Future proof your career – developing the skills you will need to succeed in a turbulent, uncertain world
In this blog post, Jeremy explores why gaining a better understanding of the values of your staff and clients will help to future-proof your career; first he addresses why this is a necessary skill in the 21st Century world of work/life.
What the world of work will look like in the future is subject of great conjecture and debate. What is becoming apparent is that the traditional skills that we learnt in formal education are not enough to prepare us for the challenges presented by our evolving digital economy and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. According to the World Economic Forum [1] “social skills – such as persuasion, emotional intelligence and teaching others – will be in higher demand across industries than narrow technical skills”. The industry and sector you work in may change over the course of your career, but if you can develop high social and emotional proficiency you will be more in-tune with your clients (as a sales person or coach), better at managing others (as a manager) and consequently more successful and more employable.
Part of this social and emotional proficiency is demonstrating empathy and really understanding the values of your colleagues, clients and yourself.
- How can you motivate your team without offering financial incentives?
- How can you improve your sales conversion rate?
- How do you make sure your coaching clients keep coming back for more?
- How can you improve your satisfaction with your career and life choices?
To answer these questions it’s essential to really get under the skin of what motivates you, your colleagues or your clients. Because we have all had different life experiences to other people, our values (i.e. what’s important) and motivations will be different.
Understanding someone’s ’values’ (sometimes known as ‘eliciting’ their values) in a specific context is essential to being able to tailor your sales pitch, employment offer and management approach to the individual.
As a manager, developing an understanding of your colleagues’ values will help you create a more engaged and effective team. As a sales person, it will help improve your sales performance because you’ll be tailoring your product/service to what the particular customer / client wants, and also avoid wasting time on prospects who don’t want what you’re offering. As a recruiter, it will improve your recruitment processes because you’ll be hiring people whose motivations and values fit that of the role and the organisation. When seeking a new job, it will improve your success at job interviews and help you make the right career choices. As a coach, it will help you guide your coaching clients to make better choices. Overall, this will help you achieve better results in your work and life.
Fill in the form below to download my pdf for some practical advice on how to elicit values from colleagues, clients or prospects.
Please do SHARE this article and download with your coaching clients, employees and friends.
Eliciting values is a technique I teach on my NLP courses. If you’re new to NLP and interested in finding out more, I have a one day NLP for Business Success course running on 26th January. CLICK HERE for more information and to book.
If you’re interested in developing a deeper understanding of NLP to improve all aspects of your professional and personal life, including how to elicit values, find out more about my NLP Diploma course (Also an ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management) Recognised Advanced Influencing Skills course).
If you’re a manager and looking to develop your leadership and management skills, have you considered my ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management) Coaching & Mentoring courses?
[1] World Economic Report: The Future of Jobs – Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
