Top 6 skills to help you succeed at work

@soieange

By: Penny Pilidou

“If you can’t be better than your competition, just dress better.” ― Anna Wintour

"Building a mission and building a business go hand-in-hand."

― Mark Zuckerberg

"I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance."

― Steve Jobs

Are you dreaming of becoming Anna Wintour, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg? Before you find yourself in a mansion with 10 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, playrooms, pools and house keepers, I would advise you to step your feet on the ground, take a deep breath and carefully read what it takes, if you have the guts for it, to be successful at work!

Managers always look for the most skilled candidates but being tech savvy or an expert in excel won’t necessarily give you the key to success. Apart from technical skills, what will make you the prize-winner for any position is having good people skills. You have to be competent enough to play well with others so here is what you definitely need to have (And if you don’t have it try ‘’Power’’ by Jeffrey Pfeffer’’ and you will understand why some people do have it)

• COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Communication skills are the number one qualification you must have (and we don’t mean for gossip at work) if you want to spread your ideas, opinions and charm your colleagues. In order to do that, you need to have a grasp on verbal, written and non-verbal communication by developing the ability to organize what you think and target your audience. You have to learn the best way to express yourself, listen more than you talk (many of us are guilty for only talking) and generally improve the way you interact with others.

• LEADERSHIP SKILLS

You cannot be a leader if you don’t feel like one! So first of all, let’s start with your motivation…You need to be the future the others can see in your face, motivate your colleagues, recognize every other person’s efforts, set effective goals and after all be as much productive and challenging at work as you can be. Practising critical thinking, being able to take initiatives and being focus oriented are only a few of the characteristics you must possess so as to be skilled if you want to be a leader. Need some advice? Try reading ‘’The Future leader’’ by Jacob Morgan.

• COLLABORATION-TEAMWORK

One of the most important skills you must have or develop so as to be able to work effectively with others, whether this means your coworkers or clients. Being able to communicate and collaborate well with others can not only improve your own personality and quality of work but also your productivity and effectiveness especially when it comes to a team of which you are a member.

• PROFESSIONALISM

Working in a fast-paced environment requires exceptional professionalism when it comes to having the appropriate behavior and attitude inside the office. Showing a high level of professionalism definitely can increase your reputation and lead in developing a high level of work ethic and excellence leading to the improvement of your general image.

• ADAPTABILITY

This type of skill shows your flexibility of adapting in any new situation or difficulty that may come up. It can be very crucial for an employer to have employees that easily adapt to any new plans or concepts and these people actually are the ones that are never discouraged by failure as they are always learning and willing to take risks as long as this leads them to their personal development and progress.

• CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

Though you might think that machines will take over the world someday, us human beings will still be needed to carry out the harder projects of innovative thinking and development of new ideas. These kinds of skills are important and prerequisite for any sector and industry as the business landscape is a quickly variable environment and it is evolving fast each and every year.

Mastering all these skills mentioned can constitute a really important part of developing your career. All of them or most of them are desired by any employer, regardless of the sector or path you are keen on following.

Reading ’’Managing up’’ can help you scale up for sure.

So when it comes to your career apart from rocking the technical and hard skills make sure that you also develop your soft skills…I know they are difficult to teach and learn but they are essential in a business development.