John Lewis Partnership

Creating a Picture of Your Ideal JobThe Gingerbread Man

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Introduction 2

Creating a picture of your ideal job using the Gingerbread Man 2

Your Gingerbread Man 2

Skills and Traits 4

Skills Exercise 4

Traits Exercise 8

What are your strengths? 10

StrengthsFinder 10

What’s Important to You 11

Values Exercise 11

Motivation at Work 12

Motivation Exercise 12

Motivation Graph 14

What do you know? 16

Knowledge Grid 16

What kind of people do you want to work with? 17

The Party Exercise 17

The Party Grid 17

What kind of working conditions are you looking for? 18

Your Career Brand 19

What else is important to you? 20

Review and Summary 20

Recommended Reading 21

Books: 21

Articles: 21

Contents

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Your Gingerbread Man

In order to find your ideal job, or even something close to it, you must have a picture of it, in your head. The clearer the picture, the easier it will be to find it.

The purpose of this workbook is to help you create that picture using The Gingerbread Man. Your Gingerbread Man will be personal to you. It will be a picture of your ideal job - no two will be the same.

So why a Gingerbread Man? Well, in baking, he starts off as a pile of ingredients, which when combined form a dough. This is the foundation for the baker to then shape him as suits. This is what you will do. You have the foundations. You possess skills, traits and strengths, you have values and motivations. This model will take those foundations and help you shape them into what’s most important to you, creating your own Gingerbread Man.

The Gingerbread Man is designed to cover the core areas we believe are essential to you working out what your ideal job is. However there may be other factors that are also important to you - for example, you probably have salary/package requirements…although, consider this, would you be prepared to work for less if you found your ideal job? This is your Gingerbread Man so there is room for you to add anything else to your picture that would represent your ideal job.

This workbook will take you through a series of exercises covering core areas such as those mentioned above. By the end of the workbook you will have completed your Gingerbread Man and your picture of your ideal job.

Introduction

Values ◗

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Traits ◗

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Strengths ◗

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Motivations ◗

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The boxes will be completed as you work your way through the workbook.

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Your Gingerbread Man

Working conditions

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People ◗

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Key Points ◗

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Slogan

Knowledge ◗

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Skills ◗

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◗Your career brand

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Skills and Traits

This exercise is designed to help you focus on what skills you possess. taking time to reflect on your skill-set will not only give you confidence and reassurance but might also help you to assess any new opportunities which could arise and your suitability for them.

1. Below are some examples of skills divided into 3 categories; mental, physical and interpersonal. Look through the examples and highlight which skills you think you possess.

2. You may feel you have some additional skills which are missing from the list, so add any new ones in the spaces at the bottom of each list.

3. Then, taking each skill you’ve highlighted, place a tick or highlight the appropriate box to indicate how you feel about using that skill, from ‘thoroughly enjoy using’ to ‘strongly dislike using’.

4. Once you have an idea of your application of these skills, consider your level of competence. In the box marked ‘Competence*’, give yourself a rating between 1-5, with 1 indicating that you don’t feel competent and 5 indicating you’re extremely competent. You would expect very few, if any, low scores given that you’ve selected skills you possess.

5. Now take the skills which you have marked ‘thoroughly enjoy using’ and scored 5 for competence and prioritise them so you end up with a ‘top 5’. To help you do this, think about the skills you use most frequently which could also be transferable i.e. could also be useful if you were to assume greater responsibility or took on a new role. Add this ‘top 5’ to your Gingerbread Man.

6. Now consider whether any of the skills you haven’t highlighted might be required for future roles and think about how you could gain these new skills.

A skill can be a natural talent or something you’ve been taught to enable you to carry out a task to achieve pre-determined results. Skills in the context of employment are often considered both in general terms and role specific. An example of a general skill might be IT, but a role may require more specific IT skills relating to the use of a particular piece or version of software.

Traits are generally features of your character. Often they describe how you use your skills and can be described mostly using adjectives or adverbs, Where skils describe what you can do, traits describe how you perform your skills.

Skills Exercise

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Conceptualising: coming up with new ideas and concepts

Implementing: providing detailed follow through plans on projects

Expediting: speeding up work, troubleshooting problems, streamlining procedures

Monitoring: keeping track of movement of people, goods or data

Managing time: prioritising and scheduling tasks to meet deadlines

Multi-tasking: effectively managing a variety of tasks and projcts simultaneously

Visualising: imagining possibilities from a mental image

Mental skills

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Evaluating: assessing, reviewing, critiquing feasibility or quality

Researching: using different techniques to gather and organise information or data

Improvising: effectively thinking, speaking or acting without preparation

Generating ideas: reflecting upon, conceiving, dreaming up ideas

Observing: perceiving, noticing, paying attention, making observations

Adaptability: responding positively to changing assignments, demands and conflicting priorities

Using intuition: sensing, showing insight and foresight

Co-ordinating: making arrangements, handling logistics, planning events

Planning and organising: defining, organising, scheduling and developing resources and projects

Dealing with ambiguity: tolerant with issues that lack clarity, structure or certainty

Innovating: creating unique or combining existing ideas to achieve a new outcome

Developing strategy: effectively planning and developing long range strategies to successfully achieve objectives

Working with detail: analysing, critiquing and reviewing information for accuracy and relevance

Initiating change: challenging the status quo to bring about new directions

Making decisions: making major, complex or frequent decisions

Managing change: implementing plans to support change and consider impact on people and processes

Mental skillscontinued

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Editing: proof reading and checking text, making improvements

Writing: composing reports, letters and materials

Budgeting: working with figures to economise, balance, save money and resources

Working with numbers: easily calculate, compute, organise, understand and solve numerical problems

Using IT: developing, organising and completing tasks and projects using software programmes

Using images: sketching, drawing illustrating, painting, photographing

Record keeping: keeping accurate and up to date records

Technical: working with practical, specific, complex data

Teaching/training: informing, explaining, giving instructions/guidance to students, employees or customers

Estimating: appraising value or cost

Selling: promoting a person, company, goods or service to generate revenue

Designing: debeloping new practices, programmes, products and ideas

Testing: measuring and checking quality, validity or proficiency

Analysing: breaking down and producing logical solutions to problems

Physical skills

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Dealing with feelings: drawing out, listening, accepting, emptahising

Liaising: representing, serving as a link between individuals and groups

Customer service: effectively resolving problems and challenges to satisfy customers

Motivating: involving, enthusing and stimulating performance

Supervising: overseeing, directing the work of others

Negotiating: consulting with others to achieve agreement

Developing and managing relationships: identifying and building links to create positive relationships

Mentoring: educating, guiding or counselling a less experience colleague

Facilitating: assisting others to develop and create ideas, thoughts and plans

Leading: guiding, directing and inspiring others

Counselling and coaching: developing insight and personal growth in others

Mediating: managing conflict, reconciling differences

Delegating: achieving results by effectively assigning tasks to others

Communicating: using speech, writing and gestures to influence and develop understanding

Interpersonal skills

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Skills and Traits

Traits exerciseTraits describe how you use your transferable skills. Generally they describe:

◗ How you deal with time, and promptness

◗ How you deal with people and emotions

◗ How you deal with authority, and being told what to do at your job

◗ How you deal with supervision, and being told how to do your job

◗ How you deal with impulse vs. self-discipline, within yourself

◗ How you deal with initiative vs. response, within yourself

◗ How you deal with crises or problems

The list on the next page gives some examples of traits.

1. Read through the list and circle which you think describe you and you demonstrate most regularly.

2. Now to prioritize them. Try and identify no more than five traits which you believe you exhibit consistently and most frequently. To help you prioritise recall the different elements of your current job and look for patterns. For example, you might recognise that no matter what task or project you’re working on you are always self-motivated, but you recognise that you only demonstrate that you can be firm on certain projects. In this instance, self-motivated would be a higher priority than being firm.

3. The traits you have now identified are your Top 5 - add them to your Gingerbread Man

Accurate

Achievement-oriented

Adaptable

Adept

Adventurous

Alert

Appreciative

Assertive

Astute

Authoritative

Calm

Cautious

Charismatic

Competent

Consistent

Contagious in my enthusiasm

Cooperative

Courageous

Creative

Decisive

Deliberate

Dependable

Diligent

Diplomatic

Discreet

Driving

Dynamic

Economical

Effective

Energetic

Enthusiastic

Exceptional

Exhaustive

Experienced

Expert

Firm

Flexible

Fun-loving

Humanly oriented

Impulsive

Independent

Innovative

Knowledgeable

Loyal

Methodical

Objective

Open-minded

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Diplomatic

Discreet

Driving

Dynamic

Economical

Effective

Energetic

Enthusiastic

Exceptional

Exhaustive

Experienced

Expert

Firm

Flexible

Fun-loving

Humanly oriented

Impulsive

Independent

Innovative

Knowledgeable

Loyal

Methodical

Objective

Open-minded

Outgoing

Outstanding

Patient

Pioneering

Practical

Professional

Protective

Punctual

Penetrating

Perceptive

Persevering

Persistent

Quick/work quickly

Rational

Realistic

Reliable

Resourceful

Responsible

Responsive

Safeguarding

Self-motivated

Self-reliant

Sensitive

Sophisticated

Strong

Supportive

Tactful

Thorough

Unique

Unusual

Versatile

Vigorous

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What are your strengths?

All too often natural talents go untapped. From the cradle we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths. To help you find the areas where you have the greatest potential to develop your talents, or strengths, you will need to complete Gallup’s online assessment, StrengthsFinder.

StrengthsFinderDetails of how to complete the assessment can be found in the StrengthsFinder 2.0 book by Tom Rath. The book can be ordered through www.amazon.co.ukDepending on how you are using this workbook please check with your manager whether there is budget available for you to claim back the cost of the StrengthsFinder 2.0 book. If you work in a Head Office and there are a number of Partners in your department who are going to be completing the assessment, bulk copies can be ordered through the Learning Centre. Again this will be dependent on available budget.Each book contains a unique code which will enable you to complete the online assessment at www.strengthsfinder.com.

The assessment should take no longer than 30 minutes to complete and will generate a comprehensive Strengths Discovery and Action-Planning Guide that includes: ◗ Your top five theme report ◗ 50 Ideas for Action ◗ A Strengths Discovery Interview that helps you think about how your experience, skills and knowledge can help you build strengths

◗ A Strengths-Based Action Plan for setting specific goals

Once you have your top five theme report add these to your Gingerbread Man

“Most people think they know what they

are good at. They are usually wrong…and yet,

a person can perform only from strength?”

Business guru, Pater Drucker (1909 - 2005)

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What’s important to you?Your ValuesValues are the principles that guide you through every day, every task and every encounter with another human being.One way to consider what your values are is to reflect on who your heroines or heroes are, and what it is you most admire about them.

Another way to bring your values to your consciousness is to imagine yourself appearing on “This is Your Life”. To your great surprise people whom you have known have secretly come in from all over the country and the world, to be present at your special event. As well as a presenter telling your life story, you spend the evening hearing a flow of stories about the good things you did, or the good person you were.

So this brings us to some questions. If you get the life you really want between now and then, what would you want to hear from people on “This is Your Life” - what would you like to be remembered for?

Exercise1. Consider the list of statements below, asking yourself

how you’d want to be remembered and tick or highlight as many as you feel are appropriate for you

2. When you’re done checking off all the values that are important to you, go back and select the ten that you care the most about

3. Prioritise them in exact order of importance to you4. Once you have your Top Ten, review them again

and see if you can identify your Top Five.5. Add your Top 5 to your Gingerbread Man

“I want to be remembered as someone who…”

❑ Used my skills to help fight global warming

❑ Used my skills to help fight genocide in Darfur or other parts of the world

❑ Used my skills to help people caught in natural disasters in my own country or around the world

❑ Used my skills to help fight malaria in Africa

❑ Used my skills to help fight poverty and hunger

❑ Used my skills to help fight AIDS

❑ Served or helped those who were in need

❑ Impressed people with my going the extra mile, in meeting their needs

❑ Was always a great listener

❑ Was always good at carrying out instructions, or bringing projects to a successful conclusion

❑ Mastered some technique or field

❑ Did something that everyone said couldn’t be done

❑ Did something that no-one had ever done before

❑ Excelled and was the best at whatever it is I did

❑ Pioneered or explored some new technology

❑ Fixed something that was broken

❑ Made something work, when everyone else had failed or given up

❑ Improved something, made it better or perfected it

❑ Combatted some bad idea/philosophy/force/influence/pervasive trend - and I persevered and/or prevailed

❑ Influenced people and gained a tremendous response from them

❑ Had an impact, and caused change

❑ Did work that brought more information/truth into the world

❑ Did work that brought more beauty into the world, through gardens, or painting, or decorating, or designing, or whatever

❑ Did work that brought more justice, truth and ethical behaviour into the world

❑ Brought people closer to God

❑ Growing in wisdom and compassion was my great goal all my life

❑ Had a vision of what something could be, and helped that vision to come true

❑ Developed or built something where there was nothing

❑ Began a new business, or did some project from start to finish

❑ Exploited, shaped, and influenced some situation, or market before others saw potential

❑ Put together a great team which made a huge difference in it’s field, industry or community

❑ Was in the spotlight, gained recognition, and was well-known

❑ Was a good decision-maker

❑ Was acknowledged by everyone as a leader, and was in charge of whatever it was that I was doing

❑ Had status in my field, industry, or community

❑ Was in the spotlight, gained recognition, and was well-known

❑ Made it into a higher echelon than I was, in terms of reputation, and/or prestige, and/or membership, and/or salary

❑ Was able to acquire possessions, things or money

❑ Other goals that occur to me

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Motivation at work

The following exercise is designed to help you identify your motivation to work. You are given 28 pairs of statements to read. Each pair contains contradictory statements. You are required to allocate points to each pair of statements as follows:

5 - 0 4 - 1 3 - 2 2 - 3 1 - 4 0 - 5

The higher the number you allocate indicates how strongly you feel about the given statement.

Complete the answers quickly and don’t think about your responses too much.

Exercise

It is important to have a well paid occupation even if you don’t get recognition for the work that you do

A - BIt is important that your work receives recognition and commendation, even if his means that you earn less

It is better to have a good relationship with the manager even if it means reduced responsibility

D - CIt is better to have more responsibility even if it means that it is a little more difficult to get on with the manager

It is essential to have a good relationship with your manager even if it means doing uninteresting work

D - GIt is essential to have interesting work even if it means that the relationship with the manager is not so good

It is essential to get promotion even if it means the possibility of increasing your salary is reduced

E - AIt is essential to have a position with a high salary even if it means reduced possibilities for promotion

It is better to get recognition for a relatively meaningless task than it is to perform a task, which is meaningful

B - GIt is better to have a meaningful task than to carry out an unimportant task that will receive praise and recognition

I would prefer to do an uninteresting job providing I got on well with my colleagues H - G

I would prefer to do a stimulating job, even if it means I was unpopular with my colleagues

The most important thing for good performance is having responsibility and authority to make decisions

C - AThe most important thing for good performance is the assurance of a good salary

It is more essential to have a job where there is a good relationship with the Manager even if it means a slightly lower salary

D - AIt is essential to have a job with a good salary even if it means difficulties in co-operation with the Manager

I prefer greater responsibility in my job even if it means less recognition and praise. C - B I prefer to have a job with less responsibility

providing I get recognition and praise

I feel very highly stimulated in my job when I receive the recognition and praise I deserve D - B

I feel stimulated in working with my Manager if I have a good relationship and we co-operate well together

I would rather feel that I had been successful in a difficult job, than to feel I had an easier well paid job

F - AI would rather have a well-paid job than one that presented problems that had to, and could be overcome

I feel greater reward in the job when I know I have the support of my colleagues, than when I get recognition for a job well done

H - BI feel greater reward from receiving recognition and praise for a job well done, than in receiving support from my colleagues

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To know that other people are very happy to have you as a colleague gives more stimulation in the job than to have greater responsibility

H - CTo know that you have a responsible job is more stimulating than to be popular among your colleagues

I regard it as more interesting to take on jobs which have greater responsibility, even if the chance of promotion is not available

C - EI regard it as more interesting to gain promotion, even if the job covered has less responsibility

I think it more essential to receive feedback about achieved results than to get recognition and praise

F - BI think it more essential to get recognition and praise than to know if I am really successful or not in my job

I regard it as more essential to have the support of my colleagues than to have a good relationship with the Manager

H - DI regard it as more essential to know that I have a good relationship with the Manager than to know that I have the support of my colleagues

I would prefer a job, which carries responsibility, even if it is less interesting C - G I would prefer an interesting job even

if it carries less responsibility

To feel that you have a salary that corresponds with the effort put in is essential for full satisfaction even if it is a routine job

A - GTo have a working task that is meaningful is essential for full satisfaction even if it, means a lower salary

If I change my job it would be because there is no possibility of promotion in my present situation

E - FIf I change my job it would be because I don’t have a sense of achievement in my current position

It is more important to have an information system which tells you how successful you are, than it is to get on with your Manager

F - DIt is more important to have a good relationship with your manager than it is to have an information system which highlights your personal success

It is better to get on with your Manager than to risk this relationship by accepting promotion D - E

It is better to accept promotion even if this means a deteriorating relationship with your Manager.

The content of the job can, to a very large extent, mean that you stay with an organisation even if it means no chance of promotion

G - E Even if a new job were more of a routine task, I would still prefer the promotion

It is more essential to work in a group where there is support & co-operation than to work on your own even if the isolated job pays a higher salary

H - A It is essential to know you are well paid, even if it means you have to work in isolation

To have a greater responsibility gives a more positive feeling even if you are not always successful & able to come up to expectations

C - F To be able to achieve what is expected of you is better than having greater responsibility

It is better to feel recognition in the job that you have than get promotion to another position

B - EIt is better to get promotion, even if it means the possibility of recognition disappearing in the future

It is more stimulating to have support & co-operation than to receive promotion, which means isolation from colleagues

H - E It is better to be promoted even if it means isolation from colleagues

It is better to be successful in your current job than have a more interesting task where you fail quite often

F - GIt is better to have an interesting task even if you fail quite often rather than have a simple and routine job

I would rather fail every now and then in my job rather then know that I didn’t have my colleagues’ support

H - FI would rather not fail in my job even if it means I don’t have the support of my colleagues

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Motivation at work

ScoringTransfer your answers to the table below:

Total the points you have for each letter (this should be a grand total of 140) and then plot your scores on the motivation graph on the next page

Look at your Top 5 scoring areas and add these to your Gingerbread Man. If there are large differences between your scores and your Top 5 shows huge variances, only select those with higher scores. This may means you have a Top 3 or even 2 - that is fine. This will still represent your key motivators.

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Motivation GraphPlot your total score for each letter on the graph below. This will give you a clear visual indication of your key motivators.

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What do you know?

We attain knowledge in many different ways. It’s common to only use part of what we know because that’s all a specific task or project requires. However you will undoubtedly have far more knowledge than that and you might already feel you’d like to be putting more if it to use.

Knowledge GridUse the boxes below to reflect on and record what you know. Once you’ve completed this exercise, focus on 5 areas of knowledge which you’d like to be able to use. Add these to your Gingerbread Man

Education

Professional qualifications

Training courses, conferences etc

On the job Self taught

Other e.g. voluntary work

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What kind of people do you want to work with?

This exercise will give you an opportunity to consider the kind of people you’re drawn to. We rarely think about this when we’re considering our workplace and colleagues. You might think about the kind of manager you want to work for, but what about your colleagues? You might think you have no control over who you work with, but imagine if you could - what kind of people would they be?

The Party ExerciseImagine this scenario;

You’re going to a party with a friend but are making your own way there. You arrive but your friend hasn’t yet because they’re having difficulties with their journey. Rather than waiting outside for them you decide to go in. There are six distinct clusters of people chatting to each other. While you wait for your friend to turn up, you have to decide which group you’re going to join.

In the grid below, under column 1, put a tick next to the group of people you’ve chosen

Ten minutes pass. Your friend still hasn’t turned up and the group you’ve been talking to are now heading off to another party, so you must choose another group to join.

Put a tick next to the group of people you’ve now chosen under column 2

The same thing happens again; your friend still hasn’t arrived and the second group you’ve been talking to are now also leaving. So you have to find another group to join…repeat as above.

Put a tick next to the group of people you’ve now chosen under column 3

You might at this point be thinking that the people you’d choose to socialise with are different to the people you’d choose to work with…but are they? Remember you’re creating a picture of your ideal job, so if these are the type of people you’re drawn to socially, wouldn’t it be great if you could work with people like that too?

Once you have your Top 3 add them to your Gingerbread Man

1 2 3R - RealisticPeople who have athletic or mechanical ability, prefer to work with objects, machines, tools, plants or animals or to be outdoors

C - ConventionalPeople who like to work with data, have clerical or numerical ability, carrying things out in detail, or following through on other’s instructions

E - EnterprisingPeople who like to work with people - influencing, persuading or performing or leading or managing for organisational goals or economic gain

S - Social People who like to work with people - to inform, enlighten, help, train, develop or cure them, or are skilled with words

A - ArtisticPeople who have artistic, innovative or intuitional abilities and like to work in unstructured situations, using their imagination or creativity

I - InvestigativePeople who like to observe, learn, investigate, analyze, evaluate or solve problems

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What kind of working conditions are you looking for?

Once you have completed the exercise below, take from box C the Top 3 keys to your effectiveness at work and add them to your Gingerbread Man.

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Things I disliked about previous

jobs/dislike about my current job

I have learned from my past that my effectiveness at work is decreased when I have to work under these conditions…

BThings I disliked about previous

jobs/dislike about my current job

(Ranked in order)

Among the factors listed in column A, these are the ones I dislike the most (in order of decreasing dislike)…

C

The keys to my effectiveness

at work

The opposite of these qualities in order: I believe my effectiveness would be maximised if I could work under these conditions…

Places I have worked in my life

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Your Career Brand

A career brand is a clear vision of what you do best, backed up by stories and information that allow people to see exactly what you love doing and how you add value.

A Career Brand can be used in a number of situations: ◗ When you’re talking to your line manager about your career aspirations

◗ To introduce yourself to new people at meetings ◗ At interviews ◗ To help clarify your thinking around your CV Personal Statement

Your Career Brand is a one-minute summary of what you do best. It should contain around three key points about what you are especially good at - it is your ‘slogan’!

You may have started to work on your Career Brand in a development workshop. Alternatively you can work on it yourself, and then practice saying it out loud to a colleague, family member or friend.

Once you’re happy with your Career Brand write it on your Gingerbread Man.

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to” said the cat.

“I don’t much care where. . .” said Alice

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go” said the cat.

Lewis Carroll

Sir

John

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What else is important to you?

By now you’ll have a pretty good picture of what is important to you in your ideal job, but you may be feeling there’s still some details missing.

It might be something around the level of responsibility you’re looking for and/or salary expectations. It could be something based on where in the country (or the world!) that you want to work. Whatever it is, remember to add it to your Gingerbread Man.

Review and SummaryWe hope that you have found this exercise useful. Whilst you may be thinking you’ll never find your ideal job, you’re now focussed on what’s important and what matters to you, giving you the best chance of finding a job that is closer to your ideal than you might have believed was possible.

Think about this for a moment. Have you ever been to the supermarket without a shopping list? What happens? If you’re anything like me, you end up spending more than you wanted to and walking out with food that, as indulgent as it might be, you know you really didn’t need and certainly won’t feed your family for the week! But when I go with my list, I buy what’s on it, I stick to a budget and I know I won’t have to “pop out and pick up a couple of bits” later in the week. Having a list keeps you focussed on what you need to achieve.

Your Gingerbread Man is personal to you. However if you’re having career development conversations with your Manager you might want to share it with them. You might also like to share it with your partner, family members, friends or even colleagues. It might be your ideal job, but sometimes you’ll need the support of others to achieve it.

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Recommended Reading

Books:

The Little Black Book of Career SuccessAuthor: Hilary WilsonPublished by Cheeky Monkey Publishing with Free Thinkinghttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Black-Book-Career-Success

What Colour is Your Parachute? Author: Richard BollesPublished by Ten Speed Presshttp://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Color-Your-Parachute-2012

Also publish a Workbookhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Color-Your-Parachute-Workbook

Articles:

Do your commitments match your convictions?http://hbr.org/2005/01/do-your-commitments-match-your-convictions

You will only be able to read part of this article. To read the whole article you will be asked to register or pay for a PDF.

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Ref No. 2281

John Lewis Partnership

Recipe for Gingerbread Men

Suitable for Vegetarians - Makes approx. 25 gingerbread people

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients125g unsalted butter

100g dark muscovado sugar

4 tbsp golden syrup

325g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground ginger

Supercook Writing Icing (optional)

Method1. Preheat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 3. Line baking trays with baking parchment.

2. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat

3. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl and stir the melted ingredients into the dry ingredients to make a stiff dough

4. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to a thickness of about 5mm.

5. Dip biscuit cutters into flour before cutting the dough, or cut around templates, which you can find at waitrose.com/christmas.

6. Place the shapes onto the lined baking trays and bake, in batches, for 9-10 minutes until light golden brown

7. Remove from the oven. If you are using the biscuits as a decoration, while still warm, and using a skewer or chopstick, make any holes that you will need.

8. When completely cool, decorate with the icing. The gingerbread biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks