“To perform at an executive level, you need to possess a full set of skills,” says Victor Koo. “Although I always made sure I was performing my main job function well early in my career, at the same time, I also worked on building other skill sets that I knew a top executive must have. For instance, I recognized early on how important it is as an executive to achieve results through others. So in the jobs that I had before, I would seek out opportunities to get involved in managing projects and running task force teams. Those experiences really paid off not only in helping me to get into management roles later in my career, but also in allowing me to perform in them once I got there.”
Julia Huang is the CEO of PRCEDU.com, one of China’s leading e-learning and education companies. In getting her high potential staff to become more well-rounded, she tells them to explore things outside of their department and job scope. “To gain the type of broader perspective that helps you to perform as a manager, I always encourage our staff to be more adventurous and to diversify their experiences,” she describes. “When you see different ways of doing things, it can really improve your own way of doing things. It helps you to think outside the box and gives you new ideas that you don’t get just from dealing with people in your own department or company.”
Nicole Bernard even encourages her staff to round out their background with topics and interests outside of business. “Too few mainland professionals that I meet spend time learning about psychology or trying to understand how people think,” observes Nicole. “Yet knowing how to deal with people is such a huge part of your ability to be successful in your career. After all, businesses are run by people and the decisions that drive businesses are made by people. Therefore, being well read, understanding human behavior, and knowing how others think all help you to better handle situations and issues as a manager. Those things are not a substitute for developing your professional capabilities and experience, but they are an extremely valuable complement to them.”
How Well Developed Are Your Soft Skills?
Although gaps still exist, we hear clients point to the significant improvements that mainland professionals are making in key soft skill areas. These include having a better, big picture understanding of company objectives and business issues beyond just a focus on executing functional responsibilities. They see a greater willingness to approach senior management and offer ideas, as well as a more mature presentation of themselves to colleagues and clients. They notice the improvements in the ability to work in teams, leverage resources, and respond to and solve problems. They also mention the increasing efforts to take initiative and get involved, as well as take accountability for situations.
For most mainland professionals who wish to attain senior management levels in their career, they need to continue to improve in the quality of their soft skills. That improvement process takes time and requires an ongoing effort of practicing and developing good habits until they become your normal approach to handling situations. As a result, the effort that you need to put into building your own soft skills is one that you should be actively making right now.
Personal Travelogue
Early Professional Orientation:
Shy And Passive
From the job market and career development presentations that I deliver, people assume that I have always felt comfortable speaking in front of others. Until my late 20s, however, the exact opposite was true. I used to be terrified. Just speaking out within a small group was a huge challenge for me.
When I tell people that, many find it hard to believe. While growing up though, I was a very short, skinny kid. As a high school junior, I remember having to look up to most of my classmates who were a head taller than me. Standing next to them, I felt like I was in a land of giants. The result was that I grew up being extremely shy and self-conscious, where I would never join in on discussions in class. In ones where the teacher would call on students for answers, I would keep my head down and pretend to intently take down notes, as if to convey the message, “I’m sorry, I am way too busy to be bothered right now, so please don’t!”
Beginning in my senior year of high school, a fortunate thing happened. I began to grow! Quite suddenly, I became as tall as my peers. However, even though I looked more grown up from outward appearances, I still felt shy and self-conscious inside. That was a feeling that stayed with me even as I began working as a professional.
As a result, early in my career, I became very good at only putting myself in situations where I would look good, while staying away from those situations where I might not. I rarely pursued new challenges unless they were unavoidably placed upon me. Over time, I developed a talent for how to always look right and act right. So although I rarely participated in situations, I had the appearance of being someone who was mainly disinterested in getting involved as opposed to being someone who lacked the confidence to handle them, which was more the case. As I maintained this façade for many years, I came across an increasing number of situations that others would approach me to handle, but that I didn’t have the confidence or capability to take on.
I believe there are many people who are like this to some extent, especially early on in their career. They are reluctant to go outside their comfort zone and, instead, put a lot of energy into hiding their weaknesses. But eventually, situations arise where those weaknesses become exposed. At some point, you need to address them if you want to attain higher-level roles in your career. Better to begin that process sooner than later. Fortunately, I was able to recognize and do that at a relatively early stage for my own situation.
