Aug 3, 2008

10 Skills You Need To Succeed

Wannabe a fierce, fat cat like me?

I know, I know, I have a thing for lists and especially top 10 lists. Hey, I figure it provides food for thought. This one focuses on the "10 skills you need to succeed at almost anything". Take a look and see if you can incorporate some of these ideas in carrying out your master plan. Remember, use your powers for good, there's enough evil in the world.

1. Public Speaking - People who are effective speakers come across as more comfortable with themselves, more confident, and more attractive to be around.

2, Writing - Learning to write well involves not just mastery of grammar but the development of the ability to organize one’s thoughts into a coherent form and target it to an audience in the most effective way possible.

3. Self-Management - Strong organizational skills, effective productivity habits, and a strong sense of discipline are needed to keep yourself on track.

4. Networking - In an economy dominated by ideas and innovation, networking creates the channel through which ideas flow and in which new ideas are created.

5. Critical Thinking - Being able to evaluate that information, sort the potentially valuable from the trivial, analyze its relevance and meaning, and relate it to other information is crucial – and woefully under-taught.

6. Decision-Making - Being able to take in the scene and respond quickly and effectively is what separates the doers from the wannabes.

7. Math - the ability to quickly work with figures in your head, to make rough but fairly accurate estimates, and to understand things like compound interest and basic statistics gives you a big lead on most people.

8. Research - You don’t have to know everything – but you should be able to quickly and painlessly find out what you need to know.

9. Relaxation - Stress will not only kill you, it leads to poor decision-making, poor thinking, and poor socialization. So be failing to relax, you knock out at least three of the skills in this list – and really more.

10. Basic Accounting - Knowing how to track and record your expenses and income is important just to survive, let alone to thrive.

I feel number ten is sorta a repeat of number seven, so I offer this as an alternative.

10a. Instincts - Good people, you know I tell you all the time to trust your gut. Listen to that "good" voice in your head. I think a lot of people underestimate their instincts, and often let the head have complete rule over their lives. Don't forget to also let your heart and spirit have their say.

Click here for the full article.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Such good advice and so true. I'm fairly good at all of them except 'networking'. I can't stand it.

Most of the time I just want to tell the person, "I'm only talking to you for my career because I really don't want to talk to you at all..." but that often doesn't go over so well...

Todd HellsKitchen said...

"Listening" is quite important, too, me thinks...