Success in your career is determined by many factors, but from a certain point, the individual plays an essential role in their own fortunes. This is not always the case, as there can be things beyond your control. However, everyone needs to have these four skills, ranked in order of importance, to guarantee a robust and successful career.
There are four main types of skills that every youth must have going into the corporate or business world:
People skills
You expected the first to be technical skills, right? No. People skills are just a bit more important. People skills can be taught, but they take longer to master. Technical skills can be taught, but usually you need people skills to get to the point of being taught technical skills.
Here are five people skills that will make you stand out in your circle:
Social skills
Social skills simply refer to how social you are, or more importantly, how social you can be. This is because social interactions are dynamic, and frankly, sometimes stressful. However, being able to be sociable when the need arises makes you stand out. People remember polite people. Most people like to interact with friendly people. In the workplace, or in your career, being sociable will work in your favour.
Flexibility
Being flexible in your interaction with people will get you more results. Knowing when to do things you don’t normally do, is important. Everyone has principles, but principles are supposed to guide, not control. There are times when there is a need to do things in an unusual way. In fact, it’s the key to dealing with people. In life, we meet different types of people, and treating all of them the same way, while it may sound principled, is often impractical. Rigidity is a recipe for disaster, anywhere.
Leadership
Leadership skills are important because life often puts us in those positions, and oftentimes before we’re ready. However, knowing how to manage people can be the difference between success and failure. Leadership skills involve knowing when to be disagreeable and knowing when to let things go. It also involves conflict resolution.
Conflict resolution
This is an invaluable skill to have. It’d help you resolve your own conflicts, and other people’s conflicts. It is particularly important because wrong conflict handling could cause infinitely more problems. I have seen problems morph into much larger, hard-to-solve issues, all because someone handled something wrongly. Conflict resolution often involves listening, understanding, finding common ground, and problem solving.
Teamwork
Knowing how to fit yourself into a group of people working towards the same goal is often an underrated skill. This is particularly hard when it comes to changing environments. It’s very easy to get used to playing a role, but when you need to change that role, an inability to do this will disrupt productivity.
Technical Skills
Of course technical skills are crucial. The more you have, the better. This is why Inside Success Nigeria is providing affordable training to youths to develop their skills. Through expert-led webinars, youths can learn key hard and soft skills required to flourish in the workplace.
There are many high-paying job skills available to youths to learn and master. Employers will pay money for what you can do, so the more things you can do, the better. Some people have mastered several high-paying skills, and they are reaping the benefits. Here are some examples of technical skills you can learn to have lucrative careers.
- Web Design and Development
- Data Analysis and Machine Learning
- Risk management
- Finance and Accounting
- Content creation and management
- Quality control and assurance
- Cybersecurity
- Cloud computing
Communication skills
These skills are helpful in every area of life, which should indicate how important it would be in the workplace. Effective communication almost directly impacts productivity. Examples of these skills include:
Listening: This is important, especially in one-on-one conversation. Most importantly, it’s good to let people know you’re listening. You can do this by nodding from time to time. Repeating some things said to you, but using other words. Let the person know you understand.
Choosing the right communication method: Effectiveness in communication is not always objective. In fact, it’s almost always subjective, and it varies from person to person. If you’re a person that prefers to make calls, it would be counterproductive to try calling someone who is more easily reachable over messages.
Nonverbal cues: Simply put, not everything will be said. It doesn’t mean that those things won’t be important. They will be, sometimes more than what is actually said. In conversation, understanding what is not being said will make you an expert.
Work ethic skills
When you are doing anything professionally, either in an office or as a freelancer, there are some other skills you need to have. These skills will benefit not just you, but your work. Here are examples of those skills:
Reliability: Being reliable is priceless. A company that can count on you will place value on your presence. Customers that can count on you will be incentivized to patronize you more.
Productivity: No one wants to work with someone that doesn’t deliver. You don’t. I don’t. Sometimes, productivity is context-based. If the point is to produce a high volume, producing a low volume of high quality would still amount to low productivity. What counts as productive in one area may not be the same in another.
Conclusion
These four skill types are sure to set you apart from others. Skills are not always easy to learn, learning them will require taking deliberate steps, as nothing good comes easily. We spend our lives dealing with people, so people skills are important.
Technical skills are important for obvious reasons. Communication skills will be crucial in conflict resolution. Work ethic skills are beneficial to everyone who has a career whatsoever. Take steps to learn these skills today, your future self will thank you.
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