General Skills and their Categories

Apart from job-specific skills (most of which we call Situated Skills), one needs a range of skills that are applicable in many roles and contexts. We typically tend to think of such a list as an infinite one. It probably is. However, there are ways to put the genie in the bottle.

This list needs to be made manageable, so that ‘horizontal’ skill assessment and development initiatives become possible and finite. Perhaps more importantly, these are one’s fall back strengths and calling cards when switching functions – and we believe that rotations ought to be happening much more in most organisations. So, one should be able to name them.

‘General’ does not mean ‘Universal’, though. General signifies that no special context or tool is needed to perform them. For instance, organising a large employee communication event does not call for use of any special tool or contextual skill. Yet, the ability to get such events right is a practice skill – to assume that anybody can handle it is to be open to all kinds of surprises. In addition, there are some skills that are General, but not needed by Individual Contributors.

Data Handling and Analysis

This is broadly the skill of importing data into a structured database (which typically is a spreadsheet), performing some clean-ups on the data, then examining patterns in it using basic tools.

In the early years, we used to classify this as a Situated Skill. A connotation of that classification is that the skill is only needed in certain jobs. However, gratifyingly, we now find that across organisations, the culture of using data is becoming widespread. MS Excel can no longer be considered a special tool. Hence this re-classification. Of course, advanced uses of Excel typically do fall into the Situated Skills (SS) category. But this has to be seen in the context of the organisation – in one organisation, the use of pivot tables was frequent enough to not warrant the SS categorisation.

Communication and Influencing

This is the most commonly understood category of general skills. As Irvin Yalom has observed, Existential Isolation is one of the “givens” of existence. Every listener and reader actually plays a guessing game, hoping that they got the speaker or writer right. They look for confirmation in what they hear / read next. Every speaker or writer hopes that they will be understood. They look for confirmation in what the listener / reader does. This, actually, is the unsaid drama of communication – getting something understood by others is an achievement, understanding someone else’s point of view is an achievement. We mean both of those by our General Skill named Clear Communication.

The unsaid, assumed context in the above description were typical, work-oriented conversations. However, especially leaders and peers, every now and then, need to hold conversations that are not transactional. They are about how colleagues are feeling, experiencing. The context could be times when there is a sense of alienation, when there are bereavements of near and dear ones, or a sense of having failed despite making significant efforts (e.g., losing a big order), unhappiness with career, etc. This is when a skill that we call Deep Listening or Listening Beyond the Context of Work comes into play.

There are times when A tries to change the views or decisions of B, leading to the use of the General Skill called Influencing, Negotiation and Conflict-Handling.

Executing with Team

Three General Skills comprise this set, typically: Job / Project Planning is the logical start point. While complex project planning might be a Situated Skill, there is no conceivable role in which role holders do not need to plan to get things done as per acceptance criteria.

A skill needed by team leaders is Supervision of Work so that tasks are carried out as per expectation. This includes spurring preparatory task completions and providing support where needed. This is a specific skill and is not to be conflated with the demands of the overall supervisory role. And it does not imply micro-management, either.

Apart from self and own team, very often, employees need to use the skill of Coordination with those who are their peers, within or outside the team, or external partners. This entails a mild form of influencing, negotiation and conflict-handling to be found widely practiced in day-to-day running of organisations – adjusting schedules, asking for small changes, etc. This also entails changing one’s own schedules and processes to align with those of others, ensuring relevant parties are informed.

In a thermal power plant, fraught with various operational risks, we found very many safety related practices that needed to be followed. They entailed, among other things, sensing of and anticipating risks, and drafting of steps to be followed for specific tasks / jobs. Safety Practices was included as a General Skill under the Category of Executing with Team.

The list of General Skills needs to be made manageable, so that ‘horizontal’ skill assessment and development initiatives become possible and finite. Perhaps more importantly, these are one’s fall back strengths and calling cards when switching functions – and we believe that rotations ought to be happening much more in most organisations. So, one should be able to name them.

People Assessment and Development

Another set of General Skills are about assessing, informing and developing people.

Team leaders, especially, need to assess candidates for positions in their team. They also need to assess especially new team members on the job, for their proficiency levels, their strengths and improvement areas, their preferences. People Assessment Off- and On-the-Job is an important and well-recognised skill.

Employees, in general, need to explain some specific aspects to others every now and then – to peers, to team members, to external partners. Hence, Feedback, Coaching and Training is an oft-used skill in the workplace.

Team leaders need to carry out an imaginative task of conceiving what learning experiences will be impactful for specific learning agendas and for specific team members. They then need to pick assignments for team members such that while performing them, they learn what they need to. They cannot push them far into the unknown, though – else, there will be too many mistakes and failures. They also need to create fall-backs to prevent slippages in team performance. And they need to weave together these experiences with coaching inputs and sometimes classroom inputs to create powerful learning experiences for their team members. This is the skill of Development Planning.