As an executive coach specializing in leadership development, aspiring leaders and young professionals ask me all the time…”What do I need to do to get promoted?” My response is this: “If you aspire to have executive leadership presence and reach a senior level position, start mastering these basic fundamental skills now.” Companies tell me that it takes 3-5 years to get a professional fully productive and ready for a promotion. Learning to master these skills now will help you get that coveted position.
The Top 23 Skills Professionals Need to Master
Here are the 23 basic fundamentals that every professional needs to master early on in his or her career in order to be considered for career advancement. This post will be completed in three segments.
1. Relationships
It’s important to get this one basic point early on – you cannot do what you want in your career, and advance successfully, if you’re an island, or if you alienate all your colleagues, peers and managers. Empathy is an important trait for all especially managers. Knowing what it’s like to do the grunt work makes you appreciate those who have to do it after you. Assuming that you are not above anything will help you soar in your career. My first great manager told me this years ago – no matter how talented and gifted you are at your job, if you don’t have supportive and respectful relationships at work, you won’t get promoted. He knew what he was saying, as I saw some of the best and brightest fade away because they didn’t get this one core principle.
2. Teams.
Be a great team player. No one likes to work with a selfish co-worker or someone who takes credit for their teams accomplishments. Learn this healthy habit early in your career to get ahead of those who didn’t.
3. Problem Solve
Why is it important to learn problem-solving skills? Because we make decisions all day long, whether you’re a parent, a businessperson, or the president of a global company, you face problems every day that need solving. Problem solving and critical thinking refers to the ability to use knowledge, facts, and data to effectively solve problems. This doesn’t mean you need to have an immediate answer, it means you have to be able to think on your feet, assess problems and find solutions. The ability to develop a well thought out solution within a reasonable time frame is a skill that employers value greatly. It’s not good enough to find problems, anyone can do this. It’s important to determine and then present solutions. Employers want employees who can work through problems on their own or as an effective member of a team. Ideal employees can think critically and creatively, share thoughts and opinions, use good judgment, and make decisions.
4. Decision-Making
Following problem solving, is the ability to make decisions. Once you find solutions, then you need to make decisions. You make many decisions every day – who to sit with at lunch, when to ask for a raise, to accepting new assignments. It’s important to understand how to make a decision so that it 1)aligns with what is important 2) increases your skills and experience, and 3) creates new opportunities Do you know how to make business decisions that will generate the outcomes that are most desired for the company? Learn how to grasp, comprehend, and evaluate every alternative and then how to understand the risks and benefits of each decision.
5. Make Mistakes and Learn From Them
No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Learn how to take responsibility for your actions and turn these into learning opportunities. It happens to the best of us. Some examples: Your co-worker commits a major faux pas, and you vent about it to another co-worker. That co-worker is best friends with the one who made the mistake. Now what? After a holiday party, you find yourself gossiping your bosses’ questionable behavior after too much to drink at a company function. The boss was within close range of your nasty comments. Now what? Or you think your phone is on mute while swearing about a customer. Now what? Knowing how to turn these situations and learn from them is important.
6. Advocating and Negotiating for Yourself
In business, you have to advocate and negotiate continually – for yourself, for your staff, for your business concerns, for your budget, etc. Negotiating is a part of everyday life, but in business it’s absolutely critical to your success. Poor negotiation can cripple a company just as quickly as losing key customers. While most negotiating strategies seem like common sense, it’s not uncommon for people to get caught up in the emotion of the moment and ignore their basic instincts. Emotion, luck and magic have no place in a successful negotiation. It takes an iron gut, homework, street smarts and unblinking discipline. Learn by asking for a raise or for a promotion.
7. Your Values and Their Boundaries
Why should our values matter to us? Our values are one of the most potent forces in our lives. They supply our work, and everything else in our lives, with meaning. Our values motivate and drive us in our work. They influence all of our decisions. Along with our beliefs and feelings, values form our internal GPS. Without them, we get attached to external motivators and rewards, or other’s values. To protect your boundaries,1) understand yourself, and your own needs and wants, and then 2) create an appropriate, protective boundary around these non-negotiable values. Don’t like gossiping? Walk away from those who are gossipers. Uncomfortable with a colleague taking credit for your work? Take them aside and let them know this doesn’t work for you. Developing sufficient boundaries and enforcing them every day in your professional life is an essential behavior, and how you defend your boundaries can make or break your career.
8. Manage Your Boss
The relationship with your “boss” will be the cornerstone to your success and your career, not to mention the relationship you will have with your co-workers. And when it comes to your boss, you are in-charge of that relationship. No one can help you reach your career goals or give you needed information as much as your boss. At the same time, your boss needs your help to accomplish his or her goals as well. You both share a real interdependence with each other.
Bosses come with a variety of levels of skills and effectiveness. Some are just plain bad; unaware of your needs or uncaring for you as a person and your dreams and aspirations. There are some that will view you as a one-way street for them; you give and they take. Others will be empathetic, provide development opportunities, promote your skills to other managers and so much more. Managing your manager is worth your time if you expect to be successful, learn and move forward.
We weren’t born understanding these basic professional fundamentals, but they’re vital to our career success nonetheless. Training and mastery in these areas will help you grow in your ability to manage yourself, your emotions, your communications, your decision making and your career planning so that you will be able to shape the direction of your professional life, not be at the whim of it. If any of these issues feels challenging to you, contact us and we can help you.
See you next week when we’ll focus on the next 8 — Communication skills.
