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The Ultimate “Soft Skills” Career Development Plan

If a survey of employers conducted by Hart Research Associates released Jan 20 2010 on behalf of the Association of American Colleges and Universities is anything to go by, if you want to commercially focus your personal development program, perhaps you should consider their results.

Early on in the report they state “Employers want their employees to use a broader set of skills and have higher levels of learning and knowledge than in the past to meet the increasingly complex demands they will face in the workplace.”

Employers were asked (amongst other things) what specific learning outcomes (competencies) they wanted to be developed in potential employees by educational institutions and which gives us some insights into what we need to do to become more employable.

The top five (of seventeen) items were:

The ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing 89%
Critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills 81%
The ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world settings through internships or other
hands-on experiences 79%
The ability to analyze and solve complex problems 75%
The ability to connect choices and actions to ethical decisions 75%

Now this gives all of us wanting to select which courses to attend, or which self development books to read or even which electives to study some great basic direction for our personal development priorities. This survey is an excellent look at what you should get ready to provide (outside your technical skills) and I recommend that you read the report in it entirety.

The full report can be read/downloaded at: www.aacu.org/leap/documents/2009_EmployerSurvey.pdf

Completing your resume is a great way to assess your current functional skills and competencies and if you would like to do so there is a free blank resume with examples and samples at resume form.

One of the few things I consciously remember from my “school days learning” is a ‘law’ pertaining to human existence.

If my memory serves me well Malthusian Law went something like this:

‘The world will never be overpopulated as population growth is limited by war, pestilence, famine and natural disasters.’

From a personal or individual perspective this means that if you are to survive you need to protect yourself from all these natural forces by astutely being somewhere where these occurrences are not likely to happen.

Now for many this is not possible, however if you are by chance lucky enough to have some control over your existence you should consider these factors carefully.

From a work-life point of view lets see what you can do to give yourself the best chance of surviving or even thriving.

WAR: Often times in your career you will come across a war at work. Interdepartmental rivalries, battles for limited resources, personality clashes and straightforward power struggles. It is human nature for us in conflict situations to seek allies or to be sought out as supporters for one side of an argument or another. Can I suggest if you are put in a situation where you are being recruited on a position, where others are in conflict, at all costs stay out of the fray and remain neutral. Keep away from the combatants and focus on your own job role and performance.

PESTILENCE: The major disease I have witnessed in organizations is that of “poor cultural attitudes”. Every organization has cultural norms that have grown over time based on the personalities within the company and or the legacy that others have left. Often the cultural norms of a company can limit or even destroy its competitiveness in ever changing markets. Our fear of change, reliance on how things have been done in the past, power groups with vested interests in maintaining the status quo and being blinded victims of our own past successes can all create very sick organizations. If you find yourself in a company that is maintaining traditions that are out of step with current market realities don’t hang around, go out and find a more healthy place to work.

FAMINE: Old style companies, working in ever shrinking markets, trying to survive on outmoded products or services will over time starve to death and if you stay on working for one of them you may well suffer the same fate. I have had personal experience with this when in Australia the government deregulated the banking industry and finance companies as a result were starved of funds and business opportunities. I hung on for a few years however those that updated their skill set and changed industries early did best over the years that ensued. There are virtually no ‘real’ finance companies left in Australia today. Much of America’s traditional manufacturing is of course suffering, or has already suffered, the same fate.

*Link for direct page viewers return to main career success blog to check out other posts!

By the way if any of the Malthusian issues are currently impacting on your career you may like to take a look at the free blank resume form and take the law into your own hands by using the document to move on to less dangerous places of existence!

Finally…

NATURAL DISASTERS: Perhaps one of the greatest natural disasters that can befall  most of us from a work perspective is a takeover or merger. In this type of scenario there will be all sorts of misinformation, false promises and spin floating around and you will have two choices, stay and be part of the rescue process to rebuild the new radically changed organization or head out on the first evacuation flight you can get. In the merger I was involved in I chose the former however after two years, even though I had a more senior and better paid position, I didn’t like the culture and business practices of the new organization and resigned. Some of my former colleagues from day one of the merger process resisted the change and were offered a handsome golden handshake. In retrospect I should have taken the same approach. Now you might find this to be counter intuitive however when you are part of a takeover/merger you should consider your future and your options very carefully and remember no matter how smart you are no one is indispensable. I guess if you can maneuver yourself into a position of getting enough money to live and study enough to gain new and more sought after skills in a new company, or perhaps even different career, you may well be better off over time.