"Embracing a Well-Rounded Skillset: The Key to Success in the Remote Work Culture"

I recently conducted a poll on LinkedIn to find out what makes early-stage companies decide to hire their early employees. Whether technical or non-technical skills versus attitude (reliability and curiosity), at the end of the three days of polling, 77% of the respondents, who are mainly founders, said attitude and 23% said skills.?

As a founder myself, I have experienced these things countless times. I have worked with people who had great skills but lacked the character traits of honesty, trust, accountability, ownership, and collaboration.?

In order not to draw any conclusions based on my personal experiences, I decided to test this with a wider audience, and the outcome paints a very serious gap we need to talk about and solve from the ground up, especially for the African talents who are yet to have the same level of acceptance as Indian, Eastern European, or other Southern Asian talents.?

We cannot overlook the attitude and just keep on being missionaries in our orientation to make overnight wins or try to outsmart the system just because we have a better way of doing things remotely.?

We started Aya for these and many other reasons. We wanted to build a new talent network of people who are very intentional, results-driven, value creators, and capable of high-level performance whenever they have the chance to work for any company.

In today's world of remote work culture, having a specific skill is not enough to succeed. Instead, it's becoming more important to have a well-rounded set of traits and skills, like being curious, having a problem-solving mindset, being able to work with others, communicating well, being flexible, and being creative. This is why we crafted the Aya PACE: problem-solving, adapting, creativity, and empathy.

First, having a curious mind and a problem-solving mindset are important because they allow people to keep learning and find solutions to new problems that come up in a remote work environment. This is especially important in a world where technology and processes change quickly and where every day brings new problems.

Second, collaboration skills are essential for people who work from home because they allow people to work well with others no matter where they are. This is especially important when working from home, where there is less face-to-face interaction and good communication is the key to success.

Third, remote workers need to be able to communicate well with each other so that they can share their ideas and thoughts with others no matter where they are. This can be done through different kinds of communication, such as email, instant messaging, and video conferencing.

Fourth, adaptability is a very important trait for remote workers because it helps them deal with new situations and changes at work. This is especially important in a remote work environment, where processes and technologies can change quickly and remote workers need to be able to adapt to keep pace.

Finally, being super creative is a big deal in today's world of remote work because it allows individuals to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions to problems. This is especially important when working from home, since you often need to be creative to deal with the challenges and limitations of working from home.

In today's world of remote work, it's becoming more and more important to have a well-rounded set of traits and skills, such as being curious, having a problem-solving mindset, being able to work with others, communicating well, being flexible, and being creative. People with these traits and skills can do well in a remote work environment, where technology and processes change quickly and new problems come up every day.

I'm on a mission to help ten million talented Africans get the skills and mindset they need to create value and live truly borderless lives.

?We're building a platform that will help early-stage companies hire low-cost, high-quality talent from around the world.

Aya has a wide range of skills, but the attitude of a builder's mentality is the primary reason we hire talent for our clients.

Please book a call; we want to help you find the right talent in Africa. https://lnkd.in/ejDmAeJB

Eric Annan-Aya Techstars ‘23