General Skills Vs. Special Skills

Added Monday 29.06.2009

Most people in today's society live their lives like sheep. Doing what they have always done, often because they don't know any different. They go to school, they study for a job (or learn a trade), they find a job, they do that job... 5-6 days per week, and at least 8 hours per day. Then it becomes - same thing, different day. But why start life like this? and why continue life like this? This is the case for at least 90 percent of the population. If you are here because you are actively seeking to better yourself or seeking to do something different then everybody else then you are in the smaller percentage of the population, the top 10 percent!

I remember reading about specialised skills versus generalised skills in a book (which I think was in "Rich Dad, Poor Dad " by Robert Kiyosaki, please correct me if I'm wrong) a little while ago, and thinking how well it summed up the two. It described specialised skills as knowing more and more about less and less. For example, a doctor becoming a neurosurgeon will study very detailed information about a very narrow field of practice. As with neurosurgeons, people who specialise will often get paid very well for what they know. The problem is that outside of this specialisation all that knowledge is of little help, it usually cannot be applied to other things. This is opposed to generalised skills, which can be easily applied to many different things.

Generalised skills are often learnt away from the normal steams where we learn about specialised skills. People who are often said to be vey 'savvy' or 'street smart' usually are very rounded people with generalised skills - they may not have a PhD or Doctorate but throw them at a problem and they will adapt and over come. Look at a lot of business people, or people like Richard Branson who can start businesses as diverse as air travel to fitness clubs and be majorly successful almost every time. So how do we build our generalised skill set? We try different things, we emerge from our box and don't be afraid of failing. Failings can show our willingness to give things a go and our range of experience. If we don't learn from our mistakes or failings then that's silly, but that's another story. If we keep doing the same thing, day-in, day-out, then that's the way we will stay. Very boring.

Selling seems to be a common thread among many successful people. Either selling directly as door-to-door sales people or selling in some other form. Selling builds very good generalised skills, from how to deal with other people, our ability to argue or persuade, spotting differences in body language, and even how to effectively listen. If you haven't done any type of selling before then I truly recommend it! There is nothing better than first hand experience, books can only give you so much, you have to put things into practice. Which brings me to another point and one I've mentioned before, you can study and study but if you never practice what you study you will never react to your best when the time comes to use it. This may be familiar to people who do competitive martial arts or other competitive sport. I have often seen people when they practice only practice at less than 50 percent, because "it is just practice", but when it comes time for a competition only perform around 50 percent. Puzzling? No, logical.

Another way of adding to your generalised skill set is to work for a small business. A lot of the time small businesses have limited staff and each staff member often has to do a diverse range of duties, excellent for building generalised skills! Rather than focusing on one thing and letting the rest get automatically taken care of behind closed doors you begin to be involved in a much larger part of the process. You responsibility may be higher, but your understanding of how things work is also higher. If you are already at the top of the tree such as top or middle management take some time out to see what your 'lower' level employees are doing, and have a go at what they are doing. If you don't learn anything then at least you will probably gain more respect. How many stories have you heard of people starting as the cleaner (or something similar), working their way up the ladder, and becoming a successful owner or director? Understanding and building your general skills we help you become a better leader and not just another manager!

What else can I do? Well, there are a lot of general skills people can learn. Just doing something different out of your normal daily routine can often stimulate new areas of the brain. Start selling, start a business, try something like Toastmasters to improve public speaking and communication skills, join a team based sport, or even join the army reserves to improve you leadership skills. The list is endless, you just have to use your noggin.

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