What are more important……Skills, attributes or attitude?
What will determine whether you win your next job, promotion, career change or contract you were hoping for?
Will it be because you have the right skills, attributes or your attitude? What factors will play a major part in your success? Skills are undeniably a vital ingredient for success in life and the more specific or the more transferable the better. For some specialist, technical and clinical jobs, having exactly the right skill set and proven ability to do the role could certainly be the determining factor. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be operated on by anything other than a top quality brain surgeon!
Skills do not provide the full picture do they?
I’m sure we all know situations where the supposed best person for the job, based on their skills and technical expertise failed to secure the position. Why is this? The answer is all around us. Firstly, skills can be learnt and this applies at almost any age in life, doesn’t it? You can always go on courses, find a mentor and of course pretty much learn how to do anything these days by watching a video on YouTube! Therefore, someone who shows great willingness to learn and has other strong attributes can add real value to most jobs and organisations whether employed or to win projects, if you are self-employed.
For confirmation of this, you only have to watch some reality TV. It isn’t always the most talented person who wins the day if it? Whether it be X Factor, The Apprentice or facing the Dragons Den, how many times have we seen an unlikely person win because of their positive attributes and great attitude?
How Important Are Your Attributes and Attitude?
Positive, enthusiastic people radiate energy, which becomes infectious. Your personality, likability, determination, drive, energy, passion, hard work and commitment can win the day against more skilled candidates. I have seen this so many times with clients, who didn’t believe they had the right skills but won through because of their great attributes and attitude! Check out my video below for a fuller explanation.
Understanding your true marketability is key to selling yourself in any situation. This is so much more powerful than just skills and the heart of my Career Navigation Cycle process. So never rule yourself out of any situation because you don’t feel you have the necessary skills, because …….. as in the words of the late, great Zig Ziglar “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude!”
Thank you for a thought-provoking blog post.
In today’s world I would put one more element over and above the three elements you mention and that is strengths. We are all born with a set of strengths often inherited from our parents which are forgotten about as soon as a child hits school where they receive a one-size-fits-all education. Some do well and others don’t which can have a permanent negative effect on people’s career confidence and scar people for life. I love the following quote: ‘Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.’ – Albert Einstein
I also believe that skills have too often been replaced with the expectation of a qualification. Qualifications tell you nothing. One person with a 2:2 may have had to work while studying to get themselves through their degree, while a person with a 2:1 may not have had that same burden on their shoulders. Career success all comes down to the highly judgemental recruitment processes.
People learn in different ways and it is their natural curiosity that drives their skills and knowledge set. Here too I will refer to Einstein. Einstein was a Physicist and only through his natural curiosity expanded his knowledge to produce the famous mass-energy equivalence formula.
Many naturally talented people fall through the net of traditional recruitment practices. Unfortunately an attitude and aptitude for continuous learning is not valued.
Many thanks Heidi for an equally relevant and thoughtful response :)
[…] you are and what you have to offer in networking meetings and informal situations. Establishing your true marketability is integral to your success whether you are changing careers or progressing your […]