Discover the 10 Most Popular Skills Harvard Says You Need to Grow in This Year
Summarized by Michael J Griffin
4 Minute Read
The year 2022 was impactful for the learner/mentees in the Harvard Manage Mentor Spark community. Michelle Bonterre of Harvard Publishing lists out the 10 most popular skills the Harvard Manage Mentees desired to learn in 2022 below and I have given you action steps to take to grow you in these skills in 2023. Read on!
Career Management - how to orchestrate your career--including identifying your core business interests so you can target your most exciting and fulfilling opportunities. Action Steps: Know thyself and market thyself. Take self-assessments to determine your skill sets and motivators that can propel you to success and significance. ELAvate recommends you take the TriDNA DISC Driving Forces Profile with a competency ranking. You may also want to gain another personal perspective and complete the Gallup Strength Finder Profile.
Presentation Skills - how to deliver clear, compelling presentations in ways that meet your audience's needs--while also engaging and inspiring them to take action. Action Steps: Enroll in the ELAvate Presentation Skills two-day workshop and become a confident attractive public speaker in both the face to face and virtual environments. Signing up for your community’s local Toastmaster Club is another way to improve your skills.
Strategic Thinking- how you and your group can think strategically-including continually assessing the business environment and identifying changes you need to make today to create valuable business results for tomorrow. Action Steps: ELAvate recommends and has trained many teams on developing Vision, Mission, Goals and Strategies for Success. Our methods and processes employ Kaplan and Norton’s Strategy Mapping, Peter Drucker insights on environments and innovation and Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up processes.
Time Management - how to take control of your schedule and use your time wisely- by analyzing how you spend time, prioritizing your tasks, and avoiding common time wasters. Action Steps: Action Steps: This skill set includes self-leadership, resilience and agility that has the foundation of a clear personal mission and goals that support your mission. Sign up for ELAvate Personal Development Coaching that includes: Finding Your Life Mission, Personal Goal Setting for 2023, Personal Strategies for Resilience and Agility, and Managing Your Priorities.
Difficult Conversations - how to effectively handle and coach members of your team in handling -disagreements through careful preparation, good communication, and a focus on solutions that work for all parties. Action Steps: Learn the skills of Handling Emotions under Pressure, Managing Differences, Reaching Team Consensus, and Giving and Receiving Respectful Feedback. All these skills are taught by ELAvate.
Motivating Employees - how to recognize the drivers that underlie motivation--people must be in an environment that meets their basic emotional drives to acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend. Action Steps: ELAvate conducts these excellent workshops: Dr. Maxwell’s 5 Levels of Motivational Leadership, Leading and Motivating Different Personalities, and Coaching Others for Collaboration and Success.
Emotional intelligence - how to recognize the role of self-awareness in being a strong manager-by increasing your ability to manage with emotional intelligence. Action Steps: Read Marshall Goldsmith’s book “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.” Take an EQ Profile from ELAvate and learn how to improve your EQ to be a better leader, team member of influence.
Listening Skills - how to listen to others well and identify your style of listening. Through intentionally applying new ways to listen, you can understand others and collaborate and problem-solve more effectively. Action Steps: Effective Listening is the foundation of healthy relationships. ELAvate conducts Active Listening, and Good Leaders Master the 6 Types of Questions to Listen Well.
Personal Communication - how can you improve your communication to make it more effective and what are the pitfalls you want to avoid to be a great communicator? Action Steps: As mentioned above, Listening and Asking Questions are core personal communication skills. Other personal communication skills ELAvate recommends are: Speaking for Influence, Brief the Boss, Communicate to Collaborate, and Effective Writing.
Personal Productivity - how to develop productivity rituals to supercharge your efficiency. Learn strategies to help you stay balanced, focused, and productive. Action Steps: Time Management (as mentioned) Mastering Microsoft Office Suite, Personal Budgeting, Stress Management, strengthening your Personal Resilience, Parenting for Significance. Usually these initiatives are through self-directed learning or in conjunction with ELAvate one on one coaching.
Take the time out this week and reflect, discern and decide what is your personal learning plan for 2023. Then take “action steps” to move your learning plan to learning by doing. This may mean personal investment on your part of time and money, as well as getting buy-in from your boss and possibly your HR manager to support your personal growth. Don’t stagnate this year! Grow as a leader that achieves new levels of success in 2023!
I am available for personal coaching or advice to assist you in developing your personal learning plan. Email me at michael.griffin@elavateglobal.com for more insight on growing in your career.
Michael J Griffin
CEO ELAvate
6E Executive Coach
Maxwell Leadership Founding Member