Zahir Shaikh
“The horse is symbolic of energetic and financial volatility and impulsiveness, including taking on various new projects with variable success, and borrowing and spending money.” – Wikipedia
As our Chinese friends are celebrating their new year, The Year of the Horse, we can look forward to giving our careers more “horsepower” with the economy expected to continue to improve in 2014: Insha’Allah, we will be daring enough to take on new endeavors and experience better success than what we achieved in the past, and hopefully, not have to borrow or spend too much to achieve better financial footing!
Let’s discuss how to further one’s career by exploring which core competencies (i.e., proven skills) are needed to achieve success, regardless of chosen profession. We’ll keep the discussion broad enough so that it can apply to someone on a professional track as well as to an entrepreneur or business owner.
The Keys to Success:
Often, it is difficult to sell yourself without on the one hand, sounding boastful or arrogant, or, on the other hand, too modest or unaccomplished. Think about a recent job interview or conversation you had with a potential investor. How do we strike the right balance when speaking about our experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities to win over complete strangers? We need to showcase the following core competencies through personal examples for each:
Communication and Building Business Relationships
Effective communication includes not only outward presentation in the form of oral and written expression of ideas, but also active listening to understand what the intended audience wants or needs. Active listening enables one to adjust the style, content and depth of the presentation to fit the audience.
In order to build lasting business relationships, effective communication is crucial. It enables one to develop a better understanding of how things work within the organization, and to build and grow a strong network.
Decision Making
Quickly acquiring relevant information and then combining it with one’s knowledge from past experiences will enable good decision making. There are many tools and techniques, including business processes and software, which are typically used, depending on the specific industry. However, all of these will still require wisdom developed through knowledge and experience.
Keeping On Point and Driving To Completion
Once a decision is made, demonstrating a sustained effort in the face of shifting priorities, or even distractions, is what is meant by keeping on point. Driving to completion means to see the work through to an acceptable conclusion. These competencies are especially crucial for lengthy, more complex projects. Other priorities are going to surface, and set-backs are bound to happen. One’s ability to stay focused will be tested.
Leadership, Courage and Flexibility
As with most things in life, there are multiple paths to success, but usually all roads require navigating through obstacles and overcoming discord Having a clear vision, getting others motivated toward that vision, and demonstrating resilience and perseverance when facing adversity, challenges or obstacles is a great definition of courageous lead ership. Flexibility can be defined as adaptability to the changing nature of the business and repri-oritizing based on new information, opportunities or threats. Consistently demonstrating courageous leadership combined with fexibility should help one progress toward the fast track to career advancement.
…Now the key to the job interview or sales pitch to a potential investor is to have several detailed examples of the above core competencies ready to sell yourself. Of course, all of your examples should also explain how you helped drive positive outcomes for the business.
May 2014 bring you much success and satisfaction in your professional endeavors!