Personal skills development has become a huge market across the world. Becoming proficient and skilled in one’s profession often determines how far you get in business and it pays to stay ahead of the competition. Being smarter is not the mantra but being more rounded and educated in enough areas to get the job done.
Why even bother to develop your personal skills? What skills are more valuable and which should you seek out? How does personal development relate to one’s success? A lot depends on your particular area of expertise but let’s look from a perspective of online marketing. Here are some items to consider:
– To better the competition. In your particular niche, what are the leaders doing? Are your talents comparable? Look at measuring yourself against them and coming up with a plan to get where they are or better.
– To communicate with customers and prospects. This often involves mind expansion on your part to come up with more unique and not so typical ways to get your message. At least 90% or better of communication is non-verbal so you need to make sure that you communicate well and more often than not. Courses on communication are available and this is one area of personal skills development you should definitely work on.
– To become more technically proficient. Are you up to snuff on all the features and benefits of your product or service? If not, get out the brochures or manuals and start cracking. Think about your market demographic and study trends and demand. Develop a plan to be the best in your field and start working on it.
– To increase your market penetration. This part involves a bit of focus. Leaders are not born, they are made. This means producing content or developing your performance so that you become recognized by your peers. Will you make mistakes? Yes, but you should look back at your blunders and resolve to learn from them.
A habit I’ve been using to develop my own personal skills development is to increase my knowledge base. I often use audio learning techniques such as listening to motivational as well as instructional material on a regular basis to increase my mind expansion. I also read books on a regular basis to increase my grasp of critical concepts I feel important to me. Leisure reading has it’s place also and an appreciation of the arts is good to have particularly as a subject of conversation with others. Occasionally, I will view a video to look at business presentations or events that I might find useful.
Seminars and conferences are another useful tool in personal skills development. Many companies online often utilize online conferences to teach their affiliates or distributors on a regular basis. Face to face seminars are great but can be costly. I try to make it a point to get to at least 1 or 2 conferences a year in my field to stay current on topics and subjects of interest or to gain proficiency in knowledge in a subject I’m not up on.
Some pointers for particular areas to consider when making your personal skills development plan:
– Communication. Learning to be a better communicator is critical to your success in any field. This is a must to master.
– Marketing skills. I’ve often looked at this when using my own step by step marketing system. This means looking at ad pages, emails and any other media when you present it to the public. Does it look professional? Would you buy or sign up from your presentation? Things you can improve upon.
– Organization. The more organized you are, the better you can execute. This usually involves refining your daily routine and sustaining it.
– Technical savvy and creativity. This often involves taking classes in subjects that involve the more technical aspects of your field. An example might be learning HTML language, designing web pages, or researching niches on the search engines. Also involves practice in things such as article writing, business letters, video creation and more.
Developing a personal skills development plan can do wonders for your business. When you pick up a new skill, be sure to use it on a regular basis to strengthen your knowledge of it. Just remember to master the fundamentals first, then look to become the best in your niche.
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