The vital professional skills
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Learning skills – The ability to be open to new ideas and experiences. Learning process does not mean only studying or schooling, it means acquiring new knowledge via various activities, beginning with an everyday occurrence like cooking to more sophisticated ones like practicing yoga.
Practical approaches and tools help hold information more easily in one’s mind, improve attention and concentration, spot the gaps in knowledge and tackle procrastination that causes unwillingness to learn.
Laszlo Bock, the Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google, says, “The number one thing we look for is general cognitive ability, and it’s not IQ. It’s the ability to process on the fly.” -
Problem-solving skills – The statement of John Foster Dulles, the 52nd United States Secretary of the State, is an old truth: “The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.”
If we don’t learn from our mistakes, we will be stuck at a certain point having the same challenges. Every day we deal with lots of problems – simple or complex, large or small. Having a right approach always leads to solving them effectively and quickly.
Unfortunately, today very few people are good problem solvers. "This is a generation that has been 'syllabused' through their lives. Decisions were made for them, so we're less likely to find someone who can pull the trigger and make a decision," Marie Artim, vice president of talent acquisition for Enterprise, told The Washington Post. -
Decision-making skills involve selecting the best possible solutions to the problem, through reasoned or intuitive process, or a blend of the two.
Nowadays, people often have to work or learn under pressure of various circumstances, starting from a large amount of information to deadlines that are growing closer. Thus, fast thinking and acting are important as never before.
Simon Sinek, a British author and motivational speaker, says, “Look down from as high as possible. Look ahead as far as you can see. Then decide what to do.” -
Critical thinking skills – the ability to think rationally and clearly, seeing the logical connection between various ideas – represent our capacity to understand and foresee possible consequences and solutions of a particular problem.
Charles Clarke, former UK Secretary of State for Education, said, “The most important attribute that education can bring to anyone is the ability to think critically. In an era where information and knowledge are universally available, it is the power to comprehend access and analyse which makes the difference – those are the critical thinking skills.” -
Creative thinking skills are the ability to generate new ideas. Brainstorming activity is a form of creative thinking.
Sir Ken Robinson, a British speaker, author and international advisor on education, once said, “Creativity is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
People or interpersonal skills: “Liberal arts plus decent interpersonal skills — the ability to converse, to make eye contact, to speak in complete sentences, to recognize one's responsibility, to listen to another perspective are equal fairly decent job prospects,” says Lee Burdett Williams, dean at Wheaton College, Massachusetts. -
Leadership skills - The generation of Millennials is not interested in a traditional corporate ladder, but 63% of them want to lead in the workplace according to The Hartford's 2013 Millennial Leadership Survey.
Being ambitious is not enough for being a leader. Leadership skills must be developed and mastered. - Oral communication skills – Digital communication is making more traditional modes less ideal. A casual style of communication often is not appropriate for working with clients.
- Written communicational skills – “Incorrect grammar, spelling and language usage can make a very bad impression. Using an informal style — relying on abbreviations, not using punctuation and failing to capitalize — does not come across as professional,” said Joyce E.A. Russell, the director of the Executive Coaching and Leadership Development Program at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.