Three Business Skills Every Professional Should Have
Name: Guy Newman
Title: Partner and Facilitator in DDLS’ People and Business Skills Training
What do you enjoy about being a trainer? I get so much energy from interacting with students and helping them discover ‘pearls of wisdom’.
Favourite websites? I can’t go past the SMH website for a quick overview of the news and especially the Technology section.
|
|
1. What are the three most important business skills for professionals today?
Communication, time management and leadership skills are essential for today's professional worker. When I started in the IT industry 19 years ago, all we needed were the technical skills to undertake our role.
Today the multi-functional worker is a business partner not just service providers, so communication is the most important skill required. Professionals need to understand the business from the client's perspective and be able to have robust discussions around how we align our objectives.
The second most important skill is time management. How many projects do we undertake that are hampered by our poor productivity and self management skills? It's amazing that we can waste time on something as simple as email if it is not used properly. A simple way of managing your time more effectively is to check your emails intermittently - don't rely on them to dictate your day.
Leadership is my third pick as an important business skill. Having the skills to lead a plethora of people is essential to utilise the strengths that each person brings to their teams and the industry. Without good leadership, Professionals, particularly those in IT will be viewed as the stereotypical technical workers in the back room rather than as a dynamic business partner helping business achieve objectives using technology as their platform for success.
2. What advice can you give professionals looking to improve their business, or soft, skills?
A balance of technical and business skills is vital. Just as people undertake training to improve their technical competencies, there is a need for professionals to undertake training to build their business competencies.
Professionals can also learn from others who have moved from a technical world to a business one. Mentors from other areas of the business are useful too as they will allow you to draw on their experience and expertise in business.
3. In this climate, how do you negotiate a desired outcome without going in too hard?
Too many people go into a negotiation focused on their own desired outcome – they do not pay enough attention to the needs and desires of the other party. Consider the old fable about the two sisters and the orange. They both want the orange. They argue. Mum cuts the orange in half. One sister eats her half. The other carefully removes the rind from her half and makes an orange cake throwing the rest way. The point is that both sisters could have used the whole orange if they had discussed their desired outcomes first – one would have eaten it and the other used the rind. All too often we miss opportunities in a negotiation because we are focused on one side. Find out what the other party wants, and why, so that you can explore a multitude of options.
4. What are the time management tips that successful CEOs use to benefit us all?
Richard Branson is famous for simply writing things down in a black notebook. No computer or email to slow him down! Branson and other successful CEOs use batch processing to manage their to do list, which means they block out some time and focus on one thing. Too many people try to multi task and allow competing priorities to interrupt and slow them down. Don’t touch your email unless you have planned a set amount of time to do it. Try to focus on one thing at a time so you can give 100% attention to what you are doing at that moment.
Get the latest training updates, seminar invitations and promotions.