While having skills in your craft or trade is mandatory for getting jobs, I believe people skills could possibly be more important. The question is why not have both? I really believe in this, I think putting effort in this can create a lot of happiness in our lives, so that’s why I am making this post. It’s near and dear to my heart.
So many hiring managers say they would rather work with someone with less talent who is pleasant to be around, and not to be around someone super talented and a has an attitude. By the way, this isn’t just to get something out of life, it’s for yourself! The fact of the matter is this will take a lot of work that most people don’t want to do because you have to put yourself out there. It’s amazing how the idea of “judgement” can hold us back from tapping into our true potential in life. THIS IS WHERE THE ULTIMATE LEVERAGE IS.
Why is it such a odd thing when a person in society says “I am going to work on my social and people skills.” It’s almost like you either have or don’t. I was tired using this as an excuse not to make these changes in my life. YOU ARE INTROVERTED OR EXTROVERTED, that’s all you are. WRONG! I believe you can be very introverted by nature (like myself) and still making big strides forward and GET RESULTS! How do I know this? Because I have done it and still doing it. Doing this work on myself to get better, landed me jobs, relationships, and great friends in the process! So why stop expanding?
Presenting yourself the right way, connecting with others properly, and having social/emotional intelligence is highly underrated.
I haven’t always been super sharp in this area. I had to seriously ask myself three years ago, what’s going to happen if nothing changes in this area?
The answer for me was a sense of urgency to fix this!
It came down to being able to freely express myself without caring what other people think, getting my ideas across, and becoming more memorable.
It’s not about becoming someone you are not, but growing into your best self.
THIS IS STILL A HUGE WORK IN PROGRESS FOR ME
Think about it, say you have all the skills and talent, but you don’t know how to present it nicely and communicate about it well, then what makes the person hiring you comfortable putting them on their team. So having this down can give you leverage in life.
Putting your ego to the side and choose to work on this stuff:
I had to go out a lot to work on this and progressively desensitize myself to social situations outside of my comfort area to grow.
From someone who was very introverted, I was able to make tremendous progress in this area. It was shocking before getting out there, something like having a blog like this wouldn’t be in my reality.
How can we make progress in these areas?
Simple, you can either learn from your self and still get progress, but I also think learning from others in this area can really give you the advantage. There is a great platform I really like called LinkedIn Learning, they have great courses on everything including communication skills! Also COACHING ! I hired coaches and mentors, it’s the way to get to where you want faster. It cost money, but think about how many years you can save from the trial and error learning yourself. I learned quickly that most high level people are part of private mastermind groups. When you pay and invest in something, you are more likely to action and do the things your mentor tells you to do.
As it’s harder to be social than ever, you can still learn so you are prepared.
There is no better time to learn skills than now.
I noticed studying sales and marketing recently, the best salesmen are the best communicators.
Why I personally want to constantly improve my social skills?
1 – Creating better long lasting relationships both professionally and personally
2 – Ability to meet new people easily
3 – Overcoming my comfort zone
4 – Getting higher quality jobs
5 – Having the ability to influence and getting my point across effectively
6 – Changing myself for the good and putting positive energy in world!
7 – Rising above just using social media and face life head on
8 – Creating a life of abundance, blessings, and options!
It seems like to me there is more positive than negative outcomes learning these skills!
Knowing that this like most things won’t fix themselves without YOU progressively chipping away at it, why not start now to work on it? ONLY If you feel like working on this area is something that resonates with you, of course.
Here are some admirable qualities I personally believe in and working towards:
1 – The balance of taking life seriously, and not taking it too seriously
2- Developing thicker skin to handle tough times and general situations
3 – Developing and keeping a sense of humor
4 – Strong sense of self
5 – Ability to read the room
6 – Great listener
7 – Great eye contact, body language, and vocal projection
8 – Being humble
9 – Having strong personal boundaries
10 – Empathy
What do you think about all this?
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