Upskilling: The Secret to Achieving Your Goals

You want to be relevant and current in an ever-changing work landscape, yet there isn’t enough free time, and the thought of sifting through a ton of upskilling curriculum options exhausts you. So, you move the evolution task to the bottom of your list. Upskilling is getting so much buzz because “the skills required in the workforce are changing fast. Jobs are changing on you, even if you’re not changing jobs” says Linda Cai, Vice President of talent development at LinkedIn. “Recent LinkedIn data shows skill sets for jobs have changed by around 25% since 2015. By 2027, this number is expected to double.” So, what should you do?

In order to remain successful for the work of today and the future, businesses and their workforce must find the time and niche resources to create more leverage (i.e., advantage) when handling initiatives each day.

In this article, we will share:

• Why is professional development smart?
• What is upskilling?
• Upskilling and job satisfaction
• Unlocking the Potential of Upskilling
• Setting professional development goals
• A Launch Pad
• Infographic: Upskilling - Reach Your Goals

“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”? Henry Ford, Founder, Ford Motor Company

Why is professional development smart?

Engaging in professional development activities can help increase job satisfaction and build a strong team. The 2022 LinkedIn Learning Report states, “According to Glint data, having opportunities to learn and grow is now the number one factor that people say defines an exceptional work environment. Learning powers culture and culture powers engaged employees who are energized to innovate, delight customers, and beat the competition.”

In a Gallup poll, researchers learned that employee engagement positively impacts productivity (up 18%) and profits (up 23%). The poll identifies that when companies invest in their employees, the employees experience a higher sense of purpose. Also, encouraging employees to engage in upskilling activities tells them they have a support system. Additional data continues to prove that employees who are encouraged and given resources to learn new skills are often more motivated.?

Lastly, let’s put a spotlight on the fact that professional development is a gift to both you and your employer. Read that again. Having a higher sense of purpose makes you more engaged at work. If the work you are doing excites you, you’ll be more productive.? A reboot to your self-worth elevates not just how you see yourself, but how others perceive you.

What is upskilling?

/up· skill/ verb: to provide (someone, such as an employee) access to education, learning, and development opportunities so they can elevate their skills resulting in adding more value and experiencing higher job satisfaction.

Upskilling and job satisfaction

1. Enhancing an existing skill, or learning a new skill, can make you feel more satisfied and productive at work.
2. You could unlock a new passion leading you to more fulfilling work.
3. Growing your suite of strengths helps you increase your impact.
4. Humans are a curious species, so fueling that curiosity elevates how you think and feel.

Unlocking the Potential of Upskilling

Employee Readiness: Engaging in upskilling activities helps individuals keep their skills and knowledge up to date, gaining access to the latest industry trends and best practices.

• Workflow disruption: You keep scheduling meetings, yet you know it’s too much.
• Advantage with upskilling: Being equipped with techniques that move the team from an abundance of meetings to intentional meetings.

Company Culture Advancement: Opportunities to learn and evolve are a top driver of outstanding workplace culture, leading to greater employee engagement.

• Workflow disruption: You are exposed to underperforming employees.
• Advantage with upskilling: Being equipped with techniques that help you design and execute culture building activities that result in a sense of belonging, therefore increasing employee engagement.

Increased Role Impact: Engaging in upskilling activities can lead to creating more leverage, as the employees' energy is rebooted from learning new ways of stimulating their skillset.

• Workflow disruption: You're doing what is asked but are removed from knowing the overall goal.
• Advantage with upskilling: Being equipped with techniques that move you from tactical to strategic.

Boosts Confidence: Learning new skills and knowledge through upskilling activities can elevate an individual's confidence, which can lead to increased productivity and job satisfaction.

• Workflow disruption: Your executive is late to a meeting.
• Advantage with upskilling: Being equipped with techniques that help you leverage executive composure when needing to host a VIP.

Opens Doors to Resources: Group upskilling activities provide opportunities to network with like-minded professionals, which can lead to valuable connections and resources.

• Workflow disruption: You need a high-level, already vetted, resource because you’re pinched on time.
• Advantage with upskilling: Having someone in your network that knows exactly what you need and can offer thoroughly tested and researched suggestions.

Future of Work: Investing in upskilling activities and starting a professional development journey can lead to increased performance, resulting in added productivity and efficiency, which helps the bottom line.

• Workflow disruption: You’re wasting time chasing down answers and/or feedback.
• Advantage with upskilling: Being equipped with techniques that shorten email response time.

Setting professional development goals

Did any of the above workflow disruption examples resonate with you? If so, you’re not alone. If you’re looking to elevate your impact (and have more job satisfaction), a great first step anyone can take is assessing and deciding what two main goals you want to achieve when embarking on a development journey. Maybe you want to be heard? Maybe you want to reignite your love for your career? Maybe you want to share your (great) ideas more (or at least once)? Start by asking yourself, what is my signature strength? If you don’t know, think about a common task you’re asked to take on. It might be researching, or it might be starting a project outline. Once you know your signature strength, you can continue the exercise to build out your suite of strengths.?

From there, you can hone in on which underdeveloped strength you want to give attention to and how that applies to pain points at work. Consider the launch pad questions below to help you discover more.

Launch Pad:

1. Ask yourself, what skill(s) do you think could use attention to advance your impact?
2. Is a niche upskilling learning activity the right route or is a general environment better?
3. Is a micro-learning or lengthy activity the right fit for your goals?
4. Is a one-off or a periodic activity (like a podcast), a more suitable route?
5. Is spending money on a learning activity worth the cost or is engaging with free resources enough?
6. Is the curriculum of the learning activity preparing you only for immediate needs or also for future work??
7. After engaging in the upskilling activity, is there a clear roadmap available to you, so you are set up for success afterward, or are you left with a ton of notes and no plan

At Exceptional Admins (EA), we hold calls with 600+ admins a year (that’s a lot of calls). Those calls grant us access to the needs and desires of career-oriented administrative professionals, not just executive assistants. A pain point heard over and over was there’s not a modern development option to help them move from being tactical to strategic or to develop their personal brand and executive composure. They also voiced the hope that the development could be accomplished in one day. (Such overachievers, we love it.) EA was saddened to learn that a more modern, professional development resource for executive assistants and administrative professionals wasn’t available.?

Feeling the pain of these impact player professionals, EA began conducting research. We started with reading work-performance research papers, reviewing habit-building case studies, and comparing employee psychology surveys. In addition, outreach also played a huge role in our research.. In the end, after 200+ hours of investigation, EA pulled together the wealth of knowledge gained and combined it with the firm’s daily focus (since 2017) and a dynamic workshop was born, ea University. It’s an untraditional, intimate, administrative workshop where a uniquely curated agenda helps attendees activate their divergent thinking skills, so they can reach their individual goals, learn techniques to learn executive composure and make a difference in their careers. Discover More.