Career: Celebrate your skills and talents

Whatever we do as day jobs or careers, over time, we build up a collection of skills and talents. Some we know we have but we may also surprise ourselves with our hidden skills. We pick up skills through training, on the job and every day tasks. We pick them up as we try out new things or projects. A we’re busy with work and life in general we can forget about our many skills and talents. Whether you’re in a job, working on your own business, trying both or a stay at home mum or dad, it’s important to celebrate your skills and talents…

  1. Think back to the start of your career…A career doesn’t have to mean doing the same kind of work or being in the same kind of profession. You may have moved around a lot in your career and worked in different fields. Do you remember your first job? Why did they employ you? What skills did they spot? What skills came in handy? Lots of me and my school friends had our first jobs in the local supermarkets. So it was all about customer service, being there on time for your shift and a huge attention to detail (especially when I worked with the old school non-scanner type checkout tills!)
  2. What skills make you good at your job or work now? It can be organisation, communicating information, influencing, helping others, customer service. It can be a whole heap of things. Make a list of three skills essential for your work. It’s important to feel good about what skills and talents you bring to the job.
  3. What skills have you mastered over the years? These might be technical skills or softer skills like presenting or managing teams. Give yourself some credit how you’ve built up a collection of skills.
  4. What are your top three skills? If someone asked you why you’re great at your work, what would you say? What are you really good at? If you ever need to do a CV, what three skills do you want people to know about first? Skills may be things we love doing but they can also be things essential for the line of work you’re in. If you’re struggling to think of your own skills and talents, then don’t be afraid to ask for some feedback from a trusted colleague or friend on skills you’ve mastered.
  5. What new skills do you want to learn? There’s always room to learn more, but this also depends on our time and other priorities (work, family and play). Think about what skills you’d like to explore over the coming year. Would you like to go on a course, learn some skills from someone else or just give something a go?
  6. Skills and talents don’t have to be professional qualifications. People work hard for professional qualifications but it’s also about the other skills you need to use those qualifications. Most jobs require some common skills like team work, client focus, planning, staying organised or getting things done. We also master these skills outside of our working life.
  7. Celebrating the skills from your experience. Over the years, we also pick up skills from different experiences. You may have been involved in a small or big project which required a different skill set.  You may have organised your kids birthday party or volunteered for a charity? A lot of these skills can benefit our work and careers so don’t forget the casual skills you’ve mastered along the way.

Over to you…What skills and talents are you proud? Anything you’d like to try or learn more about? What are some of the best skills you’ve picked up from your work or career?

I’m doing a talk on Confidence, Career and Motherhood at the OLA MAMA event on Thursday 2 March at the lovely family lifestyle store Olive Loves Alfie East in Stratford, London 11am-1pm. Babies and young children are welcome and only grown-ups need to pick up a ticket. There are only a few tickets left now. Click here for ticket info.

Keep an eye out for more blog posts in the Lucky Things Career series. Drop me a line at sunita@luckythings.co.uk if you’d like to chat about career, confidence or business coaching.  If you’d like to find out more about my HR consultancy working with individuals and businesses, pop over to collectiveinsight.co.uk

 

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