that I do, but also in the value that I bring to my team.
Exploring Careers Using My Top Agilities
When creating a success plan, determining an end goal can be tricky, but knowing your Agilities can help you explore pathways you might not have considered. For me, learning what I like doing and what I’m good at has helped me gain confidence in making major career decisions, such as choosing a college major or what clubs to join. With my top Agilities as Selling and Communicating and Serving and Caring, I’ve explored roles that incorporate the two – learning which career aspects I like and dislike. Now that I’m a rising junior, I’ve used my Agilities to pursue an education in political communications. I hope to combine both my interest in service and my storytelling skills in the work that I do.
As You Grow, Your Agilities Do Too
The important thing to remember about Agilities is that they’re flexible. Your top Agilities are a snapshot of your current strengths and interests, both of which can change and move around. Agilities are all about a growth mindset. From 2023 to 2026, I’ve graduated high school, joined new clubs, taken on hobbies, and even explored new career paths. In these three years, my Agilities have developed and become more representative of what I’m good at and what I care about today. Compared to 2023, most of my Agilities have stayed the same, and my top 3 Agilities have grown to include Inspecting in addition to Organizing and Selling & Communicating.
Tips for Developing Your Agilities
Agilities are what you make of them! To better grow your Agilities, I recommend getting to know how you use them and applying them every day.
- Add your Agilities to your digital wallet
After taking the Agile Work Profiler, your Agilities are available for download onto your device’s digital wallet. By saving your Agilities here, you can quickly view and share your Agilities with a friend!
- Use your sticky notes
During any downtime, challenge yourself to see if you can remember your Agilities off the top of your head! Take a moment to write out your Agilities and what they mean; stick them on a laptop, notebook, or wherever you’ll see them most. This way, you can easily find and remember your Agilities.
- Jot down how you plan to use one Agility each week
Make it a personal goal to discover how you’ll use your Agilities in your day-to-day life. Take a moment to reflect on how you used this Agility: How did using this Agility make you feel? What does growth look like for this Agility? Asking these questions ensures that you’re growing your Agilities intentionally and in a way that’s tailored to you.
Empower Your Future
Once you’ve identified your Agilities, new and exciting career paths open to you. You can use your Agilities to make informed choices about your career. The DeBruce Foundation offers other career resources designed to help you navigate your career journey. As I prepare to apply to law school, I am using the Education Explorer to discover institutions that fit my goals.
Take a few minutes to try the Agile Work Profiler for yourself and step confidently into your career journey.
