If you hope to go far in the professional space, any professional space, it’s important to curate skills as you develop. Some of them may be out of your comfort zone. For example, a wonderful artist may need to learn business skills to sell their works, to gain exposure, and to become embedded in the art circuit of their local scene.
Yet all of these skills are relatively expected, and most understand they need to expand as a professional to, well, become more professional. But what about those business skills that are rarely advised, trained or taught? For example, personal candor is rarely taught in university, but having charm is essential if you hope to negotiate well and sell people on your ideas.
Better yet, you can work on many of these minor skills, even if they fly under the radar most of the time. In this post, I’m going to share some light on this practice and give you a fantastic set of options to round yourself off as a professional. Here are 5 attributes that are essential for any woman looking to develop her career or business.
1. Strategic Networking
Many professionals tend to view networking as “being as unashamed about getting my name out there as I can be,” but in reality throwing mud at the wall doesn’t really relate to success.
Networking isn’t solely about collecting business cards or adding connections on LinkedIn, especially with how tiring that can be. Focus your time on building meaningful relationships that can benefit your career in the long run. You can start by identifying those with unique insight, connections or something to teach, meeting them, understanding them, and co-operating with them if possible. That means being authentic..
This also gives you an excuse to attend industry events, conferences, or even those casual meetups like work lunches where available. Don’t just focus on the big names either – sometimes, connections with peers at your level can be just as valuable as you grow together in your careers. Getting a call from someone five years down the line might change your progression entirely.
Better yet, if you think about what you can offer others, not just what they can do for you, that tends to flow favorably in your direction later on down the line.
2. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is generally considered the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of others. Don’t worry it’s not about being a con artist, though obviously they do need sharp people reading skills! Emotional intelligence is more about genuine empathy and maturity.
In a professional setting, high EQ can help you better manage conflict or prevent it before it starts, work with people you don’t like more capably, or have the understanding of which professionals you should try and work around.
You can work on your EQ by practicing self-awareness, and it’ll usually have a good payoff. Pay attention to your emotional reactions in different work situations. For example, if you find you can manage yourself under stress, you’re much more likely to manage a team under it too.
3. Office Politics
We’ve all had workplaces where gossip, strange dynamics, and sometimes even conflict can come to the front. But not all office politics are about schoolyard social dynamics. Sometimes, it just means knowing how to handle yourself in that space, without being manipulative.
Unfortunately, this shouldn’t be a section in this post, but human nature means you have to learn how to manage such scenarios. You can start by considering the general dynamics in your office. Who do people go to for advice? Whose opinions seem to carry the most weight in meetings? Understanding these informal social connections can help you make the best of your time in that office.
Remember, the goal isn’t to play games but to understand the landscape so you can focus your efforts where they’ll have the most impact. Always maintain your integrity and treat others with respect, regardless of their position in the office hierarchy.
4. Resilience
In any career, you’re almost certain to face setbacks, rejections, and failures. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from these challenges with your head held high and give it all another go. Even the best professionals in the world can sometimes go through low periods – look at any major sporting tournament where the hard-working manager sees their team lose.
That said, you can build resilience by basically using any failure as a chance to learn and move forward from that. It’s not easy to do this, but the more you do, and the less personally you take certain mistakes, the more you can round yourself off as a professional. They don’t teach this in business degrees, because failure is so far and wide and can affect anyone in any field. But if you can get used to it, you’ll become the kind of person that can work wonders in a crisis.
5. Spotting Opportunity
Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. Luck is merely when preparation meets opportunity. You still need to be prepared and you still need to be endlessly curious about what small or large changes could make life better! When Blackberry had the run of the professional smartphone market, Apple saw the opportunity and adaptability that apps could provide.
In some cases, that means being unapologetic about the niche you follow. By asking what niches make the most money, you can see just how a golden opportunity can sometimes turn into a fantastic money-making or influence-growing opportunity if given half a chance.
Does that mean you’ll be first in line for everything? Not at all. But it does mean you won’t feel averse to taking calculated risks, or considering the scope of a minor market, or using your own interests, tastes and experience to guide you professionally. Put simply, you won’t conform to “normal professionalism” at any cost, which can sometimes help the largest names grow. Better yet, you’ll often find that opportunity doesn’t have to impact your simple professional values – you can move forward with confidence regardless.
As you can see the most powerful skills that will help you to succeed in business and in life are not those that are generally taught in a structured environment. They are people skills and a sense of curiosity; attributes that are learned and earned through hard experience or by spending time with gifted mentors. It’s all about attitude and character at the end of the day and that is nothing more than a decision that you are free to take whenever you want to.
