Tell me, what are power skills?
Well, I’m so glad you asked.
Quite simply, power skills are the essential skills which all of us need for any career and generally to do stuff in life.
I’m talking about day to day tasks like communicating with your fellow humans, being able to share feedback (good and bad) and dealing with change. These are things that are not only essential in the workplace but in every day life too.
Power skills are important because skills are what pay the bills, and they give you the edge in many roles today and in the future.
Traditional career paths are kind of a useless thing as the concept of what careers are has changed so much.
Data tells us that on average, we’ll change jobs at least 12 times in our life. So for me, it makes sense to build a core set of skills to accelerate performance in any career.
What do I need to kick-ass in life and work?
There’s two sides to this coin. First, let’s take a look at what skills companies most need in this survey with over 23,000 HR leaders ⬇️
Hmm, interesting, right?
We can see that companies most value people management skills, the ability to adapt to changing situations and a problem solving mindset. With the events in most recent times, a lot of this makes sense.
But, if we flip over the coin, what are the skills people think they need to advance in their career? Let’s take a look ⬇️
Ok, we can now see a divide here in the company vs individual view.
Where companies are placing emphasis on being adaptable, navigating change and solving problems. The only agreed upon skill between both is for people management.
So, what does this tell us?
Well, quite obviously, many of us are focusing on the wrong skills. Yes, some of the skills could be viewed as similar but there’s a clear difference between both sets of data.
The power skills that companies want, are not the ones that most are focusing on for the future.
Choose your skills wisely
This is just one of a number of datasets available through the power of Google. If you’re a long time reader, who’ve seen a lot of my work on digital skills and how they play in the game of career longevity.
More recently, I’ve shared thoughts on knowing how to connect anyone with your work as a super power.
For my fellow friends in learning and education roles, the breadth of skills is ever growing. Which uniquely places many of us in the line of multiple career opportunities outside the world of learning design.
Power skills like communicating clearly, giving and receiving feedback, and dealing with the random curveballs of life in an ever changing environment are core fundamentals that will support you throughout your whole life.
To bring it home folks. Make sure you’re focusing on not only continuously building your skills but picking the right ones to focus on for your long-term success.
Before you go… 👋
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