Early in my career, I landed a job managing a group of technical instructors. I didn't know the first thing about teaching, especially teaching technical topics to professionals. I was interested, and I was also clueless.
So I decided the best way to lead the team was to do the work myself. I wanted to truly understand their jobs. It wasn’t easy. I spent a lot of time studying and making mistakes. You should've heard the gossip: a manager in the trenches? It was unheard of. Some people even laughed.
But I did it. For a while, I was even the top-ranked instructor on the team. I did it because I knew that if I was going to be an effective advocate for the team and be responsible to leadership for our results, I had to understand what they were doing. Some of the team were absolutely exceptional, masters of their craft. I learned a lot from them, and understanding our collective work made learning through observation easier.
I don’t tell this story often, but it's the foundation for my take on this: It's easier to lead yourself and others when you understand the work. To understand the work, you need to be able to do it. And to do it, you need skills.
What Are Skills?
We often think of skills as things you do which can be measured, like coding or speaking a foreign language. Traditionally, there are “hard” skills and “soft” skills. Ironically, many of the skills we call "soft", like working with people, planning projects, or handling difficult conversations, aren’t much different. They are just as measurable as any technical skill.
A skill is anything you have to practice to get better at. It's anything that creates measurable outputs and outcomes. It’s a skill that gets observably better through sustained effort.
The New Importance of Skills
We are in a time of unprecedented data availability. We have more information on performance and work than ever before. Technology is rapidly automating and transforming entire industries. The pace of change has never been faster.
In this environment, the ability to execute work, minimize rework, and drive meaningful outcomes is more critical than ever. Yet, the work itself has never been more complex.
It’s no longer enough to just be familiar with the work and the skills needed to do your job. That puts you in the middle of the pack. To truly lead, you need to understand what skills are needed for the work, what types of work produce the most value in a stream, and how to deliver that work effectively and reliably. That's a big ask, but it's not impossible.
My Approach to Understanding, Evaluating, and Building Skills
1. Understand the Skills that Drive the Work
Start by understanding the skills required to do the work that interests you. Take a few workflows from an area you've worked in or are interested in—whether it's software development, construction, or procurement—and reflect on the tasks involved. What knowledge and actions are needed to perform them?
Once you've mapped out the process, look at it critically. Where do your current skills align? What do you know really well, and where are you missing something? Look at others in your field. Are they narrow specialists or multi-disciplinary experts?
This exercise will give you a clear picture of what you know, where you can improve, and what you don't know at all.
2. Prioritize Your Improvements
The next step is to figure out which improvements will give you the best return. Instead of getting bogged down in a complex process, just ask yourself these three questions:
How does this skill support my goals? Does it align with work that is valued in my target industry and role?
Am I confident enough in this topic to coach, mentor, or teach someone this skill? If not, what would I need to know to get there?
What about this skill brings me joy or satisfaction? Would I feel more of that if I leveled up?
These questions will help you zero in on what to focus on. Resources for skilling up are everywhere—start with a web search or YouTube, and you'll be amazed at what you can find.
3. Commit to Continuous Improvement
The key to identifying, developing, and sustaining skills is putting in the reps every single day.
Are you a project manager? Find a volunteer organization that needs help executing projects. Are you a software developer? Get out there and build something new. There are people who could use your advice and your skills, no matter what your background is.
Finally, find a way to measure what you're doing. How many reps did you put in? What were the outcomes? What did you learn? Nothing we do is unmeasurable. Find that angle, understand it, and use it to refine your approach.
So what are you waiting for? Get started.