The Big Bang Theory: The Missing Link for Professional Success
Why would lawyers need leadership training?
Knowledge is not enough.
Professionals mistake their expertise as their contribution. Technical brilliance will be enough for success as a lawyer, accountant, or engineer...right?
Expertise is the entry to the game, but being able to play nice in the sandbox is what will make or break a successful career as a professional. We can all picture the brilliant scientist with an encyclopedic knowledge base but lacking the interpersonal skills to sell his or her idea. On a practical level, we see incredibly intelligent professionals in engineering, law, accounting, medicine, information technology and other knowledge areas that do not relate well to others. No one works alone, and being smart can only get you so far.
What separates great professionals from those who just played is something more than knowledge. The missing link for the exceptional professional is having the interpersonal skills to communicate and connect with the audience. To be truly successful, professionals need to match technical skills with people smarts.
Sadly, most professionals fall short right now in this area. At the present time, almost 70% of professionals surveyed in a recent study did not feel they worked in positive cooperation with their colleagues. Brilliance is one thing, but effectiveness is another.
The good news: like technical knowledge, interpersonal skills can be learned and mastered.
In the organization, the largest segment of the workforce is professionals. When asked, 62% of professionals were clear that they did not want to lead others. They are happy being individual contributors. But leadership is not just a position, and leaders are not the only ones in the organization who need leadership skills. Many of the skills needed in leaders are also needed to be an effective professional. Both leaders and professionals need to develop people skills.
Professionals need to be able to work with colleagues and team members, connect with clients and customers, and build relationships with executives and stakeholders. Knowledge will only take them so far. Interpersonal skills separate truly exceptional professionals from the rest who do not reach their potential.
The most advanced technical expert is destined to fail if he or she does not possess the skills to effectively interact with others. Successful professionals need to be able to influence, partner, and connect.
There are seven skills that support interpersonal effectiveness.
- Self-awareness: knowing yourself is the foundation in dealing effectively with others. A clear knowledge of personal strengths and personality type provides an accurate and tangible framework to assess your approach to and impact on others. You understand what works best for you and what may not be as effective, so you can adapt better to fit your audience. Your way is not always the same way as others, and that is why many a brilliant idea was lost.
- Emotional intelligence: appreciating how your behaviors affect others and being able to read others (before it is too late). Presenting facts and information may intellectually provide the rational direction, but that isn’t the way 80% of the world thinks. Things happen due to the ability to read people well and connect to them. Without this particular intelligence, life will be difficult and disappointing.
- Communication to connect: being able to understand what is important to your audience. Making your point seems the obvious objective; people will have to see your reasoning. Actually, people will not see your reasoning because it is not what is important to them. The critical element of how to make effective presentations and writing that reads well is the focus on what is most important to the audience. Professionals need to develop skills to read and understand their audience so they can establish a connection.
- Change management: how to accept and move with change. Our world is constant in one key way, rapid and ongoing change. To be most successful, professionals need to be able to both lead a change initiative and also support the need for change. Being able to move and move with change will make or break careers and businesses in this new world.
- Collaboration and influence: knowing how to effectively work with others without authority and lead people to a desired objective. Leadership is not only about a position. It is a mindset for working with others to move them forward towards a goal that creates value for all. Again, rational thinking and presentation of facts and logic do not always work. Professionals need to know how to persuade, sell, and negotiate to move ideas forward.
- Team building: being able to delegate effectively, provide effective feedback, resolve conflicts, and coach performance is vital for professionals to gain the support they need to move projects to completion. Success is not a solo sport, and the ability to work as a team is critical.
- Relationship building: at the core of professional success is the ability to network, cultivate relationships, gain customer loyalty, inspire engagement, and achieve referrals. At the core of all professional work is the art of relationships. We need to understand the strategies for effective relationship management.
These skills can be developed the same as technical skills – through a coordinated and ongoing learning program. For most professionals, more than 90% of personal development is focused on technical knowledge throughout their entire careers. They strive to build their knowledge, but it is questionable whether they become smarter. Professionals should be balancing the building of technical knowledge with people skills.
For the professional who wants to achieve greater performance right now, following the path of development focused on building interpersonal skills competencies will be most effective.
- Know who affects your success. Map the specific people and groups of people that most impact on your ability to succeed in your professional position. Rank your relationships with each person or group now. Where is focus needed? What is working and what is not?
- Complete assessments of your strengths and behaviors to provide self-awareness, and create a personal development plan to increase your effectiveness with others. Psychometric assessments that accurately measure your instinctive, personality, and emotional intelligence strengths provide a mirror to fully understand your strengths and areas for development. A multi-rater assessment gives you the honest feedback to know how others see you (perception is reality) and how to best develop your effectiveness with others.
- Create a personal development plan with three to four key goals to build your interpersonal skills. Be specific with clear results and milestones, and focus on how achievement of these skills will help your success and interactions with others.
- Invest in a leadership development program that will support you to build your competencies in change management, communications, team building, collaboration and influence. Place the same importance on your need to gain expertise in these areas as you do in your professional knowledge.
A lawyer, accountant, engineer, or any other professional that combines technical expertise with interpersonal expertise wins. Knowledge is most attractive when presented to connect with and create value for others. The advantage is not just in having the knowledge, it lies in knowing how to relate that knowledge, so others appreciate it.
We expect professionals to be smart and have extensive technical knowledge. Having expertise just gets you in the game. We now demand that professionals also know how to work effectively with us, communicate our way, and provide a valued experience. You can be brilliant and still just be a player. To be an exceptional performer as a professional, you need to connect well with people. Invest in your people skills. You will be a better professional.
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The Big Bang Theory – The Missing Link for Professional Success
