Nowadays, business owners and employees do have many questions concerning the evolution of their careers. They do wonder what kind of project suits them best, what kind of skills have they developed and what other skills must they enhance. All these questions lead us to the so-called skill review. But, how to implement this skill review and by what means?

Find your mentors and pay attention to their feedback

Although it is good to have models, in most cases you cannot directly connect with them. But, skills development would be much easier if you work with those who have gone through it. This is why you should not only find models, but also mentors. Ideally, your mentors would be your role models, but at least they are more experienced than you. These individuals can provide you with the necessary aid. They teach you all the tricks you need to avoid having bad experiences during your entrepreneurial evolution. This can save you a lot of time. Of course, it’s not easy to find mentors to establish your skill review. Often, you should first give in order for someone to become your mentor. You should try to be of use for him in any possible way. You should give him a reason to invest his time with you. You can also seek help from a specialized agency to win your business. Link this step with searching for feedback from actual projects. The best possible way to enhance your skills is to conduct concrete and solid projects. Why? Because real projects give you the feedback you require to hone your skills. Although many people prefer to wait until all is set and done before engaging in real projects, you most definitely would learn faster through real-life experience. You may experience failure during this process, but you should know that those would be your stepping stones to success thanks to the precious lessons they would provide you.

Know your soft skills

Make an inventory of your non-technical entrepreneurial skills, or soft skills. These abilities include your interpersonal and relational experiences. They represent your personal attribute, personality traits and communication capacities. It can be said that non-technical skills are less measurable than specific skills, but they do play an essential role in jobs based on communication. Soft skills are not taught in schools. They are the result of attempts and failures. Although there are books and guides aiming to enhance your know-how, you must apply the advices that you have learned and adapt to each eventuality. Not every individual and every situation are the same. Certain companies give value to this type of skills. They can correlate with a more promising candidate. The best working environment is a stimulating atmosphere where colleagues have each other’s backs and can mutually develop. Negative attitudes and bad tension are detrimental to a workplace, which is why recruiters look for the candidate possessing good interpersonal skills. If an individual masters his work but exhibits a negative effect on his colleagues, the company would look to replace him with someone who has his solid skills AND good interpersonal skills. Knowing how to listen and understand your partner or client allows you to be calm in your tasks and to propose relevant solutions while facing an inconvenience.

Fundamental issues

The evaluation of skills within a company isn’t a new concept. Organizations from a wide variety of fields use diverse tools and evaluation techniques ever since the American psychologist, David McClelland, has begun creating his “competency model” during the 1970s. However, not all companies are able to conduct and effective evaluation. There is a set of questions that should be answered before beginning any evaluation process:
  • How much and what are the necessary skills to fulfill a given role?
  • Should all or just some of them be evaluated?
  • Which is better, focusing on general skills, uniquely on basic experiences, or on specific skills?
  • Why is it useful for a company to have a good skill-mapping?
  • What are the application domains for skill evaluation?
The skill evaluation is a wide domain requiring a particular training. Skills definitely have a natural side to it, but they can also be developed.

Common elements

Most skills are of a cross-cutting nature and can be applied in almost every organization; these universal skills include:
  • Leadership
  • Flexibility
  • Negotiation
  • Ability to make decisions
  • Problem solving
  • Initiative spirit
  • Activity planning
  • Work organization
  • Client management
In order to better understand requirements and expectations, skills can also be subdivided into two macro-categories: on one hand, cognitive aspects (such as decision making and problem solving) and on the other, interpersonal aspects (such as leadership, team management, negotiation, etc…)  Specialized companies will help you translate your entrepreneurial skills through finding the best role and the best employer.
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