Hope you’ve all been having an excellent week! The heart of the summer is always a great time to recharge, learn new skills, and generally reinvent yourself (if you desired yourself to) while energized by the beautiful weather.  While knowing what you need to develop is extremely important, it’s also extremely important to recognize what skills you don’t need to develop, so that your time is being allocated most effectively.  Ramzi discusses this topic on the show this week, where he explores several skills that SEs commonly think they need to develop, but in most cases, really don’t.

 

1- Comparative Advantages.  For those of you that have taken economics, you’ll be familiar with this term.  For those that have not, it’s essentially about how it’s better for people/orgs/countries to focus their efforts and resources on what they’re good at, rather than spreading themselves thin on doing everything.  With one’s expertise, collaborate with others (who have also focused on their strengths) and grow more than if you had tried to do the same independently.

 

2- You’re better together.  Heavily related to the above, and said often in weeks prior, the concept of knowing you’re on a team will never be overstated by us.  There are strengths that you bring to the table as an SE that an AE does not have, and vice versa.  And by working together, you’re both a sales force to be reckoned with.

 

3- When it comes to practicing the skills you actually want to develop, remember to take care to develop those skills properly.  As they say, it’s not practice that makes perfect, it’s perfect practice that makes perfect.

 

4- Feedback is your friend.  When it comes to identifying where it is you need to develop, don’t be afraid to ask others for their perspective on where you can develop.  Constructive criticism can be hard to take, but once you’re comfortable with its intent, you’ll find how powerful well-placed feedback can be.