If you’ve been an employee in your organization for five years, do you have five years of experience or do you have one year of experience five times over?  

Professional competencies can get tired and before you know it, those five years have passed, but you may have been in a professional rut, not enhancing your professional skills. If this describes your career, then consider:

1. Learning the ten most important competencies for future application.
2. Identifying the alignment between your personal competencies and your organization’s vision and mission.
3. Examine your business competency practices and discover which areas need enhancing.

When was the last time you sharpened your skills in the 10 Professional Competency areas?

• Organization awareness for strategic imperatives
• Leadership skills
• Technological innovation & literacy
• Personal accountability for performance
• Change management & resiliency
• Verbal & written communication
• Problem solving
• Global application & understanding
• Presentation skills
• Collaborating

Consider choosing at least 4 of these areas where you could build your competence, and make it a professional priority to begin sharpening your skills in those areas. Can you work with your manager to develop a career plan that is inclusive of the areas you identified above?

Most people get stuck in one set of skills. They don’t push, they don’t try harder, and therefore, they don’t excel. Here is the good news: You can be different!

When was the last time you attempted a challenge that scared you? We all have those things that make us feel a little nervous, maybe a skill set such as technological innovation, or presentation skills, where you’ve convinced yourself that they just aren’t part of your mindset. Those challenges might be just what you need, to get your career and personal life moving!

Fixed or Growth Mindset: Which are you?

People with a fixed mindset think that talent comes from an ingrained level and ability. They see their skills as what they were born with. Afterall, some people are just good at numbers and some aren’t, right? Wrong!

Consider the Growth Mindset. These people know inherently that if they work at something, they can master it. They see their starting point as unimportant. The goal and commitment to doing the work is all the concentrate on.

Fixed Mindset = Develops learned helplessness and counts on an unchanging self image to keep your professional competencies at the same level. 

Growth Mindset= Helps you develop the ability to take on new challenges and develop new skills in almost any area you decide to take on! 
Which one will you be?

Looking for more insight?

Failure to realize that the best possible performance is a result of three simple metrics. We invite you to learn the fundamentals of these three metrics in our latest infographic.

Employee Development Systems, Inc. (EDSI) has been resolving employee development, leadership, generational, professional presence, and personal effectiveness issues for over 30 years, and she is ready to tackle any question you have.