Job Hunting Success Formula: Part 2 – Developed Skills, Section II of II

So yesterday (Section I) we discussed the importance of developed skills in an employer’s decision to hire you. Skills make a difference, they get his/her company from “A” to “B” or “Z”.

But in your career I think there are two set’s of “developed skills” -

1. Those cultivated/learned in an academic/learning environment – like a learnership, apprenticeship or just by being guided by someone at work, or even just teaching oneself through trial and error. For example, I wrote a CV a few months ago for a Financial Manager of a major, high profile media organisation who has NO formal qualifications. Nothing. But he has been mentored, he’s been a good learner from more experienced people around him. So his “developed Accounting and Finance skills” are purely through experience and learning “on the job”. These are his ‘professional’ skills.
2. And then there are other “developed skills” – these skills are of a more natural nature – learned over time – growing up, life, experience and somewhat built into our personality/natural aptitudes/character – skills that are not specific to a particular industry/job function. Like our Financial Manager – he developed an excellent knowledge of and skill with Accounting. Fine. But another skill that was as important a factor in his success was his ability to lead his team. That’s an entirely different ‘animal’. That’s not something that can be taught as successfully as the more rule driven Accounting. Leadership has much to do with character, personality, focus, courage, communication, clarity of thinking, personal confidence and mastery (excuse all the buzzwords!).

And I know that these sort of skills are underrated in a big way. How you deal with people, how you manage yourself [they (them that knows) call it "personal mastery"], how you organise yourself, how you communicate, how you learn, your attitude toward life in general – these are critically important and are also called soft skills.

Think about this: you CAN be successful with only these underrated skills with no formal/professional skills (’cause they can be learned pretty easily really), but it’s unlikely you’ll be successful with only formal/professional/hard skills with none of those other softer skills in place (which are really tough to learn).

Tip: many employers look just for a great attitude with strong learning ability.

So how do you develop these? Tough question. You can take all sorts of courses on these soft skills BUT as Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits” will tell you, it’s more about attitude than “ok, do a, b and c and you’ve got them.” Some would say you’ve either got the right attitude or not. But I think they can be learned. Here’s what occurs to me – it’s a bit ‘out there’ but believe me when I say there’s more than you can imagine in it: start by cultivating the rare quality of humility.

What do I mean by “humility” – bear with me here. It means you should be aware that there’s a lot to learn; it’s a big wide world and although you’re great, you’re not the centre of it; be willing to learn; be willing to follow instructions; appreciate what others teach you; ask questions; be eager to please; be somewhat in awe of knowledge and experience; show respect; treat people in a way that shows you think they have great value; be interested in them.

In these things are the roots of greatness. Humility – not allowing everyone to just tramp all over you or being cowering – but having a plan to improve your situation and understanding that learning from others, communicating with others, showing appreciation and respect is a key to that.

It’s the key to those softer skills that underpin true success. By the way, our Financial Manager mentioned above – what a great, humble guy, full of praise to the people who’ve taught him what he knows. No wonder he’s done so well. And no wonder people have been willing to give him a chance and been willing to teach him.

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