Master Just These 3 Soft Skills

There’s a lot of talk about “hard skills” vs. “soft skills”.

If you want to get ahead in your career, you want to master soft skills.

Here are three to master:

✔ Learn to have difficult conversations — say what no one else will say. You’ll quickly realize that you can disagree and have zero hate for them, even though they have different opinions. Hard to do but career-transforming.

✔ Tell better stories — I’m not talking about the shit you make up. Stories in business often cause rigid corporate folk to make illogical decisions or to think with their heart. This level of persuasion produces results, therefore, leading to built-in promotions. If I were to learn one storytelling technique, it would be the hero’s journey framework Star Wars used in the original movies, but that’s because I love Star Wars.

✔ Insist on brutal feedback — Mike Tyson famously said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” This response addressed a reporter’s question about whether he worried about Evander Holyfield’s fight plan. Feedback is a gift because it gives you the information needed to improve and later excel in your career.

The trick is to permit people to provide you with real feedback. The punch you’re not expecting causes you to make a new plan, a new career choice.