3 Skills Every IT Professional Must Have

In this day and age, our clients rely on us more than ever before and have much larger demands. After all, we’re the IT people, the experts. We must provide a one-stop shop for all of our clients. If clients had the technical know-how, we wouldn’t be needed. We must not only possess the technical skills, but the skills to effectively communicate with our clients, both internal and external. Why must we have great communication skills in our arsenal? We didn’t go into IT to deal with customer service concerns. The reality of today’s IT market is that we’re not only expected to be on top of the latest technological advances, but we must also be able to clearly convey the 5 “W’s” for our customers to perceive that we’ve not only addressed their concerns; but to make them feel as if they’ve received some value-added benefit. Let’s face it, while we all have different skill sets and talents, at the end of the day the result is tantamount to any developer.

What sets one IT company apart from another is in the how we present the information to the client, and if they feel that the benefit they’re receiving is worth writing our paycheck. Delivering results is no longer what impresses a client, anyone can do that, it’s the expectation, not a luxury.

This article will reveal several tips that are incredibly easy to implement and will not only earn a client’s business but retain it throughout the years. With little to no expense, you can wow your clients and cut down on unnecessary time spent making corrections.

We hope you enjoy these tips and will consider implementing them into your daily routine to make a positive impact.

How does this affect me?

If you’re not getting great reviews from your clients and repeat business, something’s getting lost in translation.

A Harris Poll of hiring managers shows that 77 percent of employers consider soft skills to be as important as technical skills.

Now that we’ve properly identified the issues it’s time to find a solution. What skills exactly are we needing to work on?

It’s no secret that IT professionals embrace jargon. After all speaking in “code” keeps us relevant and makes us sound intelligent. The problem is that we sometimes forget that we need to put away the jargon. Translate the information into “plain” language. If this seems to be quite a challenge, consider re-evaluating the information as if you were going to teach it to a high school or junior college class. Check for understanding. Ask your client if he or she is following what you’re saying. Another great way to check for understanding is to ask the client what he or she thinks or how it sounds so far. This tip will go a long way. If they don’t understand, they’ll most likely tell you, after all, they’re paying you a generous fee for your services, not to hear the alphabet in incorrect order. “The people who will thrive are the strong technologists who are capable of translating their expertise into terms that nontechnical people can understand.” -Ben Gaucherin, Harvard University

Role play meetings and presentations with co-workers

You wouldn’t state that a project was complete without testing it, right? It’s a great idea to do a “dry run” with co-workers or even your family if permitted. Have them ask questions you may anticipate, or if they have any questions. Choose the most brutally honest co-worker to throw you some questions or concerns, also ask them what they liked about the presentation.

Take a public speaking class and join a meetup group

Chances are you’re not the only person that is interested in personal and professional growth. Classes and groups provide a great opportunity to brainstorm with other professionals groups will often provide you with a wealth of networking opportunities and are localized and even specialized, so you can discuss any matters relevant to the area you work in.

Keep your skills sharp

We’ve established that communication can be a problem in the IT world. Communicating outdated information ineffectively can only lead to impending doom. Be certain to stay ahead of the curve to avoid the pitfall(s) of being (or becoming) irreverent.

Your call to action

Effective communication in the workplace is essential to success. Communication success between whether a client chooses to become a valuable repeat customer, or whether they continue on riding the price wave; giving their loyalty to the lowest bid. Today’s consumers have a far greater advantage than they did even a few years ago. Not only do they expect quantity, but they’re expecting quality as well. You’d probably expect the same if you were in the same boat. Taking simple steps to improve communication will not only provide an immediate benefit in the quality of work performed but in the quantity as well. The productivity factor will most likely increase as a result of not having to fix problems caused by miscommunication. Not only will your clients be happy, but you’ll be making the business climate and revenue charts happier as well.

Gain Problem Solving Skills and Become Change Agent With Green Belt Certification

Problems will always be a part of the organization. They won’t go away unless handled with care. For that reason, top talents are hired, paid handsomely to work as change agent and ensure growth for the company. You too can be that professional with six sigma green belt certification as add a new dimension to your stagnated career. Green belts are demanded a lot for their cutting-edge problem solving skills and also for their ability to manage by facts and data. They ensure that opinions won’t ever have a say in the daily running of the business and rather look to rely on hard data to drive the growth.

More so, green belts know the art of boosting profit and reducing cost on the back of supporting creative endeavors within the organization. With six sigma green belt certification, you’re imparted a deep knowledge of the tools and techniques required to ensure growth to the business. Green belts are the professionals with a better understanding of both people and processes within the organization. They not only understand business and its valuable connections but also have a grip over Lean Six Sigma’s DMAIC methodology. This helps them solve problems of any complexity to add value to the organization. This is why green belts are demanded so much in the industry.

More so, green belts know how to bring change by collaborating with the right people without looking to bypass responsibility. With six sigma green belt certification, the participants are taught to focus on fixing the process rather than evading responsibility. What’s more, green belts are among those rare breed of professionals with the freedom to take up job anywhere in the world, which is deservedly a great flexibility. Even if they are not a hard-core statistician but this does not take away their comfort level with data. In fact, they are trained in data analysis and can make process improvement as simple as needed.

Similarly, organizations can also look to fix processes and achieve growth targets by several other means to have an edge in the industry. They can benefit from the power of RPA consulting or Robotics Process Automation consulting to automate and achieve the desired growth results easily. This consulting is about letting software robots contribute to process automation across enterprises. They look to ease the burden on employees and get bots or configurable software to do process instead. And when business processes are automated in this way, the organization can be sure of superior speed and efficiency. This is how a business can become cutting edge without investing a lot.

Some companies also look to benefit from RPA consulting to bring flexibility & resilience to processes after automation. And when RPA is implemented by an expert consultant, it becomes easy to realize reduced cost and improved productivity. This is how businesses can become more accurate on the back of automation and create difference to their prospects in the industry. With an experienced consulting partner, it becomes possible to boost ROI and reduce cost and go on the right path of growth. The good thing, you can go automated irrespective of the industry or sector you’re part of.This is how your business grows and adds value.

Tips to Enhance Communication Skills

Effective Communication Tips: –

For any effective communication following factors must be considered: –

• It is important to make worthwhile contribution to the conversation so have clear purpose and objective of the conversation.

• Develop effective non verbal communication skills. Right smile, eye contact, posture, handshakes do create a positive impact.

• Make appropriate gestures with hands and face.

• While speaking and listening making an appropriate eye contact and looking into the eyes of the person with whom we are conversing can create a significant impact and make the interaction more successful as it coveys interest and courage.

• Being confident is vital.

• Try to break down barriers that exist in the communication process.

• Be clear and concise.

• Be firm about your opinions, views, ideas and suggestions so that it can be confidently conveyed.

• Ensure that your words, gestures, facial expressions and tone match with each.

• Analyse the audience before communication.

• Conveying right message to right person is important because what is critical or worthwhile to one individual may not be to another.

• Develop effective probing skills by asking the right questions.

• Take initiative yourself. Don’t wait for suppliers, customers, buyers etc to call you. Instead call them, take the initiative to start the conversation. It helps to build healthy two way effective communication between both the parties.

• Try to highlight critical points.

• Learn the art of dealing with difficult conversations.

• Ensure that you give and receive appropriate feedback.

• If the message is too lengthy, dis-organised or contains errors it can often be misunderstood, confusing and misinterpreted.

• Practicing good communication skill everyday is important as “Practice makes man perfect.”

In addition to the above attributes a good communicator also focuses on the following factors to enhance his/ her communication skills: –

1. Interpersonal Skills: –

• Such skills are used when engaged in face-to-face conversation with one or more persons. For effective Interpersonal skills not only verbal communication and effective speaking is vital but also our voice, on-verbal signals, gestures, facial expressions, body language, our appearance and active listening skills are significant.

• The advantage of having good Interpersonal skills is that it enables us to contribute effectively in groups and teams and become a ‘team player’.

• It builds a strong relationship with other members of the group and leads to better communication and building better rapport with others.

• Good Interpersonal skills also help to enhance our problem solving and decision making ability.

2. Presentation skills:

o Although we may use this skill infrequently, but for any management student who intends to become future business leader effective Presentation Skill is critical.

o There will be times in your life, when you need to present information to your customers, employees, buyers, trade unions, sellers, government employees, suppliers, agents or even overall community at large.

o They can either be individual or group of people in a formal or informal setting.

o Effective Presentation Skills requires good planning, preparation and practice.

3. Writing skills:

§ For any manager communication skills are not only limited to face-to-face direct verbal/ non verbal interactions with others but also good Written Communication.

§ It involves the ability to write clearly, concisely and effectively.

§ It involves avoiding grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, knowledge of formal and informal writing styles/ techniques, knowing the importance of structure in any business letter or report.

4. Personal Skills: –

ï It emphasis on improving self-esteem, building self confidence, developing positive attitude, knowing anger management and stress management techniques which helps in maintain a healthy body and mind and develop positive feelings about ourselves and helps to enhance our communication skills.

ï Good Personal Skills also helps an individual to deal with difficult situations like dealing with aggression and communicating in difficult situations.

Business Communication Writing Skills Benefit From Originality and Media Based Marketing Training

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.”

~anonymous high school essay

Greetings. Thank you for indulging me in yet another example of analogies collected by high school English teachers. I do so because the language we all share is a treasure chest of words that in the odd combination can make us smile, chuckle, even laugh out loud. And, like Larry the Cat — whose house we share and whose antics are just plain goofy — the best humor is unintentional humor.

Anyway, the gaffe above resulted from a sincere, albeit immature, effort to be original and evocative. Good for him or her, I say. At least the brain has been engaged. But what about the way us adults fall into shallow “copycatism” when we communicate in a professional setting? And how does that reflect on you and your business communications when you mindlessly insert those phrases in your website text or emails? Do you really want to sound like a faceless, unimaginative bureaucrat when it comes to writing skills?

Herewith some inaugural entries in my Language Hall of Shame:

o Negatively impact, as in “Our failure to fabricate even one paper clip that actually holds two sheets of paper together is negatively impacting our sales performance.” First of all, “impact” became a verb only about 30 years ago, even though the verbs “affect” or “influence” did the job quite nicely. But now that it’s here, why compound the damage by adding an awkward adverb (fellow Mainer Stephen King said in his book on writing, “The adverb is not your friend.”)? Why not rely instead on unambiguous, active, space-saving standbys such as “harm” or “hurt?”

o Core competencies, as in “Our core competencies include a flexible attitude about quality control and a collective tendency to stretch the lunch hour beyond normal parameters because we adhere to the principle of saving personal energy.” Does anyone realize that by using the adjective “core” to define “competencies,” you’re implying that you have other “competencies” that might not be so “core?” And that a careful reader could deduce that those other competencies might actually be subpar, or least rather pedestrian? Here’s a solution, in plain English: “What we do best is…” or “Our reputation rests on the way we…” or “We are known for…”

I bring this up because I don’t doubt that your readers are critical thinkers (at least that’s what I tell my writing seminar students to expect), which means they will view phrases like “core competencies” as lazy, unproductive thinking.

o Skill sets, as in “Our employees can bring the most unique set of skill sets to finding a solution to your problem, which is why we consider ourselves a high-end firm that can justify overcharging you for our services.” First of all, you can’t be “most unique” because “unique” means one of a kind. I used to think that foolishness was restricted to the sports broadcast booth, but now I’m seeing it on websites, which was probably inevitable.

Anyway, I ask you: What’s wrong with just using “skills?” How can adding “sets” possibly add anything beyond the useless appendage of another four-letter word? If you use “skills sets,” ask yourself: “Why? What have I gained beyond the obvious tendency to imitate others unthinkingly?”

The News Media…Not Always Nosy Busybodies

“Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once.”

— Cyril Connolly, English writer

Learning to deal with the press constructively need not be limited to traditional definitions of news. Some realistic role-playing in a media training setting can, in fact, help you frame and sharpen your message for commercial purposes. That’s where I can be of assistance. As a former newspaper and magazine reporter, I like to know how things work and what sets them apart. Then I try to pass on what I’ve learned in succinct prose, as Connolly noted.

Let me describe the sort of training I do. A couple years ago, a clever nurse in Maine came up with a blend of four aromatic oils that she said eased the nausea of first-trimester pregnancy, chemotherapy and motion sickness. To help with marketing, I put her through questions a reporter for the business section of a newspaper or magazine might ask. Then I wrote an article about her “aromatherapy,” which we discussed in detail for lessons learned.

The result? She and her marketing and investment associates came out of the exercise with a much clearer view of how the public would perceive their unusual product. The questions I asked were born of healthy skepticism, and she said she planned to adjust her pitch accordingly.

The Resume Skills Tier Method

Because so much is riding on your resume writing such as your career, future, and income, you need all the power you can get into your statements. Often one statement on a resume cannot sufficiently depict or cover your skill, experience, or knowledge. A project, task, or accomplishment is often too complex for one sentence to justify your involvement and contribution.

The ‘Resume Skills Tier Method’ for resume writing is a solution of skill building with multiple statements that support a primary statement. This can greatly enhance the descriptions of your achievements and create a resume that is more illustrative, interesting, and readable.

Using this method you create related statements presenting your skills and accomplishments in primary, secondary, and even tertiary statements and skills. The secondary and tertiary statements support, relate to, or are a result of the primary event or action.

You can use a bullet point format with this presentation that can cause an employer to pause and read your resume instead of hurriedly scanning. This can give you an advantage for generating employer interest and getting an interview.

Here’s how this works:

1. Take one of your resume skill statements or write one just as you normally would. (Select a skill and create an accomplishment statement showing a time you used that skill to do good for your employer preferably with measurable results such as time or money saved.)

2. Now choose a second and possibly third skill that you used at the same time that relates to or is a result of the primary event or action in your first statement.

The following example leads to statements that show a secondary and tertiary skill stemming from the original accomplishment statement:

Example:

Primary Skill: Analytical Skills

Primary Skill Statement: Analyzed 24 months of accounting data and determined in what areas the company could be reducing expenses.

Secondary Skill: Creative Skills

Secondary Skill Statement: Wrote new policy and procedures for purchasing for our department that decreased bid review times by over 35 per cent saving an estimated $341,000 in costs during the next year.

Tertiary Skill: Communication Skills

Tertiary Skill Statement: Conducted training sessions on my methods for satellite offices around the world.

How this would look on a resume:

Analyzed 24 months of accounting data and determined in what areas the company could be reducing expenses.

  • Wrote new policy and procedures for purchasing for our department that decreased bid review times by over 35 per cent saving an estimated $341,000 in costs during the next year.
  • Conducted training sessions on my methods for satellite offices around the world.

The Productive Skills – Writing

Speaking and writing are the ‘productive skills.’

Writing

Nowadays, there is very little need for long, formal written work in the classroom. With the advent of email and word processors with spell checkers, most people do very little written work except for short notes to friends and colleagues. Students may however have very specific needs such as those preparing for examinations where written work is still of great importance. Writing allows students sufficient time to process information whereas speaking doesn’t. Writing is also an avenue for those students who have limited confidence speaking in front of the class. Furthermore, writing allows for the practice of grammar rules and examination techniques. In order to convey a similar amount of information, a written text is shorter than speaking because the student has time to be more specific.

It should be remembered that students learn to read and write faster when they have real reasons to communicate. This could be in the form of journal writing or letter writing. Furthermore, it may be a good idea to create situations where they will need to write real invitations, requests, thank-you notes, and letters to pen friends, cards for special occasions, morning news, commercials, and opinions. You could even get the students to conduct surveys and interviews or make their own books by drawing or cutting out pictures, writing captions and word balloons. It is important to be clear as to the aims of the writing task before the lesson. Are you encouraging fluency or accuracy? A good starting point is to begin with a fluency activity and only focusing on accurate use of language at a later stage.

Guided Writing

Guided writing is an extremely useful way to prepare students for a writing task. Effective use of patterns as learning tools, takes the mystery out of learning. This is far more useful than simply giving students a writing topic and telling them to get on with it. It is extremely daunting for students to be faced with two tasks- writing and content.

Tell the students exactly what you want! If they are writing a letter, give them the format and what information you require in each paragraph. Try and focus on useful language models. List and review instructions step by step. Provide frequent summations of salient points of the lesson. Develop and maintain routines, which will help students anticipate what will happen. This careful preparation will ultimately culminate in the students preparing a draft which can be discussed with the teacher and others prior to preparing a final text.

Writing Genre

Students will explore typical examples or models of different writing genre before embarking on writing of their own. This is done in order to discover the format, layout, audience, the register, style and appropriate language to be used. When writing a letter, for example, students will decide whether the letter is formal or informal. They will then select the correct format to be used in a business letter or personal letter. This will in turn determine the register and general tone of the language to be used. This approach to writing is extremely useful for students preparing for school examinations in English and other subjects.

Writing Structure

As mentioned in the section on guided writing, it is extremely useful to provide your students with useful patterns as learning tools. There are many different ways to write an essay, but most standard essay forms follow the same basic patterns. Teaching your students these patterns will lay the foundation for sound writing structures and principles. It is surprising how many students, who have been studying English for a number of years, are still unsure of how to write an introduction, a paragraph or a conclusion.

Handwriting

Students who come from various cultural backgrounds may find the formation of English letters somewhat difficult (orthography). Students who experience such difficulties will need specific help in order to improve letter, word and text formation. Assistance may be offered in the form of extensive practice exercises focusing on the formation of individual letters. This could perhaps involve the teacher writing letters, words or sentences out neatly and leaving sufficient pace below for the student to copy or imitate the writing.

It is important to note that is essential that you encourage students with problematic handwriting to attempt to improve it. Handwriting is an important skill necessary for examination purposes and a student should not be unduly disadvantaged because of poor handwriting. This problem may prevent the student from getting his / her message across.

Spelling

Incorrect spelling may often give the reader the impression that the writer is careless and lacks education. One should try and remember that spelling is often very difficult for students studying English because of the lack of correlation between the sound of a word and how it is actually spelled. This is more than often, not that obvious!

Punctuation and Format

Punctuation and format conventions differ from one language and culture to another. Business and personal letters are laid out quite differently and follow specific formats as do emails. Punctuation conventions may often be specific to a particular language and may not be transferable from one culture or language to another. Successful application of punctuation conventions in the English language will assist students in conveying their message and communicating effectively.

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