Finding Your Capabilities

WHAT DO YOU DO WELL AND NOT SO WELL?

Understanding and finding your capabilities and what you do not so well can help you choose work where you can be more productive and can withstand the inevitable setbacks.

An excerpt from my book, CAREER CHANGE GUIDE:

Skills and Competencies

What are your skills and competencies?

Skill: a one-dimensional ability that a person can do naturally. Some people can quickly grasp other people’s feelings. Others may be able to compute numbers in their heads. These are skills. A skill can be improved by training and experience.

Competency: a multidimensional ability to combine skills with knowledge and experience to generate a desired outcome. For example, good leaders combine abilities in strategic thinking and assessing team members’ capabilities with training and supervisory experience to lead effectively.

To identify your skills and competencies, look at your personal history. Think of situations, especially ones where you played an active part that went well. Identify your role in these situations and your contribution to the outcome. Start by looking at the near past, including your current and most recent jobs and then your earlier history.

What were your successes? What did you do to achieve them? Which did you enjoy the most? What do these experiences tell you about yourself? What have you done that did not turn out well? Most of us have. That is OK. One can learn from this. Most successful people have failed at least once.

Get good at finding your capabilities, and your understanding of yourself will serve you throughout your life.

You can get more ideas from the book here, or buy the book on Amazon.