Improve these 4 skills to win in 2017
If you were to develop skills that made you invaluable to your team, what would they be?
I’ve spent a lot of the early part of 2017 thinking about this question and evaluating both myself and our company. What are we good at? What are we missing? What skills and talents are we going to need in the years to come? The answer to that last question is different for every company and every team. Every company has a different group of talented individuals and requires different skills to win with their business model, but the topic got me thinking larger than just Lemonly or any small business.
What skills will help a young professional (sure, I’ll say Millennial) win in the years to come? I have a few ideas to recommend.
1. Deep Focus
Cal Newport has a wonderful book titled Deep Work. I read it over the Christmas break, and it’s been stuck in my head since. Newport describes Deep Work as the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. Not only is the skill becoming increasingly rare, but it’s also incredibly productive.
This combination of (1) very few people can do it and (2) the output of results greatly outweighs the input cost makes for a skill you must start harnessing. Shut the phone off. Turn away the distractions, the conversations, and email inbox and learn how to dive deep into the most important work. The type of work that moves the needle for your business. The hard work that many are too lazy or too distracted to do.
2. Clear Communication
Communication itself has always been critical, but the myriad ways in which we communicate make it difficult to do so confidently. When I was growing up I had to learn the social norms of communication on the playground, in the classroom, and on the telephone (though eventually a thing called MSN Messenger came along). Each platform has its own set of rules, nuances, and social norms. As a middle school boy, this can be overwhelming at first, but I grasped it eventually — after a few stumbles. For example, I remember calling the house of a girl that I liked. When her father answered the phone, I didn’t know what to say, panicked and hung up. Practice makes perfect!
Fast forward to today, and we have easily a dozen different ways to communicate with friends, family, coworkers and mentors. When do I respond to this text? Is it ok to send an emoji? They just sent me their heartbeat via Apple Watch, does that mean love?
Learning the communication game, let alone mastering it, is a massive challenge for today’s young professionals. To me it goes back to the basics: read books, grow your vocabulary, articulate clearly, understand grammar, write with not only with your thumbs but pen and paper as well.
Everyone likes to complain that face-to-face communication is dying. I believe it’s just changing. I do, however, believe that what was a commonplace skill is becoming increasingly rare. Those who are adept and communicating clearly and effectively will get people and ideas to move.
3. Intent Research
After the complete and utter dismantling of the value of facts in 2016, I fear that the ability to discern fact from fiction and to conduct your own research is going to become an important skill.
For fellow Millennials, remember learning the Thea Holton research method? We would take those little index cards and cite the source, author, page number, and every last detail before we wrote down one statistic or quote. I understand the Internet changed all of that, and today’s form of sourcing is simply including a hyperlink, but that doesn’t mean that every web page is true. (I know, it’s a shocker. I was convinced Bat Boy was real too.) Separate yourself by taking the extra time to fact-check, cross-reference, and simply ask the “Where did this come from?” or “Who said this and in what context?” This will also help you with skill #2.
4. Sincere Inspiration
If 2016 taught us anything, it is that people are looking for inspiration and purpose to follow. As our world becomes connected on a macro scale, it seems we’ve become more disconnected on a micro scale. It’s easy to follow movements online or “like” pages that align with our values, but it’s difficult to make real connections and have deep, honest conversations with people who force us to think, ask questions, and debate.
If you can come along and connect with people at their level (online or in-person), listen to them, create dialogue, and then inspire, you have a special skill. If you have the ability to move people and ideas, you have the power to create great change.
Change doesn’t have to be large social or political issues either. Inspire people in your company to adopt a new policy. Inspire people in your neighborhood to create civic change. Inspire people in your friend group to attend an art show. The world needs more inspiring leaders, so why not be that leader?
Unfortunately, learning a new skill isn’t like a videogame where you earn some coins or unlock a new ability by beating the next boss, but it’s also not rocket science. Remember when you learned how to ride a bike? You started with training wheels, then your mom or dad got you on the bike, ran a few steps, pushed and you pedaled for a few feet, tipped over, fell down and scraped your knee. But the next time you pedaled a bit further, and eventually made it up and down the block.
Developing new skills is all about practice. Put yourself in situations where you have to communicate clearly. Force yourself to find an hour every day to focus deeply. Stop and question what you read online and take five extra minutes to research intently. These skills build on top of each other and you can become an inspiring leader with rare skills and abilities.
Start today.
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