Career Caffeine Shot: Define Your Craft, Not Your Skills
In a crowded job market, you cannot be part of the herd. Standing out is more than survival. People with unique value thrive. It is the difference between success and mediocrity.
How you talk about your talents can be the tipping point. Having met and coached hundreds of talented professionals, I am often dumbstruck on how highly bright (particularly millennials) people talk about themselves.
Conditioned by education, society’s expectations and even past work experience most professionals speak about themselves as a basket of skills.
“I am an X. I am an Y. I have Z qualification etc…” and so the laundry list goes on.
In one recent encounter, when I asked a young professional “tell me something about yourself?” They listed 25 skills! All delivered in a monotonous and disembodied tone.
When I asked why they talked about themselves this way? They replied that what they thought they should do.
1. Never Define Your Value as Skills!
Here is the Career Caffeine shot: all skills are commodities. Name one skill that cannot be bought. A skill that does not have a price.
If you are describing yourself as a disembodied basket of skills, what you are saying is that I am only worth the sum of all of the commodities in my basket.
Like a supermarket trolley, my value as professional is the sum of all of the items: tins of beans, bread, and bananas.
What is more, in a highly competitive job market employers will judge you not your worth and the value you bring but the content of your basket.
Does someone else have more items? Will they provide the same commodity cheaper? After all, you have a price tag. You have defined it. However, do you want to be a commodity?
2. Declare Your Craft
Being a craft person means you have left the pack behind. Stating what you believe are your unique talents separates you from your peers.
However, you cannot wear someone else suit. Repeating jargon you overheard or think is popular is a cop out. You return to the herd.
Instead, make a declaration. Your declaration: your stake in the ground. Tailored for you, by you. It stems from a simple, yet profound career question: what craft do you are striving for excellence?
Stop and think for a moment. “I believe my true craft and passion is…”
Whether you are a tinker, tailor or coder maker, it does not matter. Great craft starts from a belief and drive. A declaration that you will be the best you possibly at your given talent.
3. Master Your Craft
What separates great craftsperson from dabblers is the knowledge that ambition is not enough. Sweat, consistency, and learning are the roads to great talent.
When we see the great pianist, orator or painter at the summit of their talent: we are mesmerized. However, what we see is the final step. Not the many steps it took to get there.
Being an apprentice –a learner- is a declaration that you are on the road to mastery. Being perceptive, observing others you admire and wish to emulate is the gift of great learning.
Learning is also the habit of consistency. Applying self-discipline to the building boxes of your craft. Relentlessly, use your highest standard. Mastery, after all, is a ladder climbed one rung at a time.
Every true artisan or entrepreneur is a learner. They refine their art and business daily. To be a master –not a commodity- you need to root your talent in consistent learning that hungers for improvement. True masters of their craft find the fragments that sharpen their method that make them exceptional.
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About the Author
Simon Trevarthen is Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Elevate Your Greatness (EYG). EYG helps individuals, teams, and organizations unpack the secrets of success by becoming even better versions of themselves through dynamic keynotes, seminars, and workshops on innovation, inspiration and presentation excellence.
Learn more about Elevate Your Greatness see www.elevateyourgreatness.com
Follow EYG on Twitter: @Simon Trevarthen
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