Skill Development

https://youtu.be/-41dGAYEQwg

3 Success Tips Positivity Progress Productivity

Hi aspirants,

Today, we bring to you an experience that is inevitable on our way up into the managerial roles.
We hope that this knowledge will be of help.

So here we go...

John was once a front line associate who was recognized as having great subject matter expertise, commendable technical skills and a good personality. He was known as a nice person and received many compliments from both clients and fellow employees.

The company he worked for was expanding and a managerial position was available. He was offered and accepted the position, even though he had no management experience and never really led anyone. He stated this to upper management, but they had the confidence he would pick it up due to his aptitude and attitude.

John knew that he would be faced with leadership challenges, and quickly found out that his decisions mattered. He focused too much on the small things, which needed to be addressed, but missed the big picture. He did not prioritize in a manner he should have and tried to do everything himself so that he would not bother his staff ang get the best quality of work. No one in his team really knew the goals or objectives, or where they were headed. He did all of the talking because he thought that is what a leader and manager is supposed to do. He thought the only way to get things done was to intimidate (theory x), and he would lose his temper when things did not go right. If anyone criticized him, he would become immediately defensive. He did not even think about motivating his team members, he thought they should just do the work they were getting paid for.

Although his team respected his knowledge and capabilities, and liked him, they did not look at him as a leader. Once he talked to a couple of his closest staff members, he realized that he needed to take a good look at how he could improve. He thought about people he respected as leaders, and realized that they never seemed to get upset and were usually calm. He found that he needed to build trust and make sure everyone saw the same vision for the future. He started meeting more with his staff and asking for their opinions and suggestions. He knew not to let any criticism affect him personally, as everyone wants to succeed and enjoy their job at the same time. He realized the importance of proper multitasking and prioritization. He made the decisions he was confident about, and asked key employees for help or confirmation whenever he was not 100% sure. He also started freeing up the responsibilities he held tight by delegating out tasks. His stress levels were decreasing, and he started to act the part of a leader by being more calm and self-assured.

Even though he made some mistakes, and quite often would seek advice, he was earning trust from his team. This was due to always keeping them informed truthfully, and never giving up until the issues were resolved. They felt he truly had things under control. He had their best interests at heart, and tried to motivate by mentoring, coaching and helping them grow. He listened to what they had to say, and remained quiet until he had something useful or powerful to say. With this new humbled confidence, his leadership abilities improved to a point to where he was promoted to director, and soon after, vice-president.


Epilogue: This front line associate, with no management or leadership experience, was able to grow once he realized the skills needed in order to succeed. By incorporating the best from John's experience into your daily routine as a manager/leader, you will earn respect and be known as a solid leader. There will be much more in-depth information regarding managerial skills with the mindset of a great leader in the next posts.

If you have your story of transition from grass root level into a management role then don't hesitate to share.

How are Skills linked to Competency?

How to Improve Soft Skills?

Soft skills revolve around personal relationships, character, and attitude.
By developing these skills, you can increase your work performance, build stronger relationships, and work toward earning a promotion.

If you have realized, by now, that some of these soft skills do not come naturally to you, you need to learn how to improve soft skills so they become a natural reflex for you in dealing with people every day.

Here are some hands-on tips to elevate the most important of your soft skills:

1. Develop communication skills.

Your goal should be to communicate clearly through written, oral, and nonverbal communication. Start simply by being aware of how others feel when they are around you or are talking with you.

i. Make eye contact.
Acknowledge someone else's presence by looking them in the eye, especially if they just walked into the room or you pass them in a hallway. Look at them when they are talking to you. Do not let your eyes wander around the room.

ii. Monitor your body language.
Show interest by sitting up and leaning forward. Resist the urge to tap your fingers or foot. Mimic the posture of the person with whom you are talking to create a comfortable environment.

iii. Practice speaking.
This includes both public speaking and conversational speaking. Be conscious of your pace and volume when speaking. If you are uneasy in personal relationships, practice with a close friend or family member. If you are nervous about speaking in public, volunteer to give presentations within a smaller group and work your way up to a larger one.

iv. Develop your writing skills.
Proofread your emails, letters, and notes. Learn correct spelling and word usage. Vary your sentence structures. Be concise instead of elaborate.

v. Practice active listening skills.
Listening requires focus and self-discipline. We listen for many different reasons: to understand instructions, to empathize with another individual, or to judge whether a plan is good or not. Regardless of the reason you are listening, there are several things to keep in mind.

vi. Paraphrase and ask questions to learn more about what someone is telling you. This demonstrates interest and focus. It also helps you understand the situation.

vii. Take notes when appropriate. This shows that the subject matter is important to you. Practice taking notes in team meetings or staff training sessions.

viii. Do not interrupt other people. Respect them by letting them finish saying what they are saying.

ix. Pay attention to the other person's body language. Observe their posture, tone of voice, eye contact (or lack thereof), gestures, and facial expressions.

2. Build relationships.

Interpersonal skills are important in the workplace, especially since so many organizations are designed around teams and departments. Seek to build friendships with peers, supervisors, clients, and business partners.

i. Befriend colleagues.
Greet them when they get to work. Invite them to lunch or coffee. Talk for a few minutes in the break room as you are getting a drink. Participate in work events like fun fridays, team lunch, birthday celebrations and training. Stay away from gossip. It only destroys relationships.

ii. Learn to manage conflict in a healthy way. Address issues with the individual(s) involved in a private manner. Approach the discussion in a nonjudgmental, but assertive manner. Ask questions and try to understand their side of the story. Work together to find a solution.

iii. Network with people inside and outside your organization. Ask people about their jobs. Share a bit about what you do. Note connections and ways you could potentially help each other. Exchange contact information and be sure to follow up with them.

3. Practice leading.

Leadership is simply influencing other people. As such, leadership skills can be used by any employee at any level in the organization. Truely said: "Leadership is an ACTION".

i. Observe your own supervisor and note how that individual leads your team. Find positive things that person does and emulate them in your own work.

ii. Practice leading in small group discussions by asking your teammates questions and bringing quieter members into the conversation.

iii. Set the example for others by displaying a positive attitude in difficult situations. Remain calm in moments of crisis. Talk about concerns one-on-one with your supervisor instead of in front of the entire team.

Remember, you can only grow when others grow, around you.

Follow Skill Development and Share it with Everyone.

What are hard and soft skills?

To be good at hard skills usually takes smarts or IQ (also known as your left brain-the logical center).
To be good at soft skills usually takes Emotonal Intelligence or EQ (also known as your right brain- the emotional center). Examples of hard skills include math, physics, accounting, programming, finance, biology, chemistry, statistics, etc…
Hard skills are skills where the rules stay the same regardless of which company, circumstance or people you work with.
In contrast, soft skills are self management skills and people skills where the rules changes depending on the company culture and people you work with. For example, programming is a hard skill. The rules for how you can be good at creating the best code to do a function is the same regardless of where you work. Communication skills are a set of soft skills. The rules for how to be effective at communication changes and depend on your audience or the content you are communicating. You may communicate well to fellow programmers about technical details while struggle significant to communicate clearly to senior manager about your project progress and support needed.
Hard skills can be learned in school and from books. There are usually designated level of competency and a direct path as to how to excel with each hard skill. For example, accounting is a hard skill. You can take basic accounting and then advanced accounting courses. You can then work to get experience and then take an exam and be certified as a CA, etc.. In contrast, there is no simple path to learn soft skills. Most soft skills are not taught well in school and have to be learned on the job by trial and error. There are many books and guides on soft skills. They help to an extent. Unless you can apply the tips you learn and be adaptable, there aren’t any easy step-by-step instructions on how to master a soft skill.
Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills – Which is more important?
It depends highly on the career you choose. Here is why.

Careers can be put into 3 kind of categories. It is up to you to figure out which category your career is in.
1) Careers that need hard skills and little soft skills (example: Physicists); This is where you see brilliant people who cannot deal well with people. They can still be very successful in their career – look at Albert Einstein
2) Careers that need both hard and soft skills – many careers are in this category (example: Accountants, Lawyers – they need to know the rules of accounting or law well but they also depend on selling to clients to build a successful career. Dealing well with clients require excellent soft skills like communication skills, relationship skills etc…)
3) Careers that need mostly soft skills and little hard skills (example: sales. A car salesman don’t really need to know that much about cars, just a little more than the consumer. His job is more dependent on his ability to read his customers, communicate his sales pitch, persuasion skills, and skills to close to deal. These are all soft skills)

Another way to assess how important are soft skills in your career is to ask yourself three questions
1) Does how well I work and communicate with others critical in my performance review and the decision for my promotion?
2) Are people in the same position as me who are well liked in the company seem to be promoted faster?
3) Does my ability to control my temperament at work affect my performance review?
If all three is yes, soft skills are very important to develop if you want to advance in your career.
I would say in general, soft skills are more important in most business careers than hard skills. We all know or have worked for senior people that doesn’t seem that smart (limited hard skills). The fact remains that they are in senior positions because they have exceptional soft skills (e.g., know how to leverage politics to further their careers, leadership skills, management skills, self promotion skills etc…).

Food for thought – most of us have spent at least 15 years in school/college focused mainly on building our hard skills full time and a little on our soft skills through team projects, sports, and social activities.

To succeed in our career, shouldn’t we spend at least another 15 years or more to proactively master the soft skills necessary to advance our careers?

One can significantly increase the career options by becoming aware of all the personal skills. Moreover, when a person sets on to a quick introspective journey, s/he unveils personal knowledge gaps, opening the doors for continued learning for oneself.

What are skills?
A skill is the ability to do something. We are not born with skills, we learn them as we go along - through the life and work experiences that we have.

A skill can be simple, such as tying a knot, or more complex, such as writing codes using a software. They may have been developed through work, study or training, recreational and community activities, or in the home.

Skill areas include:

Constructing
building, making, assembling, manufacturing things or materials

Creating
inventing, originating, designing or composing

Creative writing
writing articles, stories or lyrics to inform or entertain

Calculating
using maths to solve problems

Investigating
researching, studying, questioning for information

Problem solving
looking at problems from different points of view and exploring possible solutions

Decision making
weighing up options and making a choice

Budgeting
managing money, budgets or finances

Planning
predicting, scheduling, preparing for tasks, events, projects

Influencing
selling, persuading, encouraging

Training
helping and guiding others to learn and develop new skills

Leadership
leading, directing, guiding others

Time management
meeting deadlines, setting priorities, being on time

Teamwork
achieving goals with others

Organising
arranging, co-ordinating people, resources and schedules

Physical strength and co-ordination
being fit, strong and able to move your whole body smoothly and accurately

Precision work
handling things accurately, carefully and quickly

Fixing and repairing
mending, restoring, renovating things

Mechanical operation
operating tools, machinery or technology

Which of the above is your area of concern?

Do share your skill development needs through brief comments.

Greetings !

Hi growth seekers,

What does the word skill mean to you?

Which skills do you think are the most important ones for you to improve at the earliest?

Feel free to share your responses, as it will become easier for the Skill Development team to assist you in boosting your success through skill development.

Your inputs are highly appreciated.

Greetings,
Skill Development Team