Re-skilling, Upscaling the Skills and Multi-skilling

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

(You will benefit more if you also read all of my previous write-ups on this site).

In today fast changing world where almost everything is changing at a mind boggling pace, you can not rest after achieving high levels of proficiency in the skills required for your personal, professional, family and social activities. If you stop practicing at those skills, you will deteriorate in those skills, therefore keep re-skilling yourself in all those skills required for your effectiveness and success. Keep practicing those. Its like sharpening the saw every now and then.

You will soon realize that the existing job profiles are constantly changing. Some jobs become extinct or may become less lucrative or less paying or you may lose interest in your existing activities etc. Therefore, you have to be alert and look out for more potential opportunities. For example, a coder or a computer programmer may like to up-scale his skills to work as a system analyst or a business analyst or a programming/project manager. So, upscaling in the associated field is the key for long term staying power with lots of career satisfaction and so, the family happiness.

You may like to work in two types of jobs or pursue career in two or more professions. In that case, you have to be skilled in more than one sets of skills. We call it multi-skilling. You may like to be a multi skilled person.

So use re-skilling, upscaling the skills and multi-skilling to your advantage.

(You can download eBook "Competencies and Competency Matrix" from http://nbuu.co/cm)

Read "Management Anecdotes" authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar at: http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Competency Matrix, Competency Mapping, Gap Analysis and Competency Building

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

(You will benefit more if you also read all of my previous write-ups on this site).

The model to build up your hard and soft skills/competencies and gain excellence in them, in a focused manner, is a four stage model:

1. Developing your competency matrix: By your self analysis and taking help of others (your friends, spouse, parents, brothers & sisters, professional associates, bosses etc), find out the hard and soft skills/competencies you should possess in order to be successful in your professional and family roles. Write them down.

2. Map your own competencies against the competency matrix requirements: Check out if you have those required skills/competencies and are they at the desired level of proficiencies.

3. Analyse the competency gaps: By doing steps 1 & 2, you will come to know your skill/competency gaps. Which are the skills/competencies that are totally absent in you and you should pick them up fast because they are critical to your success. You will also know the skills/competencies which you already have but not at the desired levels of proficiency. Pull up there. Do not worry about other skills/competencies outside of your competency matrix (step 1). Write down these gaps.

4. Bridge the competency gaps: Now is the time to act on the identified gaps (step 3) in skills/competencies. For each skill/competency that you need to improve, you should work out a clear cut time line based action plan. Look out for the sources & resources and ways & means to pick up and pull up your skills/competencies found as gaps. Try to reach the desired levels of proficiency in a well defined time span. Implementation and practice are the essential aspects of building skills/competencies as emphasized in my earlier write-ups.

So, go ahead, follow the above-mentioned SOP (model) and become the highly skilled/competent person in your chosen roles and become successful in life- professional, personal, family and social.

Do not bother to look at those skills/competencies which are not appearing in your competency matrix (step 1) though they may look good or your friends may be good at them. Don't waste your energy and time in picking them up or improving them. If you work on them, you will reach only to a mediocre level from your existing poor level. However, if you concentrate on your competency matrix (step 1), you will go from strength to strength and in the same period of time, you will reach to excellence level. So, don't attempt to become mediocre in the skills/competencies not required by you for your success but become excellent in all the skills/competencies required by you for your success.

You will have to work on this model quite frequently, say once or twice every year of your life. There will be changes in profile of jobs, techology, social activities, business practices and many other things and that will impact on your competency matrix.

(You can download eBook "Competencies and Competency Matrix" from http://nbuu.co/cm)

Read "Management Anecdotes" authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar at: http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Soft Skills and Hard Skills: More About Them

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

(You will benefit more if you also read all of my previous write-ups on this site).

Hard skills are technical skills. Like writing programs for computers, preparing a balance sheet, working on a particular machine for a particular process in a manufacturing workshop, acting in a television serial or a cinema film, carrying out a surgery etc. You must have proficiency in these skills in order to become a good professional in your chosen fields and to earn decent living.

You can do a still better job of your chosen professions if you also acquire proficiency in those soft skills which are required to perform your jobs better. These soft skills are behavioral in nature. For example, how do you communicate with the people, how good are you in making business presentations, how empathetic you are with the people you come across, can you work as a team member, do you manage your time well and so on. These skills make all the difference.

Mere technical skills allow you certain degree of success. You can achieve higher degree of success if you equip yourself with soft skills too.

Technical skills are obvious and people learning them find it easy to understand and follow the processes of acquiring these skills. However, one wonders as to what is there to learn in soft skills; you are already doing them. Say, communication. You have been speaking and listening from the very young age and so, one may think as to what is there to learn more and how to learn. But if you look around you may find that some people are more effective in speaking than others. Here is the answer. The people who speak more effectively have learnt and practiced to speak effectively. They have followed and implemented certain processes and guidelines for speaking more effectively. It did hot happen to them accidentally or automatically.

Soft skills make a difference in the external and internal personalities. People who acquire soft skills of high order are more sophisticated, more cultured, more reformed and are found to be more successful in every walk of life.

Therefore, in addition to perfecting your hard skills, also try to perfect your soft skills.

(You can download eBook "Competencies and Competency Matrix" from http://nbuu.co/cm)

Read "Management Anecdotes" authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar at: http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/