How To Develop Skills And Mindset You Need

Adaptability and strategic thinking – these are skills that need to be learned to make advancements in one’s career, and they can take a little time. However, taking the time upfront to learn such skills will help you tremendously during this stage of your life when you’re looking to transform your career.

Many of us might think that the most valuable skills needed for career development can be learned from theory lessons or simple experiences. But there are other unconventional methods you can look into to have a different perspective on your career.

Take dice games for example as many people like to compare career advancements with the role of luck. Even though it is a simple form of entertainment, it involves a lot of tactical decision-making, looking at probabilities and outcomes, and quick thinking. This is a common factor that is also seen with professionals in real-world careers.

When you play dice games online alone or with friends, you are constantly looking at the next possible outcome. Such a mindset shows how every game may contain an element of decision-making.

Even if some don’t see such a factor in dice games or similar other games, there is still something more than just luck, and a person’s resilience is important. This way of making decisions under uncertainty is similar to how you would make a career change or get into a leadership role.

So how does one start to change their life and career?

In this blog, I am going to look into several phases and steps to transform your career and life to develop the skills and mindset you need.

Steps To Develop The Skills And Mindset You Need

Phase 1: Skill Development

One of the greatest philosophies in life is that you never stop learning – there is no right or wrong time to develop skills. You have to be relevant in this digital era where everything is always changing. In this case, it’s not just about building your technical knowledge but also improving your cognitive and interpersonal abilities that set you apart.

A report from Harvard Business Review stated that job postings in IT, finance, and sales require an average of 21 skills. These industries where the majority of the revenue comes from require employees to be well ahead of their time and have the necessary skills to be applied in the future.

That’s where continuous learning comes into play. You need to continuously look at what new skills the next stage of your career requires and see if they align with your goals. There’s no use in simply adding skills to your resume without knowing how to apply them.

Honing in on skills that are useful for your career is always a good idea, and with the range of learning platforms that are available right now, you can learn a significant number of skills pretty quickly.

Platforms such as LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, and Coursera offer you the chance to learn skills for your industry online. They enable you to learn skills that relate to your industry and upcoming trends such as AI or digital marketing.

Phase 2: Shifting The Mindset

There’s no point to develop the skills if your mindset is still stuck in the rat race. If skills build your overall knowledge, your mindset is what keeps you going. You need to have a growth mindset with the belief that smart work is what develops abilities in the long run. You need to build resilience from the start – be ready for whatever life throws at you and stand strong.

However, you can’t just build resilience overnight. After all, it’s a mental skill that takes months or even years to develop. But there are ways to speed up the process. You can start by setting small, achievable goals. The SMART framework for setting goals is a good place to start.

This gives you the direction you need and confidence when you finish tasks one by one. For example, try managing a small team for a project – this can later build your mindset for managing an entire department in the later stages of your career.

Phase 3: Overcoming Challenges

No journey comes without obstacles, and that’s the same for career progression. Some reports showed that a significant percentage of people have a fear of failure. Many career professionals also face uncertainty and a kind of imposter syndrome after succeeding.

You should note that all these are common and nothing to be afraid of; you need to stop worrying about what will happen and start working towards accepting and moving on.

To get rid of the fear of failure, you need to first accept the result, whatever it might be. An actionable way to approach this would be to create a “failure resume” – list down all the failures from your career and note down the lessons learned. Then prepare a write-up on what you could have done better and reflect on those points.

However, there’s one key practice that these people may be missing that you can use to avoid this issue altogether. It involves simply looking back and looking at all of the achievements and milestones you hit to get to the position you’re in now.

It’s a simple but effective tool that can give you a confidence boost as you become more aware that you deserve the career you have.

Phase 4: Action Plan

Looking at everything strategically and developing an action plan helps you avoid confusion by means of a clear direction. Here is a step-by-step guide for professionals to get started to progress in their careers:

1. You need to start by looking at your current skills and gaps – perform a SWOT analysis on yourself.
2. Set clear goals and define what success will be for you.
3. Look at the skills and learning needed for your goals and dedicate your time and resources to skill development.
4. After getting enough knowledge from learning, apply it in your career to develop your skills better.
5. You might make mistakes or require help; always seek feedback from your colleagues, mentors, or peers to identify areas for improvement.
6. Make sure to track your achievements and progress to ensure you are moving closer to your goals.
7. You need to be adaptable at all times; change your strategies based on the situation you are in.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, you can take the next step in your career with the right mindset and approach. Don’t pressure yourself to achieve the next milestone in a hurry; build the best version of yourself first and never stop learning.