Transferable skills;
A meaningful experience;
A lasting relationship.
Transferable skills are all kinds of basic abilities you acquire and possess in your career. They are not only technical knowledge and industry terminology to help you complete your immediate work, but also the ability and foundation you can rely on when you change from one job to another, from one company to another, or even from one industry to another. Here are some examples of transferable skills, which I think really make you different.
Ability to solve problems: To some extent, any job in the world exists to solve a certain problem. Can you analyze this problem and propose a solution? When you are faced with a challenge and a blank sheet of paper, do you have one or two reliable ways to solve the problem?
Early in my career, I was lucky enough to work for Procter & Gamble. They laid a solid foundation for me to master the basic methods and principles of solving problems, which benefited me a lot in my whole workplace life. During Ogilvy's training and cooperation with customers, I learned other things.
During the interview, I always throw at least one open-ended question with almost no answer to the job seeker. I don't care much about whether they are right or not. I'm more interested in how they cut into the problem. Fortunately, there are many theoretical frameworks and strategies that can help you improve your problem-solving ability.
You should consciously add some different methods to your toolbox, and have the courage to combine several different methods to create a unique secret recipe that suits you. What's your method? Where will you learn to solve problems better and more stably?
Persuasive communication skills: Persuasion is a key skill that will be used for life, no matter which industry you eventually enter.
Inventors and creative workers need it to promote their ideas, doctors need it to convince others of their diagnosis, businessmen need it to sell their products and services, community volunteers and social activists need it to win supporters of their mission, musicians and painters need it to get jobs and attract fans.
Whether communicating with customers, colleagues, friends or strangers, it is a basic skill to put forward your own views clearly and concisely.
Persuasion has no fixed style, from tough and unobtrusive step by step to calm and credible persuasion. Susan Kane explains the potential of introverts in her book Quiet. Whether you are extroverted or introverted, you can find your own style, but only if you learn how to convince others.
In today's working environment, persuasive communication needs to be expressed through many different channels.
Are you good at expressing yourself in words? Can you make a concise written argument clear through several powerful arguments, so as to convince others? When you tried to convince someone by email, how many times did you receive a reply like "I understand, thank you"? Does your mail often cause mail wars?
Can you convince others face to face? Can you speak in front of a group of people and get them to act?
At present, one of the best persuasion channels in the world is online video. Can you attract more than 1000 views with a two-minute video on a topic you love? Of course, video content can't be pornographic. You should practice in the next six months, choose a topic, make a low-cost video and send it online to see how it works. Then, constantly adjust and try in all aspects. Nothing can temper the ability to tell stories better than watching, praising and sharing by real audiences.
When testing the ability to tell stories, you will find one thing: simplicity wins.
Sometimes, if I want to solve a complicated problem, I will do an exercise called "writing to my mother". I will really draft a letter to my mother to explain the immediate problems and the actions I want to take.
Since my mother has never set foot in my industry, this exercise will force me to use simple and clear language, thus making the key points particularly clear. Next time you meet any tough challenge, you can also try "writing to your mother".
Persuasion doesn't just come from ideas expressed loudly. Although this may work for a while, it is not a long-term solution. Persuasion comes in part from amazing facts, which can give people real reasons to believe you. But in this world where information is everywhere, there are too many choices and half-truth stories, but there are few reliable sources of information. When working with young professionals in the company, I always encourage them to mark footnotes and information sources for every key point. This is an old method that is still effective today.
When you talk about how you try to find a reliable source of information and record it, you will send a signal to the audience that you are fully prepared and your views are credible.
A few years ago, I wrote a research paper entitled "The Future of Sales". We know that although some lucky people are "born salesmen", for most people, this skill must be cultivated the day after tomorrow.
Frankly speaking, when I left P&G, I was very good at expressing my views with a short two-page proposal, because it was P&G's favorite way of communication. But when I left P&G, I found my public speaking ability was poor. Whenever I try to talk to more than four people, I feel uncomfortable from head to toe. If I can't solve this problem, I'm equivalent to a basket case in this position.
So, I participated in some training of the company and tried my best to conduct actual combat drills. I try to make a public speech at least once a week, even if I announce to a group of colleagues at work that today is someone's birthday. Finally, in front of a large group of people and various seminars, I can accept it calmly.
Now, as long as I speak, you can't stop me. But I'm still practicing, and I'm still nervous before every speech. For a formal speech, I will spend at least 5 hours preparing for 20 minutes on the stage.
If you can't guarantee convincing communication in face-to-face communication, written expression and speech on stage and in front of the camera, it is better to regard it as a basic career challenge and invest time from now on.
Ability to complete tasks: Although the ability to perform and complete tasks is basic, it is very valuable for a long career. Although everyone has a certain degree of execution, only those who dare to face difficulties and keep producing can really stand out.
Can you promise never to be anticlimactic? Have you learned how to overcome obstacles and obstacles to achieve your ultimate goal? Do your colleagues hand over increasingly difficult projects to you or others? If you can complete a task, you can only be regarded as a hero. But if you can continue to complete the task, it is a powerful professional skill that will last a lifetime. You can find talents in your own company who can constantly complete tasks. They are your best teachers. Execution, learning and so on.
"Talent attraction": There is a saying that companies with the best talents can usually succeed. I agree with this statement. Accordingly, there is a truth: individual leaders who have the ability to attract and mobilize cutting-edge talents are usually successful. Attracting outstanding talents to your side can make you do your work better and expand your influence. This ability is one of the factors that distinguish Excellence from the top.
"Talent attraction" can not only make people perform well in personal business, but also cultivate and develop the next generation of star talents and attract fresh blood for the organization.
To cultivate "talent attraction", we must first have a correct way of thinking, that is, realize that no one needs to work for you, but they want to work for you.
Can you make your job more challenging and fun? Can you teach employees valuable skills and push them forward? Can you treat everyone equally and transparently?
Most people don't have many direct reports at the beginning of their careers. Some professions, such as doctors or self-employed, may never have many subordinates. But everyone can use the "critical moment" of talent to create this transferable skill. Whenever you want to hire, fire, promote someone, or transfer his job or raise his salary, the critical moment comes. Your performance at these moments determines your "talent attraction".
Even if you are only a junior employee, you can use your boss's experience in dealing with you to find out where you are appreciated and what you want to avoid in the future. There are things worth learning everywhere in the workplace. I encourage young leaders to evaluate their "talent accounts" after joining a team for a few years. You can look at every critical moment of yourself and try to evaluate whether your behavior has gained or reduced the "talent account".
For example, when hiring the first assistant, is the choice appropriate? Is that person doing well in the company, making continuous progress, or is his passion retreating and standing still? In the face of difficult choices, how to allocate rare opportunities for promotion and salary increase, have you chosen a swift horse?
Is it biased towards candidates with ability and potential, or is it a "crying child" led by the nose? Although the leader's "talent account" will increase or decrease from time to time, I find it can still play a powerful role in predicting the success of his career.
When evaluating any senior executive, I will join a round of dialogue about "talent account". I asked candidates for senior positions to talk about their past subordinates in different companies. Where did you find those people, that is, did you inherit a team or recruit new people? Most importantly, where are they now? Are they doing well in their original company or industry now? Did the best of them follow you to the next company?
The worst answer I've ever heard is, "That's a good question, but I don't know where they are now." This is equivalent to telling me that this person does not attach importance to talents from the bottom of his heart, and he is likely to lack the key "talent attraction". What is your "talent account"? How will you make use of the next critical moment of valuable talents to further enrich this account?
Ability to help and ask for help: In the best-selling book Give and Take, Adam Grant used convincing evidence to show that being a successful "giver" can make you more efficient in business and life. Although many people think this is contrary to common sense, Grant has provided enough research and cases to support this view.
Grant observed three social styles and related them to work performance and happiness index.
"Obtaining" refers to taking without giving, "reciprocity" refers to expecting some return while giving, and "giving" refers to giving unconditionally without much expectation of return. The giver is a net exporter, which is manifested in altruism, responsibility, social justice and compassion.
According to Grant, successful givers give more than they get, and the chances of becoming the most outstanding and happiest person will be much greater than others.
I also agree with Grant that the most efficient managers have the ability to expand their influence by paying in some way, while benefiting others as much as possible. The selfish "acquisition" style is very attractive and often effective for a period of time. But as Grant has observed, and as I have seen, as the world becomes more transparent and the career becomes longer and longer, more and more recipients will be exposed, and the giver will achieve higher achievements.
In my personal experience, people will move closer to the leaders they trust. Giving is a powerful way to build trust. Learning how to ask for help and how to provide it will become a powerful transferable skill in the protracted war in the workplace, and the latter is the most important.
Emotional intelligence (EQ): At work, I am always looking for clues that EQ works. Emotional intelligence is your ability to understand and relate to the emotional state of others. For example, by reading someone's body language, you can find their discomfort or anger, or know how to interpret the social clues, emotions and nonverbal signals of people around you.
Daniel Gorman is a pioneer in the field of emotional intelligence. Gorman pointed out in the book Working with Emotional Intelligence that the most important factor affecting performance and Excellence is emotional intelligence.
Through contact with business leaders all over the world and research on more than 500 organizations, Gorman has come to an amazing conclusion: in order to become a performance elite in every field, EQ is twice as important as IQ or professional skills. For leaders, almost 90% of the criteria for distinguishing elites from ordinary people are emotional intelligence.
Cultivating emotional intelligence is a realistic problem, but it will also provide a practical opportunity for people with career thinking. A young man named Raymond found me. He just entered the workplace and worked as a business analyst in a leading international consulting company. He is high flyers in the field of nano-science, and has done some scientific and analytical internships before.
He asked me a good question. In my opinion, in view of his academic background and his preference for analysis, should he take the initiative to develop his emotional intelligence? Is it worth his efforts to cultivate EQ? If it is worth it, how should we train him?
I think Raymond is really a very clever man. If his strong cognitive ability is assisted by emotional intelligence, he will be stronger and develop in consulting, science or any other field he pursues. Although I can't answer his questions completely, I still give Raymond some practical suggestions. I encouraged him to make the cultivation of EQ a two-year personal development task. I believe this will help him stand out from the crowd with high IQ in this field and increase his chances of long-term success.
I recommended some good books in this field to him, including EQ 3 by Daniel Gorman and EQ 2.0 by bradbury and Greaves.
Reading is not difficult for Raymond. The key is that he must create practical experience to discover and hone emotional intelligence skills. He should look for opportunities to gain team leadership experience in the company and industry, and he needs to actively listen to the feedback from colleagues on his emotional leadership. In this way, he will find that what matters is not what kind of emotional signal he intends to send, but what kind of signal his audience actually receives. He should pay close attention to those emotional people around him, whether they are good at business or not.
I encourage Raymond to pay attention to the behavior of leaders in the company in interpersonal communication and distinguish the advantages and disadvantages. I asked him to make as many public speeches as possible, because it was a valuable experience to see the audience's reaction with his own eyes. He should continue to go out of his hometown and leave his comfort zone.
If he is eager for progress, he should sign up for impromptu or dramatic acting courses. Even if it makes him feel uncomfortable, nothing can push him to understand emotions and know how to deal with and control them faster.
Although it may take several years to cultivate EQ, it is totally worth it.
In addition to the above six transferable skills, here are three other transferable skills that I like best. They are simple, but they can be used for a lifetime.
1. How to make eye contact and shake hands with others? I have a friend who runs a real estate development company. He always talks to me about a lifelong skill he learned in college. He said: "In my last year on the college basketball team, the coach taught us the most classic lesson. He said that during our time as old athletes, we will meet many important people in our life. So instead of practicing layups or controlling the ball, we have been practicing how to greet people, make eye contact and shake hands. This is definitely a good word. " During the interview, I was surprised that some people had to work hard to look me in the eye. What's more, some people even played with their mobile phones.
2. How to search for information? Everyone will use search engines to find answers, but most people don't do it very well. They don't know how to verify search results, how to distinguish between credible and false sources of information, and how to present data in a clear and convincing way. I will assign you some small tasks from time to time to find a specific fact or information source. The way they accomplish these tasks is quite different, which is eye-opening. People with strong search ability will have certain advantages throughout their career.
3. How to breathe. Work requires us to concentrate and stay relaxed. As early as the beginning of my career, I took some courses and learned basic breathing and relaxation methods. Today, I still use these skills before big speeches and conferences. These simple courses are very useful. I wish I had learned more. Transferable skills are the basis of vocational skill combination. They can be moved because you can move them from one job to another and from one company to another. The reason why you must master some transferable skills is that the average person will experience at least 12 ~ 15 different jobs in his career. (4) At present, 80% of the students entering senior high schools will take jobs that do not exist now.