Survival of the fittest is the norm
as per Charles Darwin. The same can be applied to professional work environment
these days. Especially with increasing competition in work place where the
smart newcomers are posing a serious question of existence to veterans
aboard. So what constitutes a winning
combination of skills to be acquired by senior staff so that they can win (not
just survive) Here are few observations from my side. As usual the disclaimer
is these are personal opinions and so limited by my knowledge level and experience
with Indian IT sector.
Story Telling:
A very important skill in today’s
business is the art of telling a compelling story. You may be providing
progress updates on your project, you may be trying to justify a design choice,
you may be trying to pitch for a new project or you may be simply trying to
face your manager in performance review – likelihood of your success improves if
you are great narrator. Ofcourse the story should be backed by data, otherwise
it would not fly.
A compelling narration tailor made
to the audience will give you advantage over competition, as the impact it
makes over clumsy presentation, technically overloaded content, indecisive
audience. The Story that is well articulated, covers all dimensions, pre-empts the
questions the audience might ask, objectively evaluates options can easily win
in making the intended impact. So if there is one skill that you would like to pick
up this year, it tops the list.
Data Interpretation:
In day-to-day job we come across
many numbers that need to look at, understand and make a decision. However, if
we cannot interpret the numbers well, the decision can suffer. So the basic
data interpretation skill to understand what the data is trying to suggest is
of utmost importance. Unfortunately most decision made are based on intuition
either for want of good data or due to inability to interpret the data at
disposal.
“Lies, damned lies and Statistics”
is the wisdom that tries to infer that numbers can be used to conceal the
important facts. This is the second problem. We need to be able to ask relevant
question and unravel the facts hidden behind the beautiful charts and graphs.
This is gaining more importance at strategic levels in the organization.
Active Listening:
Come on! We do all through our lives,
you may say. Please understand I am talking about Active listening. My
observation in meetings is people come decided to the meeting and listen to
only parts of the conversation they want to hear and discard. Even worse, some
people actually were just waiting for the person to finish so that they can
recite their premeditated speech. Due to these problems, the important
information that other people trying to convey/communicate is being lost
without consideration. Active listening involves intent to understand, get
other person’s view point and if necessary, to make amends to our line of
thought. It can help improve our
knowledge and become better.
