A Skills Gap and the Strengths to Fill the Gap
Michael J. Piellusch MA, MS, DBA
Technical Writer/Editor @ U.S. Department of Homeland Security | Contract Technical Writer/Editor
In the twenty-first century, whether working in the public or private sector as a member of staff or as a contractor, job specialization seems to be more and more common.? This trend is certainly not new; however, new specializations have been added primarily through technology.? Artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and geographical information systems (GIS) are three of the fairly new and fast growing fields.? AI has been around for decades, however, new tools in the generative AI realm have been proliferating at a rapid pace.? Joseph Nye coined the term “soft power” in his 2005 book entitled Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. In 2024, almost 20 years later, soft power (smart power) is in high demand, not only in world politics, but in many pivotal industries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in July of 2024, industries reported 7.7 million job openings.? This leading educational indicator has been steady for several years as many employers tend to report more job openings than they have available qualified job applicants. Several parallel trends seem to be providing solutions or complications to this skills gap: the strengths “revolution,” the gradual and fairly steady retirement or untimely death of many baby boomers, and generational factors such as a mismatch between the willingness to work on site and the availability of remote or hybrid opportunities.
Strengths Revolution
In Chuck Martin’s book entitled Work Your Strengths: A Scientific Process to Identify Your Skills and Match Them to the Best Career for You, Martin (2010) points out “If you’re not in a position where your strongest skills are vital, you’re not likely to excel” (p. 1).? Several books and articles have highlighted the essential educational and career challenge that has been exacerbated over the years where many teachers and bosses over the years have concentrated on having students and workers concentrate on improving in their weak areas instead of focusing on enhancing unique strong skills.
According to Buckingham and Clifton (2001) [BC], Peterson (2013) [P], and Collins and Hansen (2011) [CH], the following points are pivotal to a successful organizational culture based on strengths rather than weaknesses:
The 20:80 [Pareto] Principle
Apparently, as an inverse of Pareto’s principle, only 20% of the companies surveyed by Buckingham and Clifton (2001) could be considered to be strengths-based. The vast majority (roughly 80%) are primarily motivated by correcting and improving weak areas. Common sense, as well as empirical research, indicates that working on strong areas tends to yield better results and build upon those results. U.S. Grant, for example, failed in several business ventures, but he displayed uncommon talents for horsemanship, generalship, leadership, and, surprisingly to some, the ability to write well (for example, clear cogent military orders and his remarkable memoir).? Common practice belies common sense.
The Uniqueness Principle
Parents often remark that each of their children is quite unique. This statement is often surprising to neighbors and acquaintances as family members often display similarities that are readily apparent to casual observers (genetic similarities in appearance and even in voice intonations). Parents, however, tend to know their children by temperament, talents, interests, strengths, and weaknesses. Parents, teachers, and coaches often focus on weaknesses in the competitive world that we live in, but the best careers and the most rewarding hobbies usually come from people who have the opportunities and requisite encouragement to develop strengths. Rath (2007) provides a list of 34 strength areas with descriptions and examples for each.? If you are adaptable, for example, you might relate to "You don't see the future as a fixed destination.? Instead, you see it as a place that you create out of the choices you make" (p. 45).
The Growth Principle
Simply stated, if a young student is stronger in English than in math, he or she of course needs basic math skills, but the young student is unlikely to become a math major. Even Einstein, considered to be one of the greatest geniuses of all time, along with the likes of Newton and DaVinci, was not the best mathematician around. Einstein famously collaborated with Max Born to develop some of the mathematical equations to go along with his mind-bending physics theories (Isaacson, 2007).
The?Excellence Principle
Not everyone achieves “uncommon excellence”; however, if we each identify our unique skills and spend more time developing those skills and invest less time developing lower return on investment (ROI) weaknesses, we are quite likely to develop incremental excellence that will in time distinguish us from our peers. Experience based on excellence is usually the formula for true expertise. Add a passion for the subject, topic, or skill and the commonplace can indeed develop into the uncommonly great.
The Kudo Principle
Researchers from the Hawthorne project to the proponents of the Pygmalion effect, display the logic and empirical evidence of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Complimenting children, employees, parents, coaches, teachers, and supervisors?tends to improve attitudes, perpetuate good performance, and stimulate improved dedication. The constructive “support sandwich” is usually the most effective way to provide both positive and negative feedback. The outer layers of “what you did well” can serve as a buffer zone for the critical comments of where you could or should improve. Bidirectional feedback in both the horizontal and vertical directions can crisscross into a strong web of bonds and combined strengths.
The Coping Principle
According to Peterson (2013), fostering a good sense of humor along with the self-discipline to delay gratification can combine to provide a strong bulwark against adversity. Being able to laugh at oneself is a skill worth acquiring and developing at any age. Also, being able to defer pleasure or rewards while working on a task or project is a skill that can pay huge dividends in private life and in the workplace.
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The Choice Principle
Collins and Hansen (2011) in their best seller,?Great by Choice, indicate that strong discipline, healthy paranoia, and measured creativity were common traits in so-called “10x” companies (companies that have achieved 10 times more than their competitors). Former Intel CEO, Andy Grove, famously pointed out that only the paranoid survive.
Baby Boomers Passing the Baton
President Joe Biden will undoubtedly be recognized by historians for passing landmark legislation fighting inflation, improving infrastructure, improving manufacturing with the CHIPS act, and in humbly basing the leadership baton to his Vice President.? Similar to President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Biden leveraged his many years as a Senator and as a Vice President to work with “both sides of the aisle” and pass bipartisan legislation.? Other baby boomers in the teaching, nursing, aviation (pilots retire at age 65), construction, government service (hundreds retire every month and a high percentage are eligible to retire), and in many other fields (especially in retail and restaurant jobs where workers have to work in person and have to work primarily on their feet all day).?? As noted above, with 7.7 million job openings many of these jobs are in new fields such as AI, cyber, and GIS; however, many of these job openings are due to baby boomers retiring or “passing the bar” as we say in the military (in many cases due to COVID-19).
Generational Factors
Primarily cultural, but also by personal preference and in many ways due to workplace changes due to the pandemic, many millennials and other younger generations such as Gen Z and Gen ZZ, are embracing the gig economy and somewhat similar to baby boomers leading a culture change of gender gap equality and workplace parity (unlike the culture of the Greatest Generation), younger workers are much more attuned to work-life balance and family priorities and much less likely to become workaholics like many of their parents and grandparents.
Concluding Thoughts
Strengths tend to be taken for granted and overlooked by traditional parents, teachers, coaches, and employers. A culture of high achieving, based on historical concepts such as the Renaissance man, tends to focus on broad-based growth in all areas. Perhaps a healthy attitude is to consider that each individual is first and foremost, a self-coach, a self-manager, and that self-talk focusing on strengths is more likely to yield improved performance rather than self-talk that “beats one’s self up” over minor faux pas.? Generational factors and demographics complicate an already complicated mix; however, a skills-based culture is here to stay and seems to be more and more prevalent each passing day. The elephant in the room concept of course is teamwork. Modern day teams of subject matter experts (SMEs) balance out individual strengths and weaknesses in finely tuned high performing teams.
References:
Buckingham, M., & Clifton, D. O. (2001),?Now, discover your strengths. New York, NY: The Free Press.
Collins, J., & Hansen, M. T. (2011).?Great by choice: Uncertainty, chaos, and luck– Why some thrive despite them all. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Isaacson, W. (2007).?Einstein: His life and universe. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Martin, C. (2010). Work your strengths: A scientific process to identify your skills and match them to the best career for you. AMACOM.
Nye, J. (2005). Soft power: The means to success in world politics. PublicAffairs Books. https://www.tinyurl.com/mug36ku
Peterson, C. (2013). The strengths revolution: A positive psychology perspective.?Reclaiming Children and Youth,?21(4), 7-14.
Rath, T. (2007).?Strengths Finder 2.0. New York, NY: Gallup Press.
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