How can you identify and develop your professional skills?

It helps to do a periodic self-assessment to appraise one's standing and status within the work environment and the industry where one finds oneself. Regular new skills acquisition helps to improve self-confidence and improve one's value in the labor market. Feedback mechanisms that help in reviewing progress include periodic appraisals at work, the ease with which one carries out tasks, and an ability to take up new challenges and work in a multivariate environment. Consciously review yourself and engage in conscious knowledge acquisition beyond the basics. Apart from creating more productive value, being knowledgeable is a desired attribute of professionalism.

Find your gems: Reflect, seek feedback, target job skills. Polish them up: Learn, apply, network, challenge yourself. Grow your professional treasure chest, one shiny skill at a time!

We have to upgrade ourselves on a regular basis. Sometimes we get time to explore and experiment the strategies, but not always. We can learn those strategies from live examples, experiences and colleagues. The more we are involved in detailing, the more we should develop a practise of learning and solving things. At the end solution matters!

The initial step involves self-assessment to identify both your strengths and areas needing improvement. While many concentrate on areas for development, it's equally crucial to continually cultivate your natural strengths.

I cannot stress how important self-reflection is, especially after completing a difficult task. Ask yourself: - Which parts were the most difficult? - Why were they difficult for me? - What can be done to improve and be more efficient in the future? Answering these questions for yourself makes it much easier to identify the skills you'll need to acquire and develop further in the future.

Time is of the essence. If we could effectively monetize time, we would be more circumspect in the way we utilize it. It helps to set our SMART goals and set priorities straight before embarking on any worthwhile engagement. This helps to reduce time wastage and improve effectiveness and efficiency. By setting goals and priorities, we can identify tasks by order of importance and set the very pressing ones before the less pressing ones.

I see Linkenin Learning to be a perfect resource for online courses. I used it as a good source for PMI PDUs for my project management certificates and other topics of interests like leadership, management, etc.

It helps to understand yourself and the avenues of learning that you find easiest to assimilate. There are many resources through which one can gain relevant knowledge, online or offline, in soft copies or hard copies, etc. Know your budget and find the best fit for you.

Eagerly take on opportunities to practice skills that you have acquired already. It is a means to sharpen and deepen already acquired knowledge. Expertise is attained with continuous exercising of the skills already acquired. You should also impart knowledge to others; teaching is one of the ways through which skills are honed and mastered.

First, 1. Identify the required need 2. Define objective 3. Find credible sources or platform to gain required skill. 4. Take a professional assessment and 5. Report about progress and practicality.

The world is an extremely dynamic global village. This has shrunken the labor market with the increased demand for remote roles and made it quite competitive. To be a relevant player in the present scheme, one must regularly review and update one's skills to remain relevant and desirable in the labor market. The true creation of value now depends on experience and the possession of skills that drive the present job demands. Failure to do this is akin to remaining stagnant, the world would leave you behind.

There are a number of scientifically validated, and reality-checked assessments which can provide you with a good overview of your behaviour profile, your strengths and weaknesses. Everything DISC or Insights Discovery are excellent at showing paths for personal improvement, in terms of behavioural skills. I consider relevant to notice that some tools are good at profiling, yet they do not shine light on how to improve. Technical skills are easier do identify and develop, but behaviour is what will make the biggest difference on the long run.

Hard work and dedication are rewarding. It helps a lot to have some mentors piggyback you or have some profitable patronage from loyal clients. Luck also counts, some deals would come to you by a sheer stroke of luck. In my experience, the most emphatic lesson I learned is to be shrewd and ruthless in business decisions. Trust less and be meticulous in verifying business deals that are presented to you. Consider the cost of entry into new businesses if there is a need to diversify or divest entirely. Study you local and national economic trends well enough to understand the dangers that they might present to your business. Staying positive also helps.

Uncover your strengths, explore in-demand skills, and dive into learning. Apply what you learn through projects, embrace challenges, and seek feedback to refine your skills. Remember, it's a journey, not a destination, so celebrate your progress and keep growing!