Are you confused about what skills to learn?
You’ve heard about reskilling, upskilling, and soft skills. But everywhere you turn to, there are a thousand and one skills to learn. This is both good news and a dilemma, for the first time in history, we have an overabundance of skills to pick from. At the same time, we grapple with the paralysis that comes with such abundance of options. For projectleaders, the challenge is exponentially higher because the critical success factors for a successful practice are evolving fast.
When I began my career, I was advised to learn those skills that are directly pertinent to my job. But as I grew, I realised that I’d been thinking about skills the wrong way. I’d been choosing a career instead of a skillset.
Here’s what I mean.
The ultra-successful players in any field understand that it takes more than technical skills to excel. Therefore, like guests at a buffet, they cherry-pick the necessary mix of skills that grants them leverage in almost any industry. This is profound because while most people look for a job to apply their skill, others build skillsets that enable jobs to find them.
My goal evolved from being a skilled project manager in Telecommunications to a well-rounded project leader who can lead projects in any field. This is why even as a Doctoral Student, I am on a constant journey to shape the leader in me by embodying the relevant skillsets of a 21st century leader. I understand that while ProjectManagement remains my core practice, I could transition into a new role that doesn’t exist today but may surface in 2030. By choosing and constantly upgrading your skillset, the right jobs will find you, even if they don’t exist today.
But how do we choose the right skills?
Studies show that the highest players in any field have also mastered skills selection. Skill selection is also a skill. Michael Simmons called it the Archimedes lever of learning. He says “With poor skill selection, we drown in the sea of humanity’s knowledge. All of the effort we spend learning and applying what we learn is muted at best or wasted at worst. On the other hand, if we master the ability to select skills, then just 100 hours of learning could have a life-changing impact.
“The difference between the two harkens back to this famous Stephen Covey quote: ‘If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.’
As a result, if you select a skill that is already prevalent, learning it may not give you so much competitive advantage. On the other hand, learning in-demand skills is a sure way to earn more. But then, if you must climb up to the top 1% of your industry, you can’t use the same playbook as the 99%. This is why when new Projectmanagers meet me for advice on what new skills to learn, I encourage them to learn the general skills but double down on rare skills that’ll give them a higher advantage. I also, advise that they focus on what won’t change. Tech tools and methods evolve fast. But “permanent” skills are here to stay. Here are five of those.
- Learn how to learn
I call this the mother of all skills. Learning how to learn not only helps you embody the relevant skills and deploy them in record time, but it also helps you sieve out the randomness in the world, spot just-in-time knowledge and practice with intention. Learning is a skill few people master.
- Learn articulation
In a world swarming with ideas, those who have refined their message well enough to speak to a particular problem or audience would get the highest attention. Project Managers must learn how to think, write and speak.
- Learn People
Your career growth will largely depend on how well you get along with the right people. You must not agree with everyone to get along with them. But mastering people skills would most likely elicit their respect, loyalty and trust.
- Learn Leadership
John Maxwell said, “everything rises and falls on leadership.” I find this to be true in my daily practice. It takes more than being a skilful project manager to manage a team of experienced subject matter experts. Leadership will give you that edge.
- Know thyself
As Project leaders, we are so inundated with knowledge about other people’s needs, targets and timelines, that we forget to study our greatest assets, ourselves. You are your greatest asset. Success in Project Management requires a high level of self-awareness. Learn and deploy it.
Which of these skills will you start learning today?
