Many professionals have deep skills in their professional capacity, some exceptional professionals have a range of excellent personal, communications, interpersonal and emotional intelligence skills. You almost certainly have a range of skills that you are simply excellent at. The big question is, do you recognise these things, and if you do, how do you keep doing these things?
I remember a few years ago in a corporate role when I got some 360 feedback from my team. One thing that caught me off guard was the fact they all mentioned my organisational skills were a real strength. That came as a shock as I didn’t consider myself a particularly organised person. I worked really hard at being organised but hadn’t thought I might be particularly good at it.
You might want to have a think about this for yourself.
How others see you and your skills is their view not yours. Neither your own view or others view is perfect, but if the world sees that your great at something, that is worth you knowing and understanding. The key here is to ask for and be open to real feedback. Don’t dismiss what other tell you, simply listen and process what they tell you.
You might be downplaying key strengths or dismissing these things when others compliment you on them. Try accepting the positive feedback and reflecting on what you have done to be effective in a specific skill.
When you know (or others help you see) your real strengths, here are a few tips to really solidify, build and grow that skill:
Be attentive to this skill, what do you notice when you are performing this skill? At what other times do you feel the same and is there a pattern?
Research best practice in that area. How do you keep yourself sharp, focused and learning in this space.
Make time to use your key skills. Using your strength can help you be more efficient and effective in your role. How do you create time to maximise your potential in this space?
Help train and support others to improve in this space. Nothing informs you more about a skill than having to explain and bring it to life for others.
There are a few risks and cautions you might want to consider if you are leaning on your key skill all of the time:
Assumptions – what is good today may just be ok tomorrow and may be poor the day after. You need to keep that skill as up to date as possible.
Competitors learn what you do – your magic sauce, your special way of working may become the norm, how do you keep innovating and leading the pack.
Clients don’t value what you do, yes you can sharpen a pencil faster than everyone else in the office, but if they are all using Excel then your pencil sharpening skills may be losing their value rapidly.
You miss the basics and lose credibility. Too many times I see people striving for the very edges of a skill (a great thing to do), the danger comes when you forget the fundamentals. It’s like a plumber who create the most fantastic piece of pipework, but forgets to connect the water, or the chef who creates a fabulous looking dish that doesn’t taste as a good as it could or it could be a professional who is fabulous technically but keeps missing what their clients really need.
It’s worth taking time to think about your strengths and how you might use them. Explore what you are good at and keep building on this. Never assume (or fall into any of the traps listed above) and keep focused on developing your key skills and sharing that with those around you.
To find out how you and your firm can develop your key skills, speak to Nevil: nevil@newresults.co.uk, connect with him on LinkedIn or visit our website www.newresults.co.uk.