How adaptable are you?

One of the best ways for any professional to make themselves more employable in today’s competitive jobs market is by working on their personal and people skills. While hard or technical skills will change over time, and we have a duty to stay up to date with the latest technologies, it is ‘soft’ skills that will enable you to stand out from the crowd. 

There are so many to mention that it would take a whole dissertation to discuss the importance of skills such as communication, empathy, problem solving, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, management etc. and their impact in our daily jobs. For this article, I wanted to focus on one, which was ranked in LinkedIn’s top 5 soft skills companies need most in 2019.

Learning mindset

Whatever role or industry sector that we work in, we all have to deal with change. If you look it up in a dictionary, adaptability is defined as ‘the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions’. In the case of individuals, this could mean many things, perhaps taking on new responsibilities, moving to a new corporate or even country culture.  

To add value and increase the contribution we make to our companies, we have to take ownership of our careers. This means addressing skills gaps. No one is going to tell you to do it, but if you don’t, someone else will. Put simply, we need to develop a learning mindset, and quite frankly, it’s something that we should all embrace and get excited about.

When recruiting talent for our partner organisations, we are increasingly required to find not just technically sound candidates but those with excellent personal skills. We hear this time and again from our clients in the technology and engineering industries. Having the right technical skills is a given – they want people who are creative, can think outside the box and bring innovative solutions. They want to see evidence of this when hiring.

Solutions for the future

Organisations want to see examples where you’ve shown the initiative to take your development into your own hands. While you may well be able to learn during office hours by attending relevant industry conferences, you will also need to make the most of your time outside of work to up skill, for example attending an evening course or picking up a new software skill during your holiday time.

And by stepping out of your comfort zone and asking for stretch assignments, you’ll be able to deal with challenges better, learn from mistakes and become more resilient. By continually learning, you’ll make yourself more relevant and perform to a much higher level. As they say on LinkedIn, “An adaptable mind is an essential tool for navigating today’s ever-changing world, as yesterday’s solutions won’t solve tomorrow’s problems.”One of the best ways for any professional to make themselves more employable in today’s competitive jobs market is by working on their personal and people skills. While hard or technical skills will change over time, and we have a duty to stay up to date with the latest technologies, it is ‘soft’ skills that will enable you to stand out from the crowd.  

There are so many to mention that it would take a whole dissertation to discuss the importance of skills such as communication, empathy, problem solving, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, management etc. and their impact in our daily jobs. For this article, I wanted to focus on one, which was ranked in LinkedIn’s top 5 soft skills companies need most in 2019.

Learning mindset

Whatever role or industry sector that we work in, we all have to deal with change. If you look it up in a dictionary, adaptability is defined as ‘the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions’. In the case of individuals, this could mean many things, perhaps taking on new responsibilities, moving to a new corporate or even country culture.  

To add value and increase the contribution we make to our companies, we have to take ownership of our careers. This means addressing skills gaps. No one is going to tell you to do it, but if you don’t, someone else will. Put simply, we need to develop a learning mindset, and quite frankly, it’s something that we should all embrace and get excited about.

When recruiting talent for our partner organisations, we are increasingly required to find not just technically sound candidates but those with excellent personal skills. We hear this time and again from our clients in the technology and engineering industries. Having the right technical skills is a given – they want people who are creative, can think outside the box and bring innovative solutions. They want to see evidence of this when hiring.

Solutions for the future

Organisations want to see examples where you’ve shown the initiative to take your development into your own hands. While you may well be able to learn during office hours by attending relevant industry conferences, you will also need to make the most of your time outside of work to up skill, for example attending an evening course or picking up a new software skill during your holiday time.

And by stepping out of your comfort zone and asking for stretch assignments, you’ll be able to deal with challenges better, learn from mistakes and become more resilient. By continually learning, you’ll make yourself more relevant and perform to a much higher level. As they say on LinkedIn, “An adaptable mind is an essential tool for navigating today’s ever-changing world, as yesterday’s solutions won’t solve tomorrow’s problems.”