New skills or improving them? Reflection exercise for life!
We have always heard and been encouraged to develop various competences and skills, especially when it comes to entering and/or remaining in the corporate world.
From time to time, a new technical or emotional conjecture is added to the list of so many others that have already been widely mentioned and demanded. A little more recently, we've been hearing about Soft skills and the Hard skills which, in good Portuguese, are interpersonal and technical competences. In other words, they are the skills we must have and develop, not only with the aim of achieving significant results in our professional performance, but especially in terms of how we relate to each other in all areas of our lives.
New behaviours and new assumptions end up fostering a scenario in which new interpersonal demands are being made on both sides (company and employee)regardless of the markets and niches in which they operate.
In a recent study, Michael Page - a renowned recruitment consultancy - identified 5 major competences that respondents pointed to as the most desired in the workplace, regardless of area of activity and seniority. These are:
- Teamwork;
- Emotional intelligence/control of emotions;
- Resilience/resistance to stress;
- Communication skills;
- Proactivity
Nothing new in the corporate world, right? But why were these competences highlighted in the study? Why are these the ones highlighted in the profile survey? Why are these skills desirable in such a volatile and technologically-driven world of work?
The answer is simple: it's about how we position ourselves in terms of relationships and day-to-day interactions at work. And it's easy to understand this context when we consider that, even with so many technologies at our disposal - AI in particular - well-structured and defined processes, action plans and detailed reports, it is a priority for professionals to be more sensitive and inclined to establish accessible behaviours, with greater interaction and exchange, where active listening is as important, if not more important, than an immediate technical response.
Note that the first item of relevance was teamwork. Consider that in your team (regardless of whether there are two or fifteen professionals focused on carrying out a job that will ultimately favour the company's growth), there are most likely noises and failures in the process and we can list numerous reasons for this. But let's focus on the other items in the survey: emotional intelligence, resilience, communication skills and proactivity. If one of these is out of balance, teamwork will probably not be as successful as expected. It's that simple!
You might ask: but why is this? Because the "x" of the question lies at the intersection of each of the competences identified as essential by the research. The lack of clear communication regarding, for example, deadlines and roles within the team, can lead to a lack of understanding that can result in overwork for one member or simply low proactivity on the part of another. The consequence will be an increase in the level of stress due to the time it takes to complete the task and, without a doubt, tiredness, irritability and a lack of emotional control will be behaviours perceived in the tone of voice, speech or actions.
There is no magic formula for achieving our best performance at work. But there is a way to develop these skills (good communication, resilience, proactivity, emotional control) with the aim of guaranteeing smooth teamwork, led by active and committed management. This formula also allows us to achieve our personal goals: by analysing how we are, how we deal with situations and how we should boost continuous improvement actions in our daily lives.
As subjective beings with distinct personalities, we are unique. However, living in society makes us play important roles that will result in how we are not only at the end of the day, but throughout our lives.
Good thinking!
Text written by: Milka Râbelo.