Truly Simple Skills
In today’s era, it is undeniable that working life has become a competitive world. One in which everyone has begun to improve their work skills to support their career. This is because the demands of the job are constantly changing. Especially with the current post-Covid-19 pandemic, many companies are competing to survive and choose quality workers to continue to revive their companies. Therefore, prospective employees need to equip themselves with the simple skills that will improve their work-life to compete in this world of competitive work.
Work skills are skills that help employees perform more optimally in doing their daily work. There are vital in this era because they can show the true identity of employees. For example, the way employees make decisions, regulate emotions, communicate, and so on. They help the working atmosphere in the office to be more positive, efficient, and effective. The level of possibility of a company being successful will be higher with employees who have work skills.
Thus, here are 19 simple skills that will help you to improve your work-life so you can work more effectively and efficiently to compete in this competitive work life.
1. Creativity
In a world of work that is always experiencing movement and change, every aspect involved is required to be creative and innovative. The reason for this is that every company needs bright ideas to improve the quality of the company.
This is especially important in creative industries engaged in design such as animated commercials, music, video production, architecture, and fashion. These companies require high creativity skills that produce innovation and something that attracts the attention of the public. These job skills are an ideal example that being academically smart alone will not help an employee in supporting his career.
Creativity can be honed by reading a lot of books, watching the news, or watching youtube. With a lot of knowledge sought, you will find opportunities for innovations for life in the future.
2. Active Learning
In this digital era, active learning skills are the most sought-after skills by companies. This is because the era has developed rapidly and needs employees to constantly be learning new things. This ranges from digital marketing strategies, animated advertisements, and other new knowledge. Active learning skills enable the individual to have a strong will to continue learning and apply the knowledge he has learned to improve his performance. This is a skill that you must have to survive and compete in the world of work.
3. Problem-Solving Skills
Problem-solving skills are important for you to assist an employee in finding the root of the problem, analysing it, and solving it objectively. According to a study, 93% of recruits were more concerned with critical thinking and problem-solving skills than academic skills according to college majors. You can hone your problem-solving skills by engaging in discussion forums, studying logical thinking, practicing skills through debate, brainstorming, etc.
4. Technology
Technology is an aspect that cannot be separated from everyday life. It is undeniable that everything that happens involves technology, information, and communication. In the case of work-life, due to the demands of increasingly advanced technological developments, a company requires every employee to be sensitive to technology. This includes being able to operate computers, a business phone, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Excel, and other important skills.
In addition to making work easier and more organised, sensitivity to technology also shows that an employee can adapt to the environment and the times. There are several ways to hone your technology skills including familiarising yourself with technology (reading, writing, creating documents, etc.) and sharpening your Microsoft office skills.
5. Communication Skills
Communication skills in the work-life are simple skills that must be honed by every employee. The reason is that employees are required to have good ethics and be professional in expressing their opinions. In addition, employees are also required to have good communication skills because of the demands to meet with many people, both other employees, clients, and superiors.
Given the great influence of communication in this work life, it is not surprising that every employee must be able to have clear, organised, and straightforward communication skills, both orally and in writing. You can sharpen your communication skills by opening up to all walks of life, trying to express opinions more often, learning communication techniques, and practicing them.
6. Time Management
Time management is a skill that you should not miss in the world of work. You must be able to manage your time as well as possible so that you can complete various kinds of work properly. Time management skills will also show that you are a responsible person and have high discipline. It is very important to have this one skill.
You can start by creating a timeline or schedule for daily activities so that when spending time between work, study, play, and social media can be balanced.
7. Public Speaking
Public speaking is the next skill that will improve your career because not everyone can speak in public and it is commonplace for employees to be scared of public speaking. However, this is a key skill as it is needed when leading meetings, seminars, and even big events.
Furthermore, if you want to be successful as a young professional, it is important to learn this skill. You can try practicing with a mirror to increase your confidence. You can also do the exercises in front of your friends or family. If you want to create a presentation that engages and inspires audiences, an online presentation designer will do the trick.
8. Critical Thinking Skills
In this digital era, all information can come and be obtained from anywhere and anytime. Therefore, it is important to have a critical mindset so that you can filter any information you receive and then share it wisely. Critical thinking skills are used to see things more clearly and rationally. These skills can lead you to understand logical ideas, identify and evaluate a concept, and detect the truth of the concept. This in turn means you don’t trust easily and avoid fraud attempts.
9. Negotiation Skills
The ability to negotiate is important when you work with other companies. The key to negotiating is being able to convince the other person to believe what you say.
Negotiation is two or more parties who have different goals and discuss their problems to find a solution. This skill can be used in any kind of situation, especially in business and daily life. For example in sales agreements, purchases, legal contracts, resolving conflicts, or salary negotiations.
Negotiation skills are just as important as problem-solving skills because with these skills you can solve several problems that arise in everyday life and the future.
10. Resilience
The increasingly fierce competition in the world of work requires a person to have resilience—the ability to withstand the pressures of life plus stress tolerance and high flexibility to adapt to difficult conditions.
If you want to sharpen this skill, you will need to know yourself better on how well you manage stress, regulate your emotions, increase self-confidence, and so on. Keep in mind that resilience is not a fixed aspect of a person. The level can change according to the conditions or situations we face.
11. Empathy
Empathy may sound simple, but it is a skill that not everyone can enact. This is because not everyone can understand the difference between sympathy and empathy. Therefore, this skill is very important to hone properly to help you survive and compete in the world of work.
Empathy means the desire and effort to understand other people. Everyone has different backgrounds, thoughts, and procedures, and with empathy, you can understand and appreciate the differences that other people have.
The tendency of an individualistic lifestyle makes empathy a rare skill nowadays. So, you need to learn to be more sensitive to your surroundings. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes before doing or saying anything.
12. Networking Skill
As a young professional, networking is a skill that you must master. Networking is the ability to expand connections and relationships that are useful for your future. This is because having a wide network means that more opportunities become available to you.
The importance of establishing good communication and relationships with many people from various fields can help you later. Starting from looking for work, and professional relationships, until you can learn many new things from friends who work in other fields. And don’t forget to bring your business cards to networking events! If you don’t have one yet, you can easily create your own with an online business card maker.
13. Leadership Skills
Not everyone is a natural leader, which s perfectly fine, but it is a skill that is often needed. So, for those of us who are not natural-born leaders, it’s important to hone our leadership skills. If you have high leadership skills, it will be a plus for you to be able to carry out tasks and responsibilities well and be able to communicate them to teammates.
14. Adaptability
Adapting is a mandatory simple skill that can help improve your work life. When you are a fresh graduate and are entering the world of work for the first time, you have to adapt to different types of jobs, new environments, and personalities.
Adaptability is very useful for being able to easily socialise in new environments and the ability to be able to survive in the office. Thus, if you are a person who has a faster and higher level of adaptation, it will be easier for you to feel comfortable in any situation so that you can bring out the best in yourself.
15. Decision Making
The decision-making process sometimes seems very heavy but must be done correctly. This skill will help you improve your work-life because not everyone can choose the best decision whether it’s for himself or others. However, when you are in an organisation or company, you have to be ready with these abilities because there will be times when you are asked to make decisions.
There is a thought process that must be passed before making a decision, starting from clearly defining the problem, analysing the pros and cons of each decision, to preparing follow-up actions when something unwanted happens as a result of the decisions taken.
16. Service Orientation
Service-oriented is the attitude shown in working by providing the best service to people who are in contact with the work they have, be it superiors, work partners, partners, to clients. A service-oriented attitude will foster satisfaction from the people you serve.
With service orientation skills, you are expected to be able to help others. This ability is needed when working in a team. especially this skill will be needed in a company in the field of hospitality or that focuses on service.
If you practice this skill well, you will be able to attract the attention of your customers and co-workers working with you. This can have a big positive impact on you in the future.
17. Organisation Skill
In work life, organisational skills are important to improve an employee’s career. With this skill, an employee can put himself according to his respective duties and career paths, and be responsible for it.
This organisational skill generally comes from habits that have been honed for a long time. Usually, someone begins to have these job skills by joining campus organisations to get an idea of good governance.
If the organisational experience you have is still lacking, then you should sharpen this skill by getting involved in various projects or organisations, trying to take on different responsibilities, and working together in a team.
18. People Management
People management is the ability to motivate, organise, and direct employees in carrying out their duties so that their productivity can increase. In addition, people management also aims to encourage employee growth in a professional capacity. This one skill is important and must be mastered by both leaders and company managers. Not only that, good people management skills from a manager will make employees more comfortable and loyal at work.
They will get positive motivation and good handling of various problems at work if it is in the hands of managers who have qualified people management skills. To master people management well, you can train yourself from now on. There are several ways you can do to improve people management skills, including:
- Focus on one skill first.
- Learn from an expert mentor.
- Don’t be shy to ask other managers for advice.
19. Self-Confidence
A positive attitude and self-confidence cannot be underestimated. Confidence and not giving up easily are things that positive-minded people have.
By thinking positively and confidently, you will find it easier to adapt. You will also be able to work better with your team and complete tasks and challenges well. 98% of Americans say they perform better when they feel confident, and this includes basic skills and work ethic.
Don’t worry, this confidence can be improved and trained over time. You can increase your self-confidence by eliminating all negative things from your mind. Avoid focusing too much on what other people think, and identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Takeaway
Work skills are a basic thing that every employee must-have. This is because these skills will determine the continuity of an employee’s career. Therefore, honing work skills is important to improve work-life.
The 19 simple skills mentioned above are skills that you can practice from now on as your provision in building your career world. Nothing is impossible if you continue to learn and practice so that your work life continues to improve and is useful for everyone.
