Valuable, Here I Come!

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work. --Colin Powell

Think of people who you feel are successful. Famous singers, famous actors and actresses, great athletes and many more, they have at least one common trait: they are valuable, and success has found them.

As an educator, I’m a big fan of education. Does education add to our personal value? It certainly does. However, I strongly believe there are other things out there that add to our value beyond education. Stanford, Harvard and the Carnegie Institute have concluded that 85% of our career success comes from our soft skills while only 15% of our career success comes from our hard skills.

So, what are soft skills and what are hard skills? Soft skills are basically life skills such as time management, task initiation, prioritization, people skills etc. While hard skills are our degrees and certifications. When it comes to successes in life, I personally believe we need both soft and hard skills. However, I’m also a big fan of the conclusion which Stanford, Harvard and the Carnegie Institute have reported. A whopping 85% of our career success comes from our soft skills while only 15% come from our hard skills. Wow! It’s time to really look at what the heck are these soft skills and where can one purchase them?

While in junior high school, I first heard the term genius. Truth be told, no one referred to me as a genius. Not even close. It seemed to me that geniuses were not all that common way back in the day. Maybe they were, I just did not bump into a lot of geniuses. Today, it seems like there are a lot more of these genius types. There are software, hardware, A.I., medical and many more of these brilliant people all over the place. However, if an extremely intelligent person cannot get to work on time, or they are given a task at work and procrastinate regularly, the workplace will just replace them with an intelligent person who can get to work on time and who is excellent at task initiation. My point is very smart people are important in the workplace however, people who possesses very good soft skills are extremely coveted in the workplace!

Remember, don’t pursue becoming successful, pursue becoming valuable then success will find you. So, what valuable things should you pursue? Soft skills! Again, education is important. I like to say a degree is the gateway to getting a job interview but during the interview process, if you display great soft and people skills and take these skills with you as you move forward in your work life, I’d say your chances of capturing many of your hopes and dreams are very likely!

Here are a few soft and people skills to pursue which will increase your value. I will cover each of these skills in individual blogs:

1. Time Management

2. Task Initiation

3. Prioritization

4. Focused Attention

5. Organization

6. Memory

7. People Skills

Your turn...

Give yourself a number between 1-10. Ten is the tops. Where do you rate yourself on 1-10 with the above soft skills?