Seth Godin once posed the question:
“Are you better at what you do than you were a month or two ago?”
I find this an intriguing questions because as I had found over the past year I was not improving my skills, I was simply trying to learn the ropes.
What I’ve found is that you can do both at the same time. You will never advance in your job or even land the job you’re striving for unless you constantly work at improving your skills.
Here are a few thing to help get you started:
1. Make a list of your Skills you want to improve- This is not only a good place to start, but this is also a good thing to know because you will be asked the question “what are your weaknesses?” in an interview, or you will be asked to improve on your weaknesses for a development goal. But don’t just pick something easy, find weaknesses/skill that you can truly achieve, but will also give you a challenge.
2. Brain storm – Brain storm a list of rescources that will help you turn your weak skills into strengths. Maybe it’s keeping up with your blog to enhance your writing skills, or taking online classes at Linda.com. But find ways to achieve your goals.
3. Schedule time to work on your skills – If you don’t actually take the time to asses your skills and work on them, you will never move forward. You can increase the time you put out a project, but if your skill that needs improvement is your grammar, then take the time to re-read your project before you turn it in.
4. Take your time- If you’ve already admitted to yourself that your skills need some improvement, then take your time to actually work toward improvement. Take an extra five minutes to asses your work and make sure you’ve completed it to the best of your ability.
5. Save Compliments - If you or your co-works or professors have noticed an improvement in your skills and have commented on it, save the compliment. It helps to look back at encouraging works to keep your momentum going in the future. Also, if it comes down to a promotion, you have proof that you’re moving forward and working hard to improve.
Take some time to improve your skills in the new year.
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