52 Essential Skills For Success in Business and Life

 

The Success Journey

What are the skills for success that you need in life and business?  I host a podcast on personal development and one of the topics we regularly discuss is success.  What are the skills necessary for success? And even more importantly, what is success?

For some it’s money.  For some it’s status.  For some it’s time.  And for some, it’s becoming the best version of themselves – a lifetime journey of personal growth and development.

Abraham Maslow, a prominent psychologist called this desire to become the best “you,” self-actualization, and he put it at the very top of his hierarchy of human needs.  It refers to the idea of realizing the full extent of our human potential – becoming the best version of ourselves.

If we think about success in this way, as a journey toward greater personal development to achieve our full potential as human beings, it communicates the idea of “becoming” rather than that of “arrival.”  Money, possessions, a title, etc., all reflect a destination rather than a pilgrimage and if we think about success as a journey, it changes the way we live and helps to develop a long-term perspective.

A journey takes time.  It isn’t an overnight trip.  Many times, we see other people’s so-called success and we are tempted to believe we should get there tomorrow.  That temptation, especially when it doesn’t happen in reality, can lead to frustration, defeat, and even depression (here’s more on IFD disease and how to combat frustration and depression).  A long-term understanding of success as a journey of “becoming” helps us to keep going when times are tough.  To get up when we inevitably fall down.  And to generally have a better outlook on life, rather than dealing with the constant frustration of not “arriving.”

Jim Rohn, considered the expert in personal development, shared in his essay, “The Miracle of Personal Development,” that his mentor once told him, “Jim, if you want to be wealthy and happy, learn this lesson well: Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”  This statement reflects the idea of becoming.  To get more than you have, you have to become more than you are.  In other words, unless you change how you are, you’ll always have what you’ve got.

With this in mind, I have put together 52 essential skills for success in business and life.  Having studied some of the most successful people, I have developed a list of 52 skills – one for each week of the year – that are essential for success.  These skills are not vocational skills but they are essential for your vocation.  These skills are the “human” skills for success in life.

 

5 Primary Skill Categories

In an attempt to categorize these essential skills, I tried to group them under some broader and more general headings.  Here are the 5 Primary Skill Categories that serve to clarify the 52 essential skills for success:

Self Management — Self-Management deals with what we might call “personal” skills or the qualities that we each possess in and of ourselves.   They reflect mindsets or attitudes inherent within us.

Productivity — Productivity addresses the skills needed in order to get things done in a timely manner.

Communication – Communication refers to how we impart or exchange information and meaning.  These skills highlight the core competencies around our communicative efforts.

Perception — Perception deals with how we see the world and what we think about ourselves, others, and the world around us.  These skills primarily address our intentional and subconscious patterns of thought.

Interpersonal — The interpersonal primarily refers to our dealings with other people.  How do we get along with them?  How do we manage and think about our relationships, both professional and personal?

52 Essential Skills for Success in Business and Life

Now that we have defined the broad categories, here are the 52 essential skills for success in business and life along with a brief description of each one:

Self-Management

1. Self-confidence – the ability to trust and believe in yourself.
2. Sense of humor – having a light-hearted outlook on the world with the ability to laugh and appreciate a joke.
3. Living in balance – knowing how and keeping the different aspects of one’s life in healthy balance. Understanding how to moderate and realign priorities when things are disproportionate.
4. Purpose – knowing and living according to the reason you were put on this planet
5. Risk-taking – the ability to step out on the limb when necessary and not always play it safe. Entrepreneurial thinking and having “guts.”
6. Competitiveness – Having a healthy ambition and willing to get in the arena and go up against challengers and rivals.
7. Desire to learn – A curious outlook on the world and an unquenchable thirst for new knowledge and new experiences.
8. Coach-ability – The humility to submit one’s self to a coach and the willingness to learn new skills from someone else. Wisdom comes from a multitude of counselors.
9. Emotional intelligence – a realistic understanding and perspective of one’s self that includes self-awareness, empathy, emotional self-regulation, social skills, and motivation.
10. Grit – the resilience, commitment, and diligence to work hard and keep going during the tough times.
11. Enthusiasm – a passion for life and the inherent motivation to take on new challenges with determination.
12. Ethics – Honesty and truthfulness in your work, life and relationships. Having a conscientiousness in keeping your promises.
13. Friendliness – Having a general kindness toward other people. This isn’t simply being “nice” for the sake of having someone like you, but a deep goodness and charity toward others.
14. Adaptability – Having the versatility and flexibility to adjust to new conditions and environments.
15. Authenticity – Being real. Not pretending, grandstanding, or posturing for gain.
16. Assertiveness – being self-assured and confident without being aggressive. The ability to communicate with confidence and skill the full range of your thoughts and emotions.

Productivity

17. Research skills – The ability to know how to find out authoritative information about things when necessary.
18. Goal setting – Understanding how to set goals that are challenging yet realistic. Knowing how to define these in specific ways so they can be measured.
19. Time management – The discipline to plan your life intentionally and manage the hours you are given each day.
20. Delegation – An understanding of priorities and a realization of who to assign tasks to so they can be accomplished in a timely manner. This also requires the people skills to assign these tasks with tact, confidence, and integrity.
21. Attention to detail – Being able to see the trees within the overall forest and knowing the importance of each one and why each particular one is important and must be addressed.
22. Effective decision making – The skill of making wise decisions that benefit the organization and move things forward. The courage to make the tough call when you feel it is the right call even in the face of adversity.
23. Crisis management – An understanding of levels of crisis. Knowing the difference between what is really dangerous for the organization and what may be a simple bump in the road and then knowing the proper ways to address each according to its level of importance.
24. Stress management – The ability to manage stress in a healthy way, to roll with the punches while not accepting the status quo and a recognition and tolerance of the universal and unending context and environment of change and uncertainty.

Communication

25. Presentation skills – The ability to present a message, cast vision, and communicate direction on particular projects to various audiences and in various contexts.
26. Storytelling – Understanding how narratives give and guide meaning and being effective at weaving those narratives into organizational and interpersonal cultures and contexts effectively.
27. Public speaking – The skill of speaking in front of audiences confidently and effectively.
28. Body language – An understanding of the non-verbal messages that communicate up to 93% of meaning in interpersonal relationships. Knowing how to read these messages in other people and understanding how to use your own body language in such a way as to align it with your authentic self and your overriding message.
29. Listening – The skill of being able to authentically “hear” what other people are saying when they speak to you without inserting your own agenda. Hearing in such a way as to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
30. Facilitation of discussion – The skill of asking questions and managing a discussion in order to keep it on track, avoid rabbit trails, and arrive at a solution/destination that benefits the organization and allows everyone to feel heard and valued.
31. Persuasion – The ability to use one’s own character, passion, and logic in order to persuade and influence other people to your thoughts and ideas.
32. Constructive criticism – Knowing how to tactfully giving real feedback without ego and communicate to others in goodness how they can improve for their own benefit and the benefit of the organization.
33. Clarity in Messaging –  The ability to make one’s self understandable and clear when communicating language and vision. This means adapting one’s communication and message to the audience and avoiding language and jargon that muddies the message.

Perception

34. Critical thinking – Not simply accepting the “party line” when it is given and thinking deeper about the world in a constructive and not destructive way.  Not mere compliance.
35. Creativity – Understanding the creative process and knowing how to employ creative and innovative thinking in order to do things in new ways.
36. Intuitive Perception – Reading people and situations – The ability to see people as they really are and recognize their emotional states and even their underlying motivations. The ability to realistically see and assess situations and contexts in order to make informed decisions.
37. Empathy – The emotional skill of putting one’s self in someone else’s shoes in order to understand and even “feel” their thoughts and emotions. Having a sense of compassion for those in need.
38. Lateral thinking – Being able to see things from different and uncommon perspectives. Looking at things through different lenses. Knowing how to reframe problems from new viewpoints.
39. Strategic thinking – The ability to see multiple “moves” ahead. Taking realistic assessments of where the organization is, seeing what the future could, and likely, will be, and taking the steps to address that future strategically.
40. Problem solving – Troubleshooting difficulties and challenges in order to accurately define the problem and then finding innovative ways to solve it.
41. Artistic sense – Being able to see things from an aesthetically pleasing perspective. Understanding artistic and design trends and the ability to recognize them and employ them in the organization.   Thinking with design and aesthetics in mind.
42. Technology savvy – Keeping up to date with the latest technology trends, where tech is going, how it works, and how it can be utilized for the organization.

Interpersonal

43. Negotiation – The art of making deals that benefit the organization and are considered win/win. Knowing how to work with your counterparts to accomplish and achieve your personal and organizational objectives.
44. Networking – The skill of connecting with other people for mutual benefit.
45. Team building – The ability to understand team dynamics and interpersonal relationships in order to construct and manage an effective, high performing group of people.
46. Conflict resolution – Knowing how to manage and resolve conflict situations. Keeping emotions in check, managing difficult conversations with skill, and knowing how to deal with difficult people
47. Charisma – The ability to draw other people to one’s self. The ability to inspire others.
48. Diplomacy – Tactfully managing difficult and challenging circumstances to maintain unity.
49. Mentoring – Knowing how to help someone else to become a better person. Not simply lecturing, but coaching them forward on their journey. Investing your time into someone else.
50. Leadership – Influencing others and leading them on a journey to become better people for the benefit of the organization.
51. Collaborative – The ability to work with other people, get along, and make the project better.
52. Etiquette – Knowing what and what not to say and do in every particular context and situation.

Go Deeper 

I hope you will join the exciting and challenging journey of self development.  To participate, here are the first two steps:

1.  Download the Essential Skills Personal Assessment and complete it.  The assessment helps you to recognize your areas of strength and the areas for improvement.  This provides a base from which you can move forward.
2. Determine the priorities you need to work on and utilize the resources that we have on this site, along with others, to grow in those areas!

Best to you on your personal development journey!!