Develop Your Employability

George Chingarande | Monday April 7, 2014 10:48

This is a very obvious but important idea, because once we define employability in that way it becomes easy to understand that employability is all encompassing. It pertains to the entrepreneur as well as the intrapreneur; to the businessman as well as his employee. Employability is important because it is what earns us a living regardless of our different callings and missions in life. In this issue we will unpack this concept.

Employability is an asset. More specifically, it is your asset. You own it, and you can never share it with another, lend it to another or borrow another person’s employability for that matter. It is an intangible possession, but a very important possession in the ever changing seasons and circumstances of life. A person high in employability can lose a job one day and be in another within a couple of weeks. He can have a bad setback in his business one moment, but still come out triumphant. Employability is therefore a skill that is not just desirable, but also very necessary in this era. While the people high in employability will flourish, those that do not have it will be reduced to beggars and be destitute. The common denominator among beggars and the destitute all over the world is that they lack the capacity to create work for themselves and for others. If you can learn to create work for yourself and for others then you can never be destitute. Hate them or like them, there are people who are just good at what they do. And because they are good at what they do, they are almost indispensable. They are high on employability. There are also people that are so poor at what they do that everyone is shunning them or just accommodating them out of compulsion. Since employability is personal, it is your personal responsibility to develop your own employability and also your responsibility to deploy.

Employability cannot be divorced from the skills that one possesses. Researchers have identified skills that are important for employability. Top on the skills list is verbal communication. The ability to express your ideas lucidly and with perfect elocution is very important for success in every sphere of life. Verbal communication when done well always creates a wow effect. It is important for the politician, is the difference between a small commission check and a fat one for the salesman; can hinge or unhinge the career of a lawyer and can also be the leader’s source of power. Every day some people talk themselves into trouble while others talk themselves into fortunes. Verbal communication is therefore a skill that must be acquired and be continuously developed throughout life. If you cannot communicate, you are handicapped. If you are too shy to express your views publicly, you are also handicapped and need to address that problem. The good news about verbal communication is that it can be learnt. Even the very senior citizens among us can still learn how to communicate their ideas so well that they become irresistible.

The other skill that has been shown to have a great bearing on one’s employability is teamwork. Life is not a solo flight. Entrepreneurs make money through people. Leaders achieve by influencing people. Salesmen sell to people, and need referrals and testimonials from people. The ability to put together a winning team, and work with a winning team is very important in today’s marketplace. The world has become one big marketplace of ideas. In this marketplace one is too small a number with which to achieve greatness. The age of the lone ranger or “Rambo-like superheroes” is long past. This is the age of collaboration and maximisation of synergies.

Commercial awareness is also one of the skills that rank highly. In business commercial awareness is about understanding how the business world, in general and your industry in particular, works. However, this same concept can be extended to every facet of human life. Understanding how what you are doing works, and an intimate knowledge of the success factors driving it, is an important skill that must be acquired.  Every idea that you have has a commercial value. Every action and decision that you take or neglect to take often has wider implications beyond your small office or constituency. There is an ever increasing interconnectedness in the world. Your simple actions are a center from which ripples spread and propagate your reputation well before you arrive at any place. Now more than ever your reputation precedes you. Commercial awareness does not come on a silver plate. It has to been worked for. You can never be commercially aware if you are ignorant. And you do not have to go to business school to cure ignorance. People who are commercially aware tend to read widely and keep themselves well informed. The ability to gather information, make sense out of the facts and act in an informed manner will enhance your commercial awareness. Unfortunately, the number of uninformed people in positions of influence is staggering. Drive and self initiative are also very important. As one great soul put it, “These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by the scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.” The willingness to identify opportunities, confront problems with solutions, persevere in action and relentlessly work to make things better has never been more important.