The Skills Your Future (and current) Employer want you to have

Do you ever wonder what skills your current employer or future employer wants you to have? Ensuring that you have the right skills can be the difference between a promotion or a pink slip. Many of the top skills and attributes would not be classified as those that would reinvent the wheel per se, but rather are commonsensical and overlooked. Often individuals are proficient in one or two of these skills. However, for an individual to be a truly great leader and impress their current or future employer proficiency in all are required. It is understandable that not all skills can be demonstrated at one time or on command, (for that would appear that an individual’s skill in some would-be a farce and may disinterest an employer), most are easy to exhibit. The purpose of this article is not to go through each of these skills and attributes and how to acquire them but rather to reflect on why they are important in the workplace and why they are important for employers, either in hiring individuals or in conducting performance reviews on them.

Communication Skills

Communication is an everyday occurrence and is important in the workplace. It occurs everywhere from a water cooler chat with a coworker to an email to the CEO. Individuals need to be able to communicate the status of their work, their interests within an organization and any issues they might be having.

If an individual cannot communicate clearly that is a huge warning sign for employers. Individuals who cannot adequately communicate, are less likely to let others know when a project or assignment is going wrong and more likely to not ask for help in these situations. This can leave employers in the dark on projects and if they are high stakes initiatives, this can result in a loss of resources or clients for an organization.

If an individual is being hired into a management position they have even greater need to be a good communicator. Members of management need to be able to understand information that is coming from individuals higher up on the chain and be able to clearly disseminate it to those that are below them. Additionally, members of management need to be able to gather information from those who are below them and be able to synthesize it and clearly express their concerns and opinions to those that are above them in the management chain. Clear communication improves workplace relations, increases productivity and allows for greater collaboration

Knowing How to Influence

A mainstay in any professional setting of any industry is politics. With very few exceptions all jobs require the knowledge of how to navigate political landscapes of offices and workplaces to get anything done. Politics make the difference between a good roll-out of a strategic initiative and the failure of one. They tip the scales of whether or not you get a promotion, or whether you will lose your job.

By knowing how to influence people and get them to like you, you are more likely to be successful in your work, and if you are successful your employer is successful. This reinforces that hiring you a good decision on their part and incentivizes them to promote you and continue to give you good work.

Do you Have a Clear Focus?

Employers hire employees to make their lives easier in a specific way. Whether that is in the management of a team, development of financial statements, or determining the strategic direction of an organization. However, while they might have a concept of what they want you to do, or what your role should be, you should have a concept of what they want you to do as well.

In an interview, the interviewer will want to know that you know what you are getting yourself into with the job, and the expectations for you.

In the job itself, your employer will expect you to know what your role is and what you should and should not be doing. Through having a clear focus of your employer’s expectations, and meeting them, you can ensure that you will perform to the level expected of you.

Public Speaking in the Workplace

Public speaking is the differentiating factor from the mediocre to the great. Through having this skill an individual shows self-confidence and that they are willing to take on risk and responsibility. This is largely due to the fact that everything that is said in a public setting holds an individual accountable for their actions.

Those who are good at public speaking are also oftentimes associated with being a leader. If an individual becomes good at public speaking in the workplace, they are more likely to develop clout with their coworkers and will be more liked. It shows that they are comfortable around other people and effective communicators. When promotions roll around, they are more likely to be promoted since people already want to follow them, even when they aren’t in a leadership position.

Be Quantifiable

If and when an employer determines that you would be a good addition to their team, they are simultaneously agreeing to pour a large amount of resources into you and your professional growth. It is for this reason that it is very important to be quantify your work. Most employers will see you as an investment and like any good investor they want to see an ROI. While not all work is created equal and not all jobs are as easy to quantify, it is important to still try and find a quantification to your work, even if that is the number of processes changed you have changed, or reports generated.

Through maintaining a list of how you have improved your workplace, you will feel a greater sense of self confidence and joy in work. It will also give you a good platform to stand upon while you are going in and asking for a promotion or a raise from your boss, and it gives them justification to give you one.

Managing up

Managing up in the work place is important on many different levels. One of the main points of an employee working is to make the life of their boss easier, not harder. One of the best ways to do that is to develop a positive relationship with your boss, since you will be spending more time with them than you will with anyone else in your life outside of your partner. Through understanding their goals and anticipating their needs you will be able to make their lives easier, which makes they like you more and want to promote you more.

Management Experience

While this is not something that can be overcome early in a career, it is something that is will need to be gained. Many of the management skills learned in graduate programs, or education in general, is didactic theory. While this foundation is essential for future success, there is very little that can take the place of actual experience and living through different scenarios. One can learn much from simulations and case studies, however as beneficial as these are, there are very few lasting repercussions from failure in these situations. They allow you to have a concept of situations that you may encounter, but will not prepare you for the unexpectedness of situations such as having a top performing employee quit because of a decision that you made.

We hope you found this article about “The Skills Your Future (and current) Employer want you to have” helpful.  If you have questions or need expert tax or family office advice that’s refreshingly objective (we never sell investments), please contact us or visit our Family office page  or our website at www.GROCO.com.  Unfortunately, we no longer give advice to other tax professionals gratis.

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Alan Olsen, is the Host of the American Dreams Show and the Managing Partner of GROCO.com.  GROCO is a premier family office and tax advisory firm located in the San Francisco Bay area serving clients all over the world.

Alan L. Olsen, CPA, Wikipedia Bio

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The American Dreams show was the brainchild of Alan Olsen, CPA, MBA. It was originally created to fill a specific need; often inexperienced entrepreneurs lacked basic information about raising capital and how to successfully start a business. Alan sincerely wanted to respond to the many requests from aspiring entrepreneurs asking for the information and introductions they needed. But he had to find a way to help in which his venture capital clients and friends would not mind.

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