When we talk about core skills, we refer to the skills needed to do your job. Not the BAU stuff (business as usual). It’s those technical skills that add value. Without these core skills, you won’t be able to do your job.

Here are some core skills you will be required to learn at work:

• Knowing how to use an employee portal
• Knowing how to navigate the HR portal

These are the generic stuff, that’s required for everyone, to familiarise yourself with the company systems.

Then you have the technical stuff, i.e. Test Management Platforms (JIRA, Azure AD, Visual Studio) and Cloud Platforms (AWS, Google, ServiceNow, Microsoft) — what you’ll have available to you at the time will depend on your organisation.

It’s good sometimes to go back to basics. We get mumbled up in all that extra stuff but if the foundation isn’t strong, then you’ll constantly struggle. So now you’re wondering, what are these so-called ‘core skills’? – Let’s get right into it…

People often make the mistake of trying to run before they can walk. Or walk before they can crawl.

But you have to go right to the beginning, go back to basics — and ask yourself, “What am I trying to achieve here?”

You get that part sorted, and the rest will follow nicely. But you may have to start small!

Small steps, great distances.

You can start by doing a beginner’s course. There are some pieces of training you can do at a beginner’s level, so there’s always somewhere for you to start.

If the core skill required is Functional Testing, begin learning at a novice level and work your way up.

Get back to basics, and help yourself by building a strong foundation. The most important step in your journey is to start strong.

This can be doing the groundwork, and becoming familiar with an area. Once you’re familiar, growing the core skill becomes second nature.

One of the best ways you can grow your core skills is by shadowing someone. It is simple but effective.

Think about it… you need to brush up on your project management skills, as the project you’re on requires this skill.

The easiest and most efficient way to grow this skill is by reaching out to a project manager you work with or know of at work, that can help upskill you in this area. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3, and a, b, c.

Learning from someone, through shadowing them, is nice because you’re seeing how to apply skills in a real context. Sometimes we get so invested in the detail that it takes us away from what’s essential.

For the context of this blog post, the only thing essential to know is how to apply a skill for your job.

Whatever skill is needed for your job, learn that skill – pick that up from a colleague; or someone close by you can trust, if you don’t know anyone, then it’s trial and error until you find the right person to help support you accordingly.

The benefit of working in tech is that you have a network of experts to engage with. The people at work are your best sources of information when it comes to skills.

Besides, how you learn something from people is different from a computer program.

One of the best ways you can grow your core skills is from hands-on experience.

You can learn a lot from a book or other means that help you acquire knowledge, but what you get from practical experience always wins in the end.

For example, to drive a car, you have to do more than just read a book. No matter how good an instruction manual is, it’s not conducive to the practical experience you’ll get when driving.

When learning to drive, you have two tests – a theory test and a practical test.

One is to mentally prepare you, while the other is to physically see whether you can actually drive or not.

Shadowing a work colleague gives you both theory and practice. The knowledge transfer shared is the theoretical element while watching them perform a given task is what will help in practice.

Also, sometimes it’s better when someone physically shows you something. It’s an easy win.

Learning from a colleague also gives you that Human Genuity. Learning from a machine is one thing, learning from a fellow human is another.

Working alongside a colleague, you have an opportunity to quickly pick up skills as you’re physically being shown how to do something.

The other alternative is watching a recorded video – which again, will show a human demonstrating how to perform a task.

A simple way you can work towards growing core skills is through requesting feedback.

Feedback is meant to be a propeller for you to get to the next level.

We can look at it in 4 ways, particularly:

• Welcoming feedback
• Requesting feedback
• Accepting feedback
• Integrating feedback

Welcoming feedback

The first and vital step is, “Are you open to feedback?” How open are you when it comes to welcoming feedback from peers?

You need to have a positive attitude towards feedback first and foremost.

If you’re someone who is not open to the idea of feedback, this will not reflect well when it comes to talent & performance reviews.

Essentially, you want to always portray a positive view at work, especially when it relates to your skills.

So it’s important to remember the more open you are to feedback, the better it is for you, progression-wise, in the long run.

Requesting feedback

Are you requesting feedback? – How often do you do it?

Well, this is why you should… If you’re working tirelessly and being productive at work, you want this to be trackable so that you constantly reviewing the progress you’re making at work.

The last thing anyone would want is to have done an amazing at something that cannot be proved.

Requesting feedback regularly and strategically is a good way to work efficiently in growing your core skills.

Accepting feedback

Not everyone is great at this, but here’s why you should be… it shows you want to improve! Simple.

Sometimes by not accepting feedback, you’re showing an attitude of denial – which isn’t always a bad thing, but in the majority of cases, it will come across as if you have a poor understanding or you do not want to improve.

Acceptance is an essential step that you need to be aware of to ensure you don’t fall into the trap of becoming a nuisance.

Integrating feedback

Now that you have the feedback, you need to integrate it as part of your next actionable steps.

How are you going to execute? How are you going to do better? –

That’s what you need to think about. The way you come to a decision is by collating all the feedback received and using that as a source of reference when planning the next steps on how you can improve.

Setting aside some time to learn outside of work is a great way to grow your core skills.

A useful and practical tip I came across was the 30-minute rule – spending at least 30 minutes per day learning and practicing a new skill.

The idea is that by allocating small increments for learning, gradually you’ll become a lot sharper in the skill you’ve adopted.

Consistency is key.

The issue isn’t setting aside time, the issue is consistency!

To naturally grow and get better, you need to regularly work on your skills. I like to use the example of the gym in this case.

When you go to the gym to work and train, the only way to get results is through going consistently.

You need a steady routine that you follow repeatedly so that you can achieve the goal you want.

Having time dedicated to consistently improving your core skills will help you do so in a quick fashion.

There are two sides to this… we’ve shared the first perspective, but there’s also another perspective we need to take into account — and that is, not everyone is willing to put in the hours.

Reverting to our gym analogy, we know that it’s the people who are consistent that see results. And if you’re not always willing to then don’t expect positive results.

It’s easy to say you will commit yourself to doing an activity, but how many people follow through with it? — So you see, it then becomes a question of who really wants it.

Because quite frankly, some people will see results more than others and vice versa.

So in summary it helps when you have the discipline to stick out what you said you were going to do.

That’s what it boils down to at the end of the day.

Go ahead, setting aside some time now to start growing those core skills, just make sure you stick with it!

The key distinction between those who achieve versus those who fail to achieve is whether or not you’re executing! — That’s just the harsh reality.

We’ve gone through a series of approaches that all contribute towards growing your core skillset at work, but the most powerful remedy of all is… just execute!

The truth is that you’re never going to know the outcome of something unless you execute it.

This is the best thing you can do to help yourself build and develop those strong core skills.

Execution is about results, doing what you’re supposed to do to the best of your abilities!

This is where it becomes make or break.

You’ve managed to do all the groundwork, now it’s just about how you deliver — because the delivery is the final piece to the puzzle.

What matters is how you deliver your learning, how you deliver asking for feedback, and how you deliver in terms of setting aside time to learn outside of work.

All of this is what makes up successfully growing your skills.

But why is execution important…

Well, it’s important because this is how you grow. You need to try, test, and evaluate.

Just executing is a great way to test the waters. You get to test whether your skills are hot, cold, and lukewarm.

If your skills are hot then it means you’re strong in those areas; if your skills are cold then, simply, it needs work.

Lastly, if your skills are lukewarm then it suggests the skills are there, it may just need some work.

There are many ways you can grow your core skills, but we wanted to share the simplest and most efficient ways you can do that.

Your core skills are critical to your everyday activities at work, so being able to leverage these skills is of the utmost importance.

When done strategically, growing your core skills can help you establish a solid position in the workplace; which in effect, will enhance your overall long-term trajectory.

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