Skills, knowledge, and traits…oh my!

When asking for career advice, how many times how we heard, ‘play to your strengths,’ or ‘focus on what you are good at?’  Or my personal favorite:  ‘share your gifts with the world.’  Although there is nothing wrong with these words, they offer plenty of encouragement but very little direction.

Here is my own version of these inspirational phrases:  You need to know what your strengths are before you can share them with the world.  There is a twist to this issue, though.  What if I am not sure what my strengths are? And what do we mean by strengths, anyway?

There are three different ways to define strengths in terms of career development and job search:  Skills, Knowledge and Traits.  To illustrate the differences among these three, let me introduce you to Mike.  Mike is a freshman with an aptitude for languages.  He is bilingual in Spanish and is working on his French. 

Skill is the specific ability to perform an action which could have been learned through the environment or deliberately acquired.  Skill mastery could be reached over time.  For instance, Mike’s ability to communicate in several languages is a skill.  He may have picked up Spanish at home.   So for him being bilingual is an inherent part of growing up.  But his efforts to become fluent in French are due to his own choice. 

Knowledge refers to information, data, and subjects learned by formal or informal means.    In Mike’s case, his ability to communicate in Spanish relies on words and idioms absorbed throughout of cumulative learning.  This database of information became the foundation to his ability to communicate in Spanish. 

Traits are personal tendencies that result in behavior.  These are natural preferences that influence how we perceive and behave.  For instance, Mike’s natural predisposition to being friendly and outgoing might have influenced his interest in languages.

Now that we are clear about the distinct differences among these three types of strengths, what skill would you like to strengthen? How about learning to network effectively?  Or perhaps you may want to become better at managing your time?

Whatever your next step may be, keep in mind that the road to self-discovery and self-improvement is an ongoing but rewarding process.  Enjoy the ride!

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