Building Talent to advance careers

How do we discover and develop our talent stack to advance our careers? Three questions to ponder while thinking about our career

• What's the next step to reach the next level of our career?

• How do we measure our progress? What is important? (and what isn't)

• Which skills should we learn to advance your career? (choose only 1-2)

To stand out with a single skill, we need to be the best of the best. The top 1%. It is a long road. Alternately, we can pick a combination of skills. This could be our USP to advance our career.

How do we choose our adjacent skills?

• We are interested in this skill and spend more time on it.

• What does our organisation need to start learning to make a lateral leap?

• Complements what you already know.

• It is a niche skill now, but there is the possibility to explode in the near future.

Examples of good skill combinations:

• Coding + Design

• Business Acumen + Data

• Product + Data

• Coding + Writing

A coder who understands design delivers a more aesthetic-looking product. Properties of the skills:

• A lesser-known combination around us.

• Uncomfortable to learn. (High activation energy needed.)

The upside of building a talent stack is vast. The downside is nothing. It's an asymmetric bet. A trap we must avoid: We must clearly understand the steps to succeed in our career. Pick the hard projects to showcase our true value. Do not pick up easy projects that give a false sense of learning a skill.

The best way to develop a skill is to solve a problem with the skill. Adopt a learn-as-we-go approach and build a rough v1 version to get started. Consistent repetition takes us closer. Decent solution to a hard problem OR an Awesome solution to a simple problem.

Good self-accounting helps. We need to evaluate our weak areas honestly. Then, leverage strengths to make up. Set a learning path and keep building skills. (This activity must be ongoing and not just before a career change.). A good thing to remember:

The world is always changing. Our careers too change. To keep up, we need to develop our talents continuously and adapt. It is the Red Queen Effect.

We must focus on areas beyond our abilities. Our typical learning loop:

• Start learning.

• Struggle while learning.

• Make mistakes.

• Seek feedback and improve. Repeat.

Quality practice beats quantity. Brazil is good at soccer since they play futsal. It’s soccer on hard mode: smaller and heavier ball, smaller space, hard floor. So they play soccer faster and better since they had an accelerated learning journey on futsal. To level up, we need to find and create 'futsals' in areas of interest. Working at startups or starting our own business in our areas are potential 'futsals'.

We don't need extensive coaching either. There is no technique or a defined path to peak performance in many knowledge-based talents. Success comes from finding a unique path and not following a well-defined path.

The talent we build must be something we love. Consistency is difficult if we don't love it, and we can never build the skill. Ideal talent is the intersection of what we love and are good at. A good hack - We must surround ourselves with motivated people on a similar journey. Think of them as pacers in a marathon. Running alongside us and pushing us to keep going. We know they are just like us when we see them up close.

PS: Inspired by the thoughts of Linda Zhang, Scott Young and many others whom I read and took notes.