My recent column on Underrated Career Skills generated a lot of responses. People wrote back to me to say how much they agreed and offered additional ideas, and others suggested skills from industry experts that they thought would be helpful.
Listening and being genuine in your response. — Jayne Moyer
Whether communicating with a co-worker, customer or pretty much anyone, someone will often share the good or bad they may be experiencing. Listen and show empathy or joy (depending on the situation). First and foremost, show that you genuinely care about them as a person. Everyone is busy, but people will recognize that you are genuine with them if you take the time to leave them feeling like you care.
Being the last to respond in a meeting, rather than the first.
— Jim Cavanaugh
“Pioneers draw all the arrows,” is the analogy for being the first to offer an opinion and then having people quickly make counterpoints or even argue with you. Taking one’s time and seeing what everyone else has to say can weed out redundant opinions and also give you a better idea of the temperature of the group regarding the specific topic. Additionally, if you practice being the last to reply on a regular basis, people will start to pay more attention to what you say because 1. you don’t bring up the obvious points that everyone voices first, and 2. when you do finally speak, you bring up opinions or observations that no one else has thought of because you rarely say anything that has already been said.
Introducing yourself with your vision rather than your title. — Simon Sinek
We often introduce ourselves with our name and our title. We then might add what we do. What if, instead, you talked about why you do what you do? Hi, I’m Russ Kathrein. I have been in our industry for most of my life, and I am passionate about helping new and future leaders figure out how to be successful. Let people hear what drives you. Make yourself stand out from the crowd.
Seeking clarity rather than agreement. — Dennis Prager
Seek to understand first before making yourself understood.
— Steven Covey
Too often in our social media-driven world, we want to seek out people who agree with us and argue with, or even ostracize, those with whom we disagree. Having the ability to ask questions and empathize with those who have different opinions or beliefs is a superpower that can neutralize a toxic environment. Asking questions and showing a desire to understand where the other side is coming from often opens them up to do the same with you. Sometimes, as the other side tries to answer your questions, the fallacy or absurdity of their proposition gets clarified not just to you but also to them. Thus, you may end up swaying their opinions without having to express your own.
Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
— Dale Carnegie
The best way to get a person to open up is to ask them questions about themselves. Most people would rather talk about themselves than they would listen to you. So leverage that. This is especially useful when you are in a situation where you really would prefer not to talk about yourself. I once had the privilege of meeting and having dinner with Ned Johnson, who owned and ran Fidelity Investments. There were three of us at the table with him, and before we could ask him a single question, he started peppering us about our lives, our families, what we did, what we thought, etc. It went on all night. It wasn’t until later that I realized that he probably would meet hundreds of people every year, and they probably would ask him the same questions over and over, which after a while would probably be pretty boring. Instead, he took control and made the entire dinner more engaging.
I’m sure there are more career skills out there that you might think are underrated. As before, feel free to share them with me at russ.kathrein@icloud.com.
