Challenges in Measuring Skill Development

At times it is easy to tell if we are positively developing those skills. For example, you take a training class on a piece of software and begin utilizing the software on the job. After a period of time, the basics of the software become second nature.

Other skills, though, are harder to measure. Your annual review states that you need to improve your adaptability and flexibility. Besides your boss’ opinion, it can be difficult to compare one year to the next. Leadership, communication skills and so on can be challenging to establish a baseline and to measure.

Choose the Skills to Develop

What skills are you trying to develop this year? Keep the list reasonable. Individuals typically don’t have time to complete all their job tasks and develop multiple skill areas they targeted. If you list out too many areas to develop, you are likely to be overwhelmed and ignore all of them!

Measure Your Progress

How are you going to measure your improvement? It is possible that the skill development is on your official performance plan. At the end of the year, your manager will rate you on your skill development so make sure you understand how you’ll be measured. For true skill development, you cannot wait until the end of the year to review. So, set a few milestones throughout the year. For example, if you are trying to become a more clear and concise communicator in your writing, take time every few months to compare your writing and see if there is improvement. Ask the recipients of your writing for their opinion on your improvement and ways you could have done better.

Routinely Solicit Feedback

Asking for feedback is crucial in skill development. For example, if you are working on presentation skills, you can ask for feedback directly after a presentation. However, you don’t want to ask the generic question “How did I do?” Individuals will typically give you a positive and non-detailed response. Ask specific questions: Did I seem nervous? Did I use a lot of filler words? Was my volume appropriate? Did I have too much information on the slides? Did I speak too quickly or too slowly, etc? Now, you also don’t want to corner someone for 30 minutes peppering them with questions like this. Find individuals you trust to give you honest feedback. Let them know you are seeking honest feedback as a way to improve your speaking skills and you are really trying to improve. Then have a few questions ready that can help you illicit some specific feedback. Another point to mention is to be open to the feedback. Don’t debate with the individuals that their perceptions were incorrect. This is a time to gather feedback. There may be some irrelevant items mentioned and that’s fine. You can easily sift through to the ones that are meaningful.

Skill development takes work, but if it is a skill you truly want to improve on, it’s worth investing your time. The extra time now will pay dividends in the end.

Logistical Preparations

First, understand your options. Are you allowed to take FMLA for your maternity or paternity leave? What are your company’s policies for this leave (vacation time, sick time, short-term disability)? Second, know what documents you need to fill out for your company:

• What needs to be turned in and when?
• Who needs to approve documents?
• How do you need to involve HR?
• Who else do you need to have conversations with to ensure your leave is properly documented?

Third, make sure your supervisor and co-workers are aware of your tentative leave and return dates. For women who do not have a planned delivery date, it is important to remember that the leave date is subject to change. Let your co-workers know how many weeks you plan to take off.

Fourth, create a transition plan and make sure it’s in place and ready a few weeks prior to the scheduled due date. The plan should cover:

• Who is going to be covering your work while you are out?
• Have they been trained on your duties?
• If your go-to-person runs into problems, do you have helpful documents ready to assist them?
• Is your out-of-office email signature ready to go with the appropriate contact information?

Last but not least, set limits with your boss and co-workers on when you can be contacted while on leave. Decide on how you will communicate your intentions and specific timing of returning to work as your leave comes to a close.

Emotional Preparations

Pregnancy as well as maternity leave can be an emotional time for many reasons. Women having a baby for the first time may be accustomed to meeting all deadlines and essentially doing it all at work. However, you may need to slow down your work a bit as your pregnancy progresses. You may not be able to give as much to your job as before – this is something that some women need to come to terms with.

While on leave, you may change your mind about whether or not you want to return to work. This can be a very emotional decision especially if you were 100% committed to returning to your job before the baby was born. It’s a complex decision for many women that involves emotions, their sense of identity tied to motherhood as well as their sense of identity tied to their career, as well as financial considerations.

As a new parent is getting ready to take a leave for the arrival of a new child, there are many considerations. There are the necessary logistical issues that can seem overwhelming in number, but are typically straight forward to complete. Then there are the emotional issues that can be unexpected, but are typically much more complex to deal with. Both of these areas are important to keep in mind as you or your partner are taking some time away from work to welcome the new addition.

I saw a resume with some kind of bar code on it. It’s called a QR Code, I believe. Should I have one on my resume?

Resumes are constantly evolving. There are guidelines of how long resumes should be, if they should contain color or just black and white, whether they should follow a chronological format or a functional format, etc. It’s important to remember there are no resume “rules” that you must follow other than ensuring the information is accurate. Resume ‘suggestions’ and ‘guidelines’ exist that can help you when determining what to include on your resume. QR codes seem to be the latest entrants to the resume scene.

What is a QR Code?

Most of us have seen QR codes on advertisements, at various events, on real estate signs, etc. They are the 2-dimensional bar code or “quick response” code that contains data (text, numbers, or a hyperlink). Individuals will use QR Readers on their smartphones to decode the data.

That’s great but are they necessary or even desirable on a resume?

Many clients have been asking if they should add a QR code to their resume. The answer is “it depends”.

When to Use a QR Code

Some clients like to add QR codes to their resume so their resume stands out from the crowd. Since many individuals are not using QR codes on their resume, it may make that resume stand out from others. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the recruiter or hiring manager will contact you as a result of having a QR code on the resume, but it might cause them to look at it or try the QR code.

Some clients who are in specific industries, marketing, technology, PR, social media will include a QR code on their resume to show they are technically proficient. If a client is going to need to utilize or create QR codes on a regular basis in their job, it’s a good idea to demonstrate immediately that you understand and can use a QR code.

If you are attending a job fair or networking event where recruiters are collecting resumes, QR code on your resume can be to your advantage. While the recruiter is at the event, they can scan the QR code to learn more about you on the spot.

What to Point to

If you choose to use a QR code on your resume, my question to you is – what data are you hoping to direct the recruiter or hiring manager to? Here are some links that some of our clients have used:

• Blog in order to show their subject matter expertise or writing ability
• Personal website or LinkedIn Page to demonstrate some additional in-depth information about their career that is not conveyed on the resume
• Online portfolio to visually demonstrate their work
• Audio or visual content that is specifically related to that specific job. It acts as supplemental information that cannot be adequately portrayed on a resume.

Keep in mind, there are no statistics that prove adding QR codes to your resume will ensure you will get a second glance by the recruiter or increase your chances of being called for an interview. However, in some cases, the QR code can help an individual brand their skill set for a given job.

QR Code on a Business Card

If adding a QR code to your resume doesn’t seem applicable, consider adding it to your business card. QR codes on business cards can help those individuals you are networking with get a much fuller picture of your career history than a business card can possibly display.

There is no right or wrong answer for whether or not you should add a QR code to your resume. However, just like everything else on your resume, make sure there is a purpose for adding it. Whatever you choose, QR codes are a popular and practical trend for resumes that should be a consideration.

In the Notes section, I write down where I met the individual, possibly what we chatted about, any next steps we discussed, and a follow-up date if appropriate. I am the only one who can view the Notes I write about each contact which allows me to use the Notes to trigger my memory without worrying the contact can see them.

This feature could be extremely beneficial to individuals who use LinkedIn for networking purposes and building relationships. Some individuals keep a file with this type of information so they can appropriately follow-up with contacts and/or remember how they met each individual. LinkedIn replaces the need for this file because you can do this type of record keeping directly on the site. In addition, if your contact has a picture on their LinkedIn profile, keeping notes on the site will help you associate the information with both the individual’s face and name – that is something I can struggle with.

LinkedIn Notes is very beneficial as I continue to build relationships with individuals I have met. I hope you find it useful too!

Discuss Career Goals with your Manager

King’s first point recommends that managers get to know those they manage in new and different ways. We often coach our clients who are not in managerial roles how they can help their manager in this process. We advocate that the employees make sure they are having career goals conversations with their manager as their manager is someone who may be able to help them in their career. I’m glad to see King is advocating it from the manager’s side as well.
We also tell our non-managerial clients that a great item to discuss during the initial meetings with your manager are:

• Your communication style (i.e. how you prefer to be communicated with)
• The level and type of recognition they prefer (i.e. a note of thanks, the preferred employee parking spot, etc)

Managers should also let the employees know how they like to be communicated with. Managers and those they manage can come up with clear expectations of communication preferences that will make it much easier to work together. Managers will need to spend a lot of time upfront learning from their team members, but it will pay dividends in the end.

Work with High-Performers Too

King’s second point is for managers to learn to see their work through others. This advice can help managers reach new levels through their high performers. Oftentimes, new managers spend more time with performers not meeting expectations. However, spending time with the high-performers and helping them reach new heights,will not only help the employee improve but may also allow the manager to see even more results from her team. Managers do need to spend time with all their employees, but too often, the squeaky wheel gets most of the grease. Spending some concentrated time with high-performers also can lead to great dividends for all involved.

The Management Style You Shouldn’t Choose

The last point we will speak to is developing your own style. We agree that each manager needs to have her own style. One tip we give to our clients who are moving into managerial roles is to think about the managers they didn’t like working for. What about their style bothered you? How can you change that? Another important consideration when creating your own style is to learn how individual members of your team need to be managed. How do you need to tweak your style to help ensure the success of your team?

Not every employee is cut out to move into a people management role. Many don’t want that type of responsibility and others learn pretty quickly that they enjoy being an individual contributor. A manager can have a big impact on projects as well as individual’s lives, both positively and negatively. Reading King’s blog will help new managers put this new challenge into perspective and learn what they can do to make it a successful transition.

The answer is, “it depends”. Each company has a different set of criteria. However, there are three broad categories that most employers are looking at when deciding on a candidate:

• Skills
• Motivation
• Fit

Skills

The first item they are assessing are your skills. Do you have the skills required to do the job? Typically, if you make it past the resume scan and the phone screen, the employer feels that you have some basic skills and you could do the job. However, during the interview they are going to really drill down into your specific experiences to see if those skills can translate into the way this job utilizes them.

Motivation

The second item the interviewer will assess is your motivation for the job. It’s hard to quantify motivation on a resume. Consider these underlying questions:

• Why do you want this job?
• How are you going to meet the requirements of the job (look to meet them, or look to exceed them)?
• What type of effort might you put forth?
• Is this a job for you or a career?

It’s not enough to just have skills – employers want to know how you will use them and add value to the company.

Fit

Finally, employers will look at how you will fit with the company and the company culture. Every company, and sometimes teams within a company, have a distinct culture. Does your personality fit in with the culture? Do you complement the culture or will you be frustrated by it? This is an important factor to consider.

Recruiting, hiring and training new employees is expensive. Employers do not want to experience turnover if the employee does not have the right skills, the motivation to do the job, or is not a good fit. I know that it is frustrating to job seekers when they interview for a job that they don’t get. Many times I hear, “but I could do the job!” There probably wasn’t much doubt in the interviewer’s mind that you could do the job, however, did you meet all three criteria? Did you demonstrate your motivation? Or perhaps they could sense that you would not be a good fit within the culture and would be easily frustrated by how work got done.

There are many factors taken into consideration when deciding on a candidate. You are in control when it comes to demonstrating your skills and experience and how you could fit within the role. You are also in control of showing your motivation and why you want the position. However, you cannot control if you are not the right fit for an organization or team culture. While not receiving the job offer can be extremely frustrating, if you are not the right fit for the position, it is better for everyone if you are not hired.

• The level of motivation in remarkable individuals, most notably, intrinsic motivation
• The ability to control behavior

Intrinsic Motivation

According to the author, remarkable employees will step in and help in situations that are out of their realm of responsibility. Think back to a time where you went above and beyond to help a customer or resolve a situation. These situations would not typically be found in your job description, but you knew that taking these actions were the right thing to do for company. The motivation of the remarkable employee wasn’t the extrinsic motivation of a reward or receiving praise. Instead the motivation is found internally in these individuals.

This intrinsic motivation can lead to better processes and procedures or better quality of products and services for the company. Remarkable employees don’t just stick with the status quo. If they recognize things can be improved, they are prone to create this improvement. Again, you won’t find these types of actions listed out in a job description. The internal motivation fosters the need for the remarkable employee to readily see areas where improvements can be made.

Behavior Control

Remarkable employees also know how to control their behavior. It’s easy to let our emotions get the better of us at work. We spend 40+ hours in the workplace. For some, many of those hours are stressful. However, remarkable employees are able to take a breath and know when it’s appropriate to question procedures, divulge sensitive information, and speak up in meetings. Impulse control can help with these situations. Many of us have been in situations where we wish we could take back what we said to a co-worker or in a meeting. Remarkable employees can hit a mental ‘pause’ button before speaking to take stock if it is the appropriate time and place.

Even if we don’t meet all eight criteria, I think this article is a good reminder of actions we can all take in our workplace. Consider adding in some or all of these behaviors into your daily routine. It isn’t typically feasible to completely change our behavior all at once. Target one or two behaviors you can try and incorporate more regularly at work and pay attention to the results. I think you might be surprised how small changes can really impact your work.

Consider the following points:

• By taking a break throughout the day you can increase your productivity and efficiency. Walking away from your work for a 5-15 minute break will allow you to decompress. Your stress level may decrease. Your body and mind can be refreshed and you will actually return to your desk with a higher performance level.
• A break can increase your attention and improve your focus on your work. Mistakes can happen at an increased rate if you don’t take some time to refresh your mind as well as your body.
• Taking a break can increase your energy without you needing to consume extra amounts of caffeine to stay alert. Just give it a try!

Taking a break or, better yet, several breaks can give you a fresh perspective and fresh outlook on your work. It can pay dividends not only for the work itself but also for your mind and body.

Post a comment below and let us know what you do to gain the edge back on your work.

• Understand what the next job entails. What are the skills that are required? What experiences do you need to gain before moving on to the next step? Find a job description for the next position. Review the requirements. Speak to individuals who are in the position currently. They will be able to share insights into the role that a job description couldn’t possibly describe.
• Make a plan to get the skills you need to move into the next position. Some skills you will learn on the job but you will need to bring a solid base of talent to the table. Determine what the required skills are and make a plan to achieve them. You might do this by taking on new projects at work, getting a certification, or learning new skills in the classroom, through books or through volunteer endeavors.
• Have a conversation. Does your manager know that you will eventually be looking to move into a particular role? If not, then when a position opens up, you may not have the advocate you need to make sure you are considered. Have regular conversations with your manager about your current performance as well as your future career aspirations.

Promotions can happen when your hard work meets an open opportunity. You cannot control when the opportunity might arise, but make sure when it does you are ready for the challenge.

Your Current, Actual Skills

For many of my clients, this is a much harder question to answer than “what are your weaknesses?” Again, I’m asking from a coaching perspective, not a job interview perspective. It seems to me than many people are good at thinking through areas they want to improve or wish they were more skilled in. However, when asking clients to list out their current strengths, many of them struggle after the first one or two.

Your Skills are Unique

For many of my clients, they take for granted many of their skills and strengths because the strength or skill comes so naturally. Some feel, subconsciously, that if they are good at something, others probably find it easy as well. They take for granted that they have strengths in many areas that others wished they were skilled in!

Identify Your Skills and Strengths

Look through your past performance reviews and pick out the areas where you were strong. Even easier, ask a trusted co-worker or family member or friend what they think is your two greatest strengths are. Finally, do some introspection. What are those ‘things’ that come very easily to you or you recall being praised for in the past (i.e. “you are the most organized person I know”).

We all have strengths as well as areas that we can develop. While many people focus much of their time trying to progress in their development, I challenge you to identify your strengths as well. Become well-versed and confident in the areas you are strong in because that’s what sets you apart.