The Three Basic Types of Skills

Posted on July 20, 2011 by pdncoach

90 percent of job applicants do not get hired because they cannot describe the skills they have.

On Monday, we established the fact that your ability to describe yourself using your Skills Language is the #1 factor that determines the speed and success of your job search or career transition. Today, we discuss the Three Basic Types of Skills that will help you develop, remember and communicate your best Skills Language.  Do not assume these are too simple for you if you are in the late stages of your career; I have used this technique successfully with all types of job seekers at every “rung of the ladder”.

All skills fall into three general categories. The three types of skills are:

  1. I AM . . . skills are your Adaptive Skills.
  2. I CAN . . . skills are your Action Skills.
  3. I KNOW HOW TO . . . skills are your Special Knowledge Skills.

I AM . . . skills are your Adaptive Skills.
These are sometimes called your Personal Skills, Self Management Skills or your Personality Traits. When completing the sentence, “I am . . . .”, you are describing:

  • your attitudes and beliefs and how you express those through your personality
  • how you adapt to new situations and control your impulses
  • how you handle yourself in relationships with other people, material, space, time and pressure
  • what makes you a good worker

Examples: ambitious, efficient, flexible, creative, patient, enthusiastic, persistent

I CAN . . . skills are your Action Skills.
These are sometimes called your Transferable Skills, Functional Skills or Universal Skills. When completing the sentence, “I CAN . . . .”, you are using a verb to describe:

  • how you act upon information, people and things
  • skills that can be used in a wide variety of jobs and occupations
  • how you get things done in a variety of situations or tasks
  • skills you can transfer from one job to another

Examples: assemble things, analyze data, supervise people, delegate, train, plan, research, follow instructions, organize, write clearly, sort, type

I KNOW HOW TO . . . skills are your Special Knowledge Skills.
These are sometimes called your Performance, Work Content Skills or Credentials. When completing the sentence, “I KNOW HOW TO . . . .”, you are describing:

  • specialized skills acquired through work, training, education or life experiences
  • skills required for a specific job or occupation (not always transferable)
  • what can be considered as your credentials for a specific job
  • what employers often use to “screen” job applicants

Examples: medical terminology, word processing, knowledge of standards, regulations, equipment, procedures, products, industries, markets, etc.

Identify Your Skills
The better you can identify and describe your skills, the better job finder you will be. Consider the skills you have now. List at least three skills you have under each skill area.

Prove Your Skills
For each top skill, describe at least one real situation from your experience that proves you have this quality. Use this format:

  • I AM…, for example…
  • I CAN…, for example…
  • I KNOW HOW TO…, for example…

Later, you will need to decide which skills match the job you want and prove you have these skills using the “STAR” method.

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Posted in career advice, career planning, job search, skills, Skills Language | Leave a comment

The No. 1 Reason People Do NOT Get Hired

Posted on July 18, 2011 by pdncoach

In an earlier blog, I described the Key Steps to a Successful Job Search. The #1 reason people do not get hired is they fail at describing their skills. This applies to YOU – regardless of whether you are a seasoned professional or first-time job-seeker.  If you are an employer, these are the basics of what you should be looking and listening for during the hiring process.

If you want to improve or speed up your job search or career transition, begin by improving your Skills Language.

Exploring jobs and careers means exploring your self. It means looking at your self in new ways, identifying your talents and weaknesses. It means asking yourself some questions:

  • What am I really like?
  • What am I good at?
  • What do I want to do with my life?

A skill is “anything you enjoy doing, do well and can do now”. 

Your Skills Language
The way you identity and present your self, especially your skills, effects every part of your job search. Remember, a skill is “anything you enjoy doing, do well and can do now”. You have thousands of skills, including several skills you do best and enjoy most. Some of your skills can be used in a variety of work activities and tasks, which makes them highly marketable.

Describing the marketable skills you can supply to an employer is the best way to match your self to a job opening.

Believe it or not, about 90% of the people around you do not get jobs because they cannot describe the skills they have. With that in mind, Expanding Knowledge of Your Self becomes extremely important to your successful job search.

When you use your best skills to describe your self, I call it your Skills Language. Self Assessment is the process we use to help you develop or improve your Skills Language. First, learn to identify more of your skills and identify your interests, values, preferred work environment, the kind of people you enjoy, and other characteristics of your “ideal job”. Later, you will use your Skills Language to convince employers that you have the good worker qualities that they need.
Be willing to share and discuss your thoughts and discoveries with someone you know. Get help from an employment counselor, if possible.

  • Think about your self.
  • Think about your situation.
  • Think about what you like doing.
  • Think about what you want to achieve.
  • Think about who you want to become.

Get started by completing these sentences/paragraphs:

  • I would describe myself as…
  • Other people describe me as…
  • List three things that you enjoy doing, do well and can do now. Think about things you can do that employers might be interested in knowing.
  • List three things about your self that make you a good worker. Think about what employers might like about you or the way you work.
  • List three things you most want to improve about your self. Think about the things you want to get better at doing through practice, work experience, training or education.
  • List three things you want your next job to include. Are they things you enjoy doing most… or the things you are best at doing… or the things you want to get better at doing? Maybe your next job could include all three.

In future articles, I will describe the Three Types of Skills, then how to use them – and prove them – using your Skills Language.

Join me at the Intersection of Purpose & Now.
Posted in career advice, career planning, job search, Skills Language | Leave a comment

Make Peace to Have Peace

Posted on July 15, 2011 by pdncoach

In the Appalachian backcountry of West Virginia and Kentucky, during the post Civil War 1800s along the Tug Fork River, lived two families named Hatfield and McCoy who began a feud that would last more than 100 years. Legend tells of many ways the true-to-life conflict began, and some say disputes continue in some form to this day.  People have died and many emotional, geographical, property and legal boundaries have been established, disputed and closely guarded.

Feuds occur all the time, of course, but few are as serious and intractable as the Hatfields and McCoys or the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Are you feuding with someone? Have you “drawn a line in the sand” with one or more of your relationships? We do this all the time: with our children, customers and associates, and in our businesses, teams, marriages, churches, neighborhoods, communities, governments… We create boundaries all the time. But sometimes the lines we draw leave us playing a role of little more than border guards.

“Excuse me, but I believe you are sitting in my church pew.”

Sometimes you have to give a little, even if all you get in return is a little peace, or at least détente. This recent advertisement by the Coca-Cola Company illustrates this quite humorously.

Maybe it’s time for you to adjust your boundaries.  Get outside of your box, or at least adjust that line in the sand.

Relationship boundaries are often necessary to prevent co-dependency and every healthy relationship has its boundaries. When two or more people jointly explore the boundaries of relationship this allows the relationship to grow deeper, more powerful, and allows the people in relationship to optimize performance, to achieve more, to find peace.

Maybe all you need to do is make a small allowance. Take a small risk. Show the first sign of trust. Share a resource.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=msturgell&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1576755843&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

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Posted in boundaries, conflict, feud, Hatfield and McCoy, peace, relationships | 2 Comments