Before today’s Daily Paradox can I thank all those who spoke so kindly about “A child’s prayer”. 

So many of you wrote and I am most grateful for your emails. I’ll quote just three.

 “I’m hugging my two-year-old extra tight these days!” MJ,  Washington DC, USA.

“I went to a Meeting of my Regimental Association last night.  I took the liberty of reading the poem to the Members present. They very much appreciated it .” NP, Hampshire, England.

“It touched my heart.” Anon, Singapore

Glenda Chew started working with Terrific Mentors International only a few months ago. We thought you would like to hear what she has learnt about our work in that time.

History is not as good a teacher as Prescience. Of course, prescience is forecasting, a notorious death trap for the confident and a dangerous ogre for the humble. History, on the other hand, should be factual – but we know that it isn’t. History is the embellishment of what was thought to have happened by the people who might have wished it otherwise. Not always. I know an Eminent Professor whose history is what he has researched, verified and edited to be intelligible to ordinary mortals. It is correct. (As far as he knows.)

Your top skills are not the ones you performed previously but the ones you are going to use now and for the future. Florence Nightingale was a skilful nurse who turned out to be a prodigious politician. Tim Berners-Lee started out as a UK Telecom equipment expert before inventing the World Wide Web. Your best skills are yet to come.

So examine your skills to see the gaps. How do you do that? By knowing what you intend to accomplish. For example, aged twenty I needed to get people to tell me the truth about how well their business was doing. I got myself taught interviewing. Then I got myself taught to read people. That’s what really mattered. It was useful even – or especially – if someone was lying. I also got people to tell me how their competitors were doing. It proved more reliable than how they were doing. It started my career in advertising.

Here are some skills that are currently in vogue for the future boss: 

Analytical judgement, always a favourite but hard to spot.

Flexibility, essential as long as it doesn’t compromise fundamental truths.

Emotional intelligence, different from being soft. Strong EI is priceless. Very rare.

Intellectual curiosity, every human needs it from Day One. Get the kids nosey.

Bias detection and handling. Q. How biassed are you? A: Very. We all are.

AI delegation (for prompts). Work in progress. Regulation not yet in progress.

A good mentor-coach will help you develop these skills by equipping you to:

Handle people better. With Strong Emotional Intelligence.

Discover your purpose. So that your next job helps you achieve it.

Become an expert at creativity. Think better than AI.

Sell skilfully and profitably. Pricing is the key to profits. 

Lead powerfully without aggression. More carrots than sticks.

Build a satisfying and rewarding career. And be interviewed credibly.

Start a rewarding business. The basics are often forgotten.

“A skills gap is like a car without a battery – going nowhere.”

Good morning

John Bittleston

To find out more please ask [email protected]. 

10 November 2023

The post Your Top Skills appeared first on Terrific Mentors International.