Power Skills Are Appreciating Assets | April Newsletter from SoftEd
April Leadership Insight from David Mantica
Last month, we discussed the idea that hard technical skills are a depreciating asset. Once you learn them, they begin to erode. The more change, the faster the erosion process. The question at the end of the article was, "...we did not discuss the other set of skills we use at work, power skills. Do those appreciate or depreciate?" This month's article hits that subject.
There are many names for power skills; leadership, communication, business, soft, professional, human, and the list goes on. From there, you can dive deeper into specific topics like emotional intelligence, negotiation, change management, presentation, conflict management, problem-solving, and the list goes on. From my experience, when dealing with highly skilled knowledge workers and professionals, they will NOT go to power skills training. I think if I offered free beer, they still wouldn't go. This has never made sense to me, but I have a few thoughts.
The adult education and certification market focuses on training and measuring hard technical skills and knowledge. People strive to get the "highest" level certification. Companies deliver training tied to new technology and how to use it. It makes sense, compensation models are in place to award higher levels of certification and technical experience, and new technology drives worker productivity, which drives profits. But, this system is showing its cracks as technology changes rapidly increase, and with that increase comes an increase in ease of use. So, the new question isn't so much how do you administer or configure those new systems (it can do it itself or you just press a few buttons), it is how do I use that system to make our company money or save it money.
This is where power skills come in. Power skills are the skills we use to make things happen, aka to GET STUFF DONE. Do you understand the full system you work within? Can you critically think through a current situation and come up with the "best possible scenarios"? Can you negotiate in a conflict situation to get things moving forward? Do you understand yourself and manage how you act given different situations? Here is the kicker, with all the new technology available comes the added dimension of tons of options to choose from and lots of opinions on how to go forward. Now, this is the current world of work; it is complicated and complex, and it is hard to even understand the problem you are working to solve.
In this environment, power skills do not depreciate; they appreciate with USE. The more you use them, the better you become. Experience increases your understanding of how to use power skills in complex and complicated situations. More experience, more understanding, comes more application. The problem has been the outdated management system of monitor and measure has allowed very little opportunity to practice. As new types of management systems come to us (flatten organizations, iterative work, value streams, and more reliance on self-leadership), the more opportunity for Knowledge Workers to use the skills. As management systems continue to evolve, it will come to a point that knowledge workers and professionals like Lawyers, Doctors, and Accountants, will be much less valuable without power skills. Remember, the management system will change (business agility, situational leadership, consultative selling, agile, etc.) but the power skills that enable you to work in those systems don't, once you get them, the more you use them, the more valuable you become.
Upcoming Conference (get early bird ticket):
Generative AI Day for Project Management April 30th 2024
Upcoming Free Webinars (Earn 1 PDU/CDU):
Essentials of AI for Software Testers Zoom Webinar April 9th 1:00PM EDT with Marc Balcer
Building a Future-Fit Workforce: A Skills Roadmap for Business Leaders Zoom Webinar April 17th 4:00PM EDT with Andy Cooper and Michelle Ruddenklau
Free On-Demand Trainings Recently Recorded:
The Art of Presentations with David Mantica
April Courses:
Certified ScrumMaster April 4 - 5
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DevOps Fundamentals April 9 - 11
Certified Scrum Product Owner April 10 -11
AI for Business Analysis April 10 -12
Agile Team Facilitation April 16 - 18
Agile Fundamentals April 16 - 18
Certified ScrumMaster April 17 - 18
Agile Testing April 17 - 19
Certified Scrum Product Owner April 22 - 23
AI for Product Management April 22 - 24
Agile Coaching April 24 - 26
Agile Programming Techniques April 24 -26
Certified ScrumMaster April 29 - 30
Agile Product Ownership April 29 - May 1
Coaching Agile Transformations April 29 - May 3