Developing Skillsets: Do We Still Have an Excuse?

A skill set is a person’s range of abilities and knowledge. It is a collection of abilities. All of us, need a defined set of skills to be able to find a job and perform certain tasks. However, often we tend to lack the initiative to develop our skillsets to be more effective and successful,and to produce excellent results. Sometimes we feel that what we do has become routine,and because of our lack of eagerness to develop our skills, we can become stagnant. Our skillsets are like muscles that need to be developed to obtain greater capacity. The more we exercise it, the more it grows to reach its highest potential. Flexing our muscles and upskilling, could allow us to be more marketable and to be ahead of the competition. 

Let’s start by identifying different kinds of skillsets:

Leadership and Management Skills

• Advising
• Coaching
• Conflict resolution
• Decision making
• Delegating
• Diplomacy
• Interviewing
• Motivation
• People management
• Problem-solving
• Strategic thinking

Professionalism Skills

• Dedication
• Ethics
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Maturity
• Patience
• Presentation
• Reliability
• Self-confidence

Organisational Skills

• Categorising data
• Coordinating
• Goal setting
• Meeting deadlines
• Multi-tasking
• Prioritising
• Project management
• Scheduling
• Strategic Planning
• Time management

Team Building Skills

• Collaboration
• Communication
• Flexibility
• Listening
• Observation
• Participation
• Respect
• Sharing

How to know your skills? 

The best place to start is to list out all your skills, so then it is easier to understand what goals you wish to work towards. 

• Identify what you like and enjoy doing: assess what you are most interested in and what you enjoy the most. 
• Previous jobs: with your previous assigned tasks, which ones did you excel in? What skill did you get the most positive feedback in? 

Here are some ways to help you develop and expand your skills:

• Be Determined – nothing can be accomplished unless you have the determination to start and complete the process of enhancing your skills. Each person should always initiate improvement and be determined to grow.
• Read – it will just take 3o minutes a day to read a good article or book to help you in improving your skills. If you do not have time, you may try listening to audiobooks while walking or driving. Reading habits will make a big difference in expanding your skills.
• Volunteer – if there is a specific skill set that you want to gain, you may try volunteering somewhere with the same related tasks. While you work on these tasks, the benefit of learning and improving will come as a reward for your work. 
• Attend Training – there are lots of free and available training online. You may also try short term training and watch online videos that can help you boost your skill.  

Developing a skill set is a MUST in our competitive world. Companies prefer people who are eager to learn new skills. There is no limit to improvement. We can always strive to achieve excellence and be more successful. The only person who will benefit from enhancing your skillset is YOU. Your profile for job applications or job promotions is stronger each time you improve your skillset. You will also feel more confident, and ultimately reap the fruit of your labor. It will be a win-win situation. 

If you are trying to find the best way to start developing a skillset and need some guidance, contact me today.