Avoid Getting Left Behind in Your Career: Actions to Take

Avoid Getting Left Behind in Your Career: Update Skills

We are living and working in a dynamic environment. And it is difficult to keep up with all the changes that are taking place. If you are not careful, you could find yourself left behind. This article is for you as much as it is for me. In the past, I sometimes see and sense what will happen in the future, yet I still get caught up in the fallout. At times I think that I do not know which actions to take, and so I do nothing. But when things get bad, I figure out what actions to take, so why could I not figure it out before? I could have if I did not view the situation as hopeless – because it was not. If you want to avoid getting left behind, then there are specific actions to take.

World Economic Forum Recommend That You Learn These 10 Skills

More than a year ago, the World Economic Forum released its report on the 10 skills you need to thrive in 2020. Months after its release I saw the report. I have learned several of the skills already, but I still have to focus on a few. This time I am determined not to make a year go by without mastering all 10 skills. Twenty-twenty is not that far away. To refresh your memory here are the 10 skills from the report.

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

Have you read?

Problem Solving Activity for Adults: Use First Principles to Problem Solve the Elon Musk Way

How to Learn the 10 Skills

How do you plan to learn the skills, so that you avoid getting left behind? When you reflect on the 10 skills, they make sense, and if you master them, that can make a difference in what you achieve in your career and life. To learn the skills, I have been reading books that teach the skills. However, I am reading the books actively. That means that I take notes while I am reading, and I review my notes several times.

Additionally, I have turned some of my notes into book summaries. And I crafted the summaries in such a way that you can learn the skills, which is unusual for book summaries that are available today.

For the book summaries that I have for sale on my website, I practiced using the models to make sure that they work. I have said many times before that complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and judgement and decision making are related skills. With that in mind, I also created the Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Creativity, & Decision-Making Action Guide. When you do the exercises in the action guide, you will learn the four skills. And you get to use your own examples, which is far more meaningful to the learner because it is relevant to you.

You can buy the resources that I created for you or you can read the books to teach you the skills. Not all books are created, so you must be careful which books you choose to read. A few years ago, I read somewhere that if you want to master a topic of interest, you have to read and study five of the best books on the topic. To create the workbook that teaches you problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and decision making, I read more than five books on the topic. Several of the books cover the four skills.

Avil's e-Book and Book Summaries

Please click on the book cover if you want to purchase any of my books, thanks!

Books I Read to Learn the Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Decision Making

1. A Technique for Producing Ideas
2. The MacGyver Secret
3. Problem Solving 101
4. How to Get Ideas
5. Where Good Ideas Come From
6. Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure
7. Decision Diagnosis: Seven Antidotes to Decision Procrastination

 A technique for producing ideas: A simple five step formula for producing ideas The MacGyver Secret: Connect to Your Inner MacGyver and Solve Anything Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People How to Get Ideas Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure Decision Diagnosis: Seven Antidotes to Decision Procrastination

Additionally, using curation software that I own, I created a curated post for each of the skills. It is worth mentioning that not all the books I read were good, so I have not included some of them.

Have you read?

1. If You Read One Article About Complex Problem Solving Skills Read This One
2. Why Critical Thinking Skills are the Secret Ingredients for Success
3. The Beginner’s Playbook to Creativity Skills
4. Why Our World Would End If People Management Skills Disappeared
5. Complete Beginner’s Guide to Collaboration Skills
6. Ultimate Guide to Emotional Intelligence Skills
7. Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Service Orientation
8. How Decision Making Skills Can Get You Your Heart’s Desire
9. The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Negotiation Skills
10. Bite-Sized Guide to Cognitive Flexibility Skills
    

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When you read and digest each curated post, you have a solid foundation for each skill and you will understand the structure of each one.

Avoid Getting Left Behind in Your Career: Learn to Spot Trends

Learning key skills is important for career progression, but you also have to be aware of what is going on in your industry. You must pay attention to the trends that are shaping the industry. Here are a few things that you can do to help you identify and curate trends.

1. Read industry journals.
2. Attend conferences and interact with keynote speakers.
3. Listen to what the futurists are saying.
4. Watch TED Talks.
5. Follow industry bloggers.
6. Listen to relevant podcasts.

Do not simply accept what you read, watch, or hear. Process the information and find ways to connect the information from the various media. What are your reactions to the information? When you pay close attention, you will notice things that others may miss.

Have you read?

Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas and Predict the Future by Rohit Bhargava

Avoid Getting Left Behind in Your Career: Apply What You Learn

Learning and mastering all the skills as well as spotting trends that are shaping or will shape the industry, will not guarantee that you will not be left behind in your career. You have to be proactive in your career, applying the skills and using the information on a project that matters to the organization.

Have candid and honest conversations with your boss. Let her know that you have learned the 10 key skills as well as noticed contemporary trends and would like to apply them in support of the organization’s goals. Have a project in mind that you want to work on before your meeting. When you get approval to work on a project, do not keep your stretch assignment a secret, let influencers in the organization know about what you are doing. Offer to write an article for the company newsletter, so that others may learn from you. Your stretch assignment should allow you to grow into your next position.

And although it is obvious, I am going to mention that you should take the project seriously and successfully complete it.

Have you read?

How to Get a Promotion Fast

Stretch Assignment: You’ve Gathered Information, Now What!

Avoid Getting Left Behind in Your Career: Profit from Your Learnings

You have invested a lot of time reading books to learn the 10 skills, studying trends and working on a stretch assignment. How can you help yourself while helping others? One of the best way is to write an e-book. You have your own unique spin that will make your product invaluable. I recently learned that people will read e-books that are between 60 and 80 pages. But you do not even have to write an e-book that is that long, it could be between 5000 to 10,000 words.

You can use the e-book as your calling card and it will help you to establish authority and credibility.

Avoid Getting Left Behind in Your Career: One Other Action to Take

I would love it if you supported me by buying my products listed above. However, I want to add another resource for you. It is an affiliate link, but I want to say that I purchased a subscription for myself. I have started using the resources, not as much as I would like. So, I am going to do what I did a few years ago, is to pick a workshop or summary to go through every day. I find that works for me when I have my professional development time first thing in the mornings.

The resource that I would like to introduce you to is MentorBox, founded by  Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez.

Final Thoughts: Avoid Getting Left Behind in Your Career: Actions to Take

There are no guarantees in life but investing the time to do the above activities will take you closer to career success. And one you have gone through the process, you can do it again. It makes sense to take action to avoid getting behind in your career.