“Our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as being able to remake ourselves.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
A number of years ago, I came across a study carried out by the CIPD in 2009 that concluded, “Companies which do not train are 2.5 times more likely to go bankrupt, and they are less likely to retain vital talent.”
Even though this is an old survey, it is still an extremely painful issue all industries still face in this day and age. Developing your organization’s core skills is a critical element that many organizations are still snubbing, which is leading to sabotaging their success, thus some no longer exist.
It is essential that an organization does not only look at financial needs and technical skills. Yes, these skills are certainly important but history has enough examples to show that there are other essential core skills necessary to develop on an on-going basis to be a true success.
On attending seminars by Doug Lipp, Brian Tracy and Tony Robbins, it is evident developing your organization’s core skills means enhancing service, leadership, communication, the team and sales. None of them can be ignored. I have a tendency to define and often mention this to my prospects, clients and market this as the five pillars of my STICS methodology:
• Service Excellence
• Team Development
• Inspirational Leadership
• Communication Impact
• Sales Passion
All these core skills are essential for the success of any organization. None of them should be overlooked, each hold equal weightage. In fact, they have to be at the same level of importance as the financial needs and technical skills for an organization.
The underlying factor that has to be addressed for these core skills is the “attitude” element. Psychologists define attitude as a learned tendency to evaluate things in a certain way. It simply means the way a person views something or tends to behave towards it.
Attitude comes from within us and for an organization to develop the core skills, they have to learn to master the polishing of an individuals attitude. Now, that is a tough job and I wonder how many organizations are truly up for such a challenge?
A starting point for organizations and individuals to develop the core skills are the three classic principles by Dale Carnegie:
1. Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.
“Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances” ~ Victor Frankl.
What attitude will you choose as an organization or as an individual to develop your core skills?
