Competence is a key to succeeding in any career of your choosing. However, competence cannot be stagnant. You don’t learn skills in middle school and rely on those skills a decade after. You don’t learn how to shoot a basketball in high school and expect to shoot like Stephen Curry without constant improvement. Competence is forever linked with self-improvement and self-development. If you want to become better, you need to invest in yourself.
Seek Feedback
How do you know what to improve if you are not aware of your shortcomings? The most important thing about self-improvement is the ability to listen to feedback. What are you lacking? What should you improve on? Ask your managers for comments about your work. Let them know you are willing to listen to constructive criticisms. It might be uncomfortable at first, but this will build your competence. Keep that in mind.
Prepare to Learn
Be open to the idea of attending and completing workplace training programs in Singapore. These will help you become more competent. These will reskill and upskill you. If there are new skills to learn, these programs are designed to teach these to you. Some employees are set in their ways that they do not want anyone to make them feel they lack in skills. You may be an expert in your job, but you are not perfect. There are also things you have to learn as you go through life.
Take Baby Steps
Rome wasn’t built on a day, and neither will be your competence and ability. You need to be patient with yourself. Improving your skills and abilities cannot be done in a day. The important thing is to form your habits first and watch as these habits help transform your abilities.
Learn to Listen
The trait of a good leader is the ability to listen. The higher you are in position, the more that you need to listen. What did Mark Twain say about the importance of listening? If people are supposed to talk more than listen, they would’ve been given two mouths and one ear. Once you learn to listen, a whole new world will open up to you. It will make you see your weaknesses and shortcomings. Asking for feedback is one thing, but it’s in truly listening to this feedback that you will become better.
Surround Yourself with the Right People
Choose the people around you carefully. That’s not to say not to expand your relationships, but you have to surround yourself with people who will bring out the best in you. Who are the kinds of people who should be around you? They should provide you with true feedback, positive perspectives, and growth opportunities. Hopefully, you will learn from them, and they will learn from you. You should all help yourselves succeed.
Stop, Start, and Keep
After every task or activity, ask yourself this question: “What should I stop, start, and keep?” What are the things that you should not do again? How about the things that you have to learn because you realized you are not good at them yet? Then, there are things that you’re already good at and things that you should keep. Take the time out of your busy schedule to assess yourself. To improve your skills and abilities, you need to learn how to accept your flaws and adapt to the changes.
Ask Questions
There’s a saying among media people: ask questions, ask even stupid questions because stupid questions will lead to stupid answers. Then, a reporter will have his story. You do not know everything. Nobody does. Thinking that you do will not help improve your abilities. Of course, you do not want stupid answers to your questions, but the thing to remember here is the importance of asking. Learning will only take place when you know how to ask.
Decide
People are sometimes so afraid about taking the plunge. That stops them from not only making the right decisions but from making a decision in the first place. Don’t let fear stop you from trying. Experience is still the best teacher. Without experience, you will have a harder time learning and becoming better. The ability to make good judgments comes from experience.
Self-development is the basic foundation of success. It is not about how academically good you are or how much experience you have under your belt. Your ability to improve yourself will be the basis of what you can reach in the future. Improvement begins at knowing your shortcomings and understanding that you can always better yourself.
