🥊 10 essential and transferrable business skills that will change your career
A guide to practicing top skills today
Why don’t we value the power of soft skills and small changes?
Let’s start practicing now!
1. Flipping failure cards 🃏
Failure is part of a learning process, a process of mastering skills. And handling failure is a SKILL.
Flip the card you are playing when failing: instead of failed, use attempted, tried, started, learned.
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work"— Thomas Edison, a man who tried so much, never gave up and invented electricity.
Kids fail daily, but it is necessary to start walking, but they try again and again. Failure is a way to achieve(I wish to learn that in school).
Practice
Motivate yourself to try, thank you for trying, instead of punishing for a failure.
- Make a timetable of trying 1 new easy thing weekly and stick to it!
- Write a journal of what you've tried.
- Very first attempt, and every 3 next ones deserve a celebration 🎉 drink!
2. Networking 🤝
Understand your inner circle's power and open yourself to other people, not only your friends. Weak random connections inspire you, bring new ideas and fresh air, recommend a new job.
Networking is a key to career development, inspirations, advice, investments in your future, and hidden opportunities. Being the smartest person in the room is the first step to stop growing personally and professionally.
Practice
Best networking advice: Be genuinely interested in a person on the other side of the table.
The second best is networking as a habit: involve in random coffee, send LinkedIn connections, visit professional conferences, register for meetups, or schedule weekly lunches with new colleagues.
Reading: Never eat alone
3. Storytelling and presentation 🖥️
Watch any 🍏 apple presentation. Isn't it inspirational and easy-going?
To grow and become a leader, you'll present to leadership, stakeholders, peers, presentations, or interviews.
Any job interview is a self-presentation. And based on it, you'll compete, land a job and even negotiate salary.
Practice
Tell your professional story in 1 min.
4. Prioritization and goals setting 🎖️
“Dreams without goals are just dreams, and they ultimately fuel disappointment.” — Denzel Washington said.
Without proper prioritization, you'll have a tough time, or your team will underdeliver. Without personal goals, you'll never realize how time flies.
Practice
List your personal and professional priorities and make them visible: desktop picture, poster, or laptop sticker.
Before starting each big task, ask yourself 2 questions:
What will happen if I'll complete it?
What will happen if I won't complete it?
Then decide whether it is a priority or not.
Set up a personal goal for the next 3 months and write a letter to yourself in the future.
5. MVP and acting in small steps 🧩
To move the most challenging life stones, learn the idea of iteration and the concept of the Minimum Viable Product.
The Lean Startup says, "The big question of our time is not Can it be built? but Should it be built?"
MVP is for business. What is an MVP for life?
Let me give an example. While moving into the USA, I leased an empty apartment, and I faced a challenge: making it my home with limited time and money resources. How to move step by step? I started with "wish" list full of things I love, then structured it into 3 groups: "can not survive my first week without it," "essentials for the first month," and "nice to have." At this point, it was clear what to prioritize. I bought a mattress, 2 chairs with a table, Cuttler and plates. Everything else I bought over the next 3 months and now I am buying mostly "nice to have" candles.
Practice
Imagine your next target as the v0 of the person you want to be or the goal you want to achieve. V0 of a successful writer is an interesting abstract, not the full book promoted by Forbes.
Draft your next step at any field and define the 25 min clear first task. ONLY FIRST STEP. Set a timer and create an MVP.
6. Developing a growth mindset 📈
It is my favorite and the most underestimated!
I truly believe that mindset is the ONLY THING that defines success both personally and professionally.
One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality.
A "fixed mindset" assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens that we can't change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence.
A "growth mindset," on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities.
What is your mindset type?
Practice
Short read: What Having a "Growth Mindset" Actually Means
Long read: The work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
7. Communication (both verbal and written) 🙊
Please stop saying communication is for extroverts, CEOs only, or lawyers in courts. An ability to clearly state your thought values at any level.
I saw a tremendous amount of buried ideas due to the lack of communication and inability to clearly express both the idea and motivation. I will hire in my team a great communicator just because everyone will benefit from structured, time-effective, and influencing written and verbal communication.
Learn a key Top-Down Communication rule — tell the main thought first: at the top of the email, answering any question, telling about yourself.
The primary tenet is that most messages should have one governing thought and one governing thought only. Then that governing thought can have several supporting thoughts, logically holding it up.
Practice
Start today answering any question from your friend or family, or even colleague communicating the most important thought first.
Long-term practice: read to improve verbal communication (start with the Pyramid principle by Barbara Minto) and write regularly to improve written communication. I started this newsletter.
8. Problem structuring and decision making 🚧
Starting with the chaotic problem, decomposing it into the easiest questions, and proposing a way to solve it within a limited time. All-purpose skills are helping to solve any problems, comparing options, or switching career tracks.
Problem-solving equals developing, using frameworks, and asking the right questions.
Practice
Start using frameworks:
- 7-step problem-solving
- STAR for telling stories
- SMART for setting goals, etc.
9. Feedback and critique management 💭
Feedback could be tough, but it is essential for any learning loop: learn, try, get feedback, iterate. BUT there is the feedback and THE FEEDBACK.
Warren Buffet Believes Feedback Is A Gift, and You Should Too. I vote for acting on good feedback from the right people.
Good feedback comes from a professional, and it is actionable, fact and strength-based. Avoid toxic feedbacks, ask proactively and give it properly.
And please, please don't take the sandwich approach.
Practice
Ask an inspirational leader in the company before the meeting: "I need to practice my presentation skills, so I am more confident presenting to large audiences. Could you please give me feedback after the presentation on how I can improve?"
10. Being proactive and owning your perspectives 🙋🏼
Being proactive defines a certain position in life and results in promotions. I know benefits and reasons are quite obvious.
Practice
Find a role model by observing inspirational leaders. When possible, spend time with them to gain insight into their behaviors. Try out their techniques. Ask for mentorship.
🌪️Develop one thing at a time, implement small habits and stay cool!
Comment and share your thoughts or have questions!