What Are the Best Skills to Learn for Career Success? How Can You Get Them?

Have you ever thought about the best skills to learn for career success? More than likely you have at some point or another. The Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Davos ReaderMost employees strive to attain professional success, but many are not sure if what they are doing is effective. Not to worry. Based on its Future Jobs Report, the World Economic Forum reported that there 10 skills needed for future jobs, there are 10 specific skills that will enable you to achieve career success if you learn and apply them.

Related: Job Skills List: Top 10 Skills to Thrive in the Future (See the 10 main employability skills)

The World Economic Forum adds, that we are in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the 10 skills will help you to thrive. Additionally, the 10 skills are not easy to acquire on your own, but if you collaborated with others, who are very different, you can learn the 10 skills. If you proactively coordinate with others, applying what you learn, you can thrive in the future. Interestingly enough, in some of the Thinkers Guide series of books, they state that each discipline has a core set of ideas, and you have to learn the core ideas to master them. A good approach is to treat each of the 10 skills as a course that you must master.

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In the blog post, Professional Skills List: How You Can Get the Top Skills for 2020, I presented a way for you to start learning the 10 top skills. This post, is the second part of the series of equipping yourself with the main employability skills. 

Introduction to the Best Skills to Learn for Career Success

How many of the 10 skills needed for future jobs do you have? And even if you have some or all of the 10 skills, it makes sense that you invest the time to hone all of them. That's what I'm doing – there is always room for improvement. For each of the 10 skills below, I intend to deconstruct it to identify the core ideas. Then I intend to use the eight elements of thought from the Thinkers Guide books that I recently read.

1. Complex Problem Solving
2. Critical Thinking
3. Creativity
4. People Management
5. Coordinating with Others
6. Emotional Intelligence
7. Judgment and Decision Making
8. Service Orientation
9. Negotiation
10. Cognitive Flexibility

In Part One of this series, I covered complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, judgement and decision making, cognitive flexibility, and coordinating with others. In this post, I'll focus on people management, emotional intelligence, service orientation and negotiation.

Best Skills to Learn:  People Management

What is people management? According to Reference.com, “People management refers to a manager's role in training, developing and motivating employees to perform their best. This role is distinct from other managerial roles.” To manage people effectively, there are certain activities that are expected.

• Evaluate each employee's performance on the job.
• Provide ongoing feedback.
• Recommend areas for improvement.
• Provide access to training.

The books for career development on people management that you read, should enable you to learn how to perform these activities effectively. You can practice using the skills on the job, as well as with team members.

Books for Career Development: People Management

(Click on the Books to Purchase on Amazon)

The One Thing You Need to Know:Act Like a Leader, Think Like a LeaderMindset: The New Psychology of SuccessThe Art Of WarThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective PeopleThe Happiness Advantage

 Give and Take Leading Teams To Sell Is Human

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Best Skills to Learn:  Emotional Intelligence

What is emotional intelligence? Peter Salavoy and John Mayer, two researchers, coined the term emotional intelligence. Dan Goleman popularized the term in his 1996 book, of the same name. Emotional Intelligence (EI or EQ), is the ability to:

• “Recognize, understand and manage our own emotions.
• Recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others.”

Your emotion determines how you behave, which affects those around you. Therefore, you have to learn how to manage your emotions, especially when you are in a stressful situation. Identify the best techniques and strategies to understand and manage your emotions. You also have to hone your interpersonal skills to develop empathy.

Books for Career Development: Emotional Intelligence

(Click on the Books to Purchase on Amazon)

Emotional IntelligenceEmotional Intelligence 2.0 (NONE)Go Suck a LemonBuilding Emotional IntelligenceThe New Psycho-CyberneticsThe EQ Edge

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Best Skills to Learn:  Service Orientation

What is service orientation? My interpretation of service orientation is impeccable customer service. So the question really is “What is customer service orientation?” And a customer could be internal or external to the organization.

However, I found a definition for service orientation. Service orientation is described as a “Set of attitudes and behaviors that affects the quality of the interaction between the organization's staff and its customers. This definition was later expanded to include a willingness to treat co-workers and clients with courtesy, consideration, and tact, combined with the ability to perceive a customer's needs, and communicate effectively.”

What are the common traits associated with customer service orientation? They include:

• Ability to align the organization's goals with the customer's needs.
• Ability to get along with others.
• Have empathy to a customer's needs and concerns.
• People oriented.
• Dependable and reliable.

Books for Career Development: Service Orientation

(Click on the Books to Purchase on Amazon)

The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service ExcellenceFour SeasonsTo Sell Is HumanService OrientationCustomer Satisfaction Is Worthless, Customer Loyalty Is PricelessBe Our Guest

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Best Skills to Learn:  Negotiation

What is negotiation? Negotiation is the process of reaching an agreement. According to Saylor.org, the edcucational institution:

“Negotiation refers to the process of interacting in order to advance individual interests through joint action. Contrary to what you might think, negotiations are not confined to the professional world; we often negotiate in our personal lives. The principles that guide successful negotiations in world politics are equally important in the business world as well as our personal lives. In fact, almost every transaction with another individual involves negotiation.”

To master negotiation skills, you have to understand:

• Negotiating conceptual frameworks.
• Negotiating skills, tactics and strategies.
• Theory, processes, and practices of negotiation, conflict resolution, and relationship management.
• Patterns of negotiation and conflict resolution in different national and cultural contexts

Books for Career Development: Negotiation

(Click on the Books to Purchase on Amazon)

 How to Win Friends & Influence People Negotiation Genius Getting to Yes Influence The Thirty-Six Stratagems Kiss, Bow, Or Shake Hands How to Sweet-Talk a Shark Great Negotiations

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Final Thoughts on the Best Skills to Learn for Career Success

What I have done here is simply a starting point to learn these four skills. The next step in the process is for each skill, to scan the related books. Look at the Table of Contents, spend about 20 minutes pre-reading the books, to get a sense of the content. An option before buying any of the books is to spend half-day at the library looking through books to discover the core ideas for the skills you have to learn.