Entry 24.2

We are now a full week into school and hopefully things are starting to calm down for you a little bit. They won’t stay that way for long, so don’t get too comfortable. I remember the shock of all the reading, quizzes, tests and projects I found in the various syllabi I received over the first few days of school. But as I started the semester and got into a routine, I found I had way more free time than I was planning on. Guess what? That doesn’t change when you get into the real world. Right now, as I write, I just finished my initial plan for how I am going to juggle everything that I have to do this semester. Which includes how I plan to respond to last minute requests, emergencies or tasks. Those of you who have been here since last school year and have worked with me in various capacities probably realize that I am a planner. I am constantly in a state of learning as well. Just last night while doing some research on a new approach to the golf swing, I went down the rabbit hole of researching the importance of gut instinct, or intuition, whichever you prefer to call it. But that is a topic for another day. Today I want to talk about the job skills that you can develop now that will translate to any job you ever apply for. These are known as soft skills and many of you can probably rattle off more of them that I can. But knowing and applying are two very different things.

A quick internet search of “job skills employers look for” led me to Forbes.com. As you read through the list, take note of which ones you already knew about, and which ones are new to you.

Communication

Teamwork

Problem Solving Ability

Planning and Organizing

Leadership

Time Management

Adaptability

Creative Thinking

Self-management

Productivity

Initiative

Conflict Resolution

Now go through the list again and find the ones you are good at and the ones you need to work on. Think back to all of the syllabi that you received last week and try to remember if any of those skills are directly taught, meaning the professor gave you an assignment covering that topic. The probability any of these skills made it into the curriculum and you will be taught specifically how to do them is quite low. Every list I looked at is similar which means employers expect you to have these skills, but very few people will be taught these skills. Frankly, the responsibility to learn these skills doesn’t directly lie with your professors, it lies with you. Every assignment you complete requires specific attention to the task at hand, but so often we don’t give direct attention to learning soft skills. Which means they are probably not developing at the rate that we need them to. Because just knowing the list isn’t enough, you must be able to apply the concepts to you daily life.

This charge isn’t just for you. It’s for me as well. I’m in my third career and every day I have to work on developing these skills. The skills that are directly related to Time Management, I feel like I’m pretty good at: Planning and Organizing, Productivity, Initiative, Self-management and Problem Solving Ability. But being good at those skills inherently makes me weaker in skills like Adaptability, Communication, Leadership, and Teamwork. Even if we stop looking at them mathematically and I give you my honest assessment of myself from myself, I struggle in those areas. I used to hate group projects because I just felt it was easier to do on my own. Over time, I have finally beat it into my head that I can learn from anyone if I let it happen. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to those weaknesses because I like most people, will take the path of least resistance and avoid them. It’s just easier that way. There are so many cliches about “the easy way” so I’m not going to quote one of them. And no matter what any of them say, sometimes the easy way is the right way. But not every time. And if you are honest with yourself, you can probably recognize times when you should’ve taken another path instead of “Easy Way”. As you get better at applying these skills, the more often the best way is the easy way.

Giving specific attention to any of these skills means you are applying knowledge which to me is the most important skill of all. I know a lot of people who have a ton of head knowledge, but common sense and applying that knowledge is lacking. The days where employers are looking for awesome GPAs is gone. They want employees who can get stuff done. I am not giving you an excuse not to work hard in school. I am encouraging you to work even harder because now I am telling you to do well academically while simultaneously developing these skills. You need both. I’m not going to stand here and type saying I’ve got it all figured out. I constantly find myself lacking. Especially when the task is something I don’t want to do. My strategy is to apply the same exact approach no matter what the task is. For some of you, playing golf and practicing is where you are really good at applying these soft skills because it’s something you enjoy and want to do. But other areas of you life, it appears to others that you don’t have these skills at all. I’m not naive enough to know that no one has any soft skills. We all have them. But it’s a matter of perception that someone may not have these skills. Always assume that someone is watching how you go through life and care about what they think. Don’t let their perception of you control you and how you live your life, but maybe let it help guide you to make better decisions about how you present yourself.

I’ll put it this way. For any of my student workers, this is the list that I want to help develop in you. I don’t care that you have the skill to put out range balls or fill up water jugs. What I do care about is that when you leave here, you have direct examples of you applying all of these skills in a job setting. These are the skills that you can take anywhere you go, anywhere in the world, and use them to not just do your job, but to excel at your job. Some of the time, I have to directly address one of these skills with a student worker. Many times though, you learn them from each other and you may not even know it. Learn to recognize when you are applying a soft skill, evaluate if you could do it better, and then act on that evaluation. One of the methods I use to teach these skills is by giving end states. This is what the task is and what it looks like when it is completed. But the how to I purposefully leave out. I want you to use creative thinking and your own problem-solving ability to be productive. I’ve been using this technique for years and I can’t tell you how much I have learned just by watching the many people that have worked for me.

Everyone will expect these skills from you but you are the one who has to teach yourself how and develop them into strengths. Don’t be surprised if they expect them from you, but don’t have those skills themselves. And don’t procrastinate. I have two phrases that I carry with me everywhere I go. One of them applies here: One percent better today than I was yesterday. It’s open ended. I work to one percent better at everything I do, every day. 1% isn’t a whole lot. Maybe it will work for you too.