Why Values Are More Important Than Skills, an article written by Denise D. Rodriguez
When you’re young, it’s only normal for you to be excited about success.
I mean, you’ve been feeding on the words of your teachers, parents and elders for as long as you’ve lived. You’ve been told of the things that you need to do in order to be successful.
As a matter of fact, people will tell you all sort of things to be successful such as working hard at school, listening to your parents.
People would tell you that you need to aim for high grades. They would tell you that you should intern at big company. That way, the odds will work for your favor after graduation.
As you graduate from the university, you feel like you are equipped with all the tools you need in order to be successful, as if it was that easy.
As soon as you get out of the university building wearing your graduation uniform and cap, you feel like you could almost taste victory.
It’s like you can’t wait to get out there and look for a job. You feel like all the high-paying companies are going to fawn over you for your skills, college degree, and all those sorts of things, but trust me. They’re not going to do that.
Companies are looking for skills. There is no doubt about that, but they are also going to look for something else, and that something else is the experience.
If you don’t have that then you’re a goner. Well, not really. Of, course you’re going to find a company that’s going to hire you and train you to be the professional that you are supposed to be.
However, since you don’t have that experience just yet, they are going to look at one other thing and that’s the values that you have.
Why? Read on, to find out…
The company is looking to train you
You said it yourself. You have absolutely zero experience. Well, in that case, the company is going to have to teach you a thing or two.
Yet, the thing is, the skills you have aren’t enough in order to be trained. You have to have the right set of values.
Those values are what makes you teachable. Why?
Well, it’s because you know that there are still a lot of things to learn.
If you’re a skilled person who possesses good values, then good for you, yet most of the time, people are really more concerned about skills than they are about values.
As a result, they spend too much time investing on skills while their values are left at zero.
What am I trying to say?
When you are a skilled person, you have this certain sense of pride.
You’d feel that as soon as you’re are hired for the job, you’re are going to beat down all the other employees who have been working there, before you’d even graduated from university.
Well, there is really nothing wrong with a bit of confidence, but it could really cost you a happy career.
Why?
You think you’re all good. You think that there is nothing left to know.
When a superior is trying to correct your mistake, you stay quiet and act like you’re listening yet, in the back of your mind, you’re already saying to yourself, “I know, I know”.
Did I get that right?
No matter who you are. No matter what you are. There is always room for learning. You have to be open to learn new things.
By being an “all skill and no-values person”, you are blocking your journey to improvement.
No one is born perfect. No one is born the founder of a big company. No one is born a genius.
You have to work your way there and it’s not all about skills. It also has a lot do with values. Skills are learned, and you only learn when you have the right values.
You need to network
The company that you would be applying for wouldn’t ask for the people you know in the company, but you will need your connections in the entire development of your career.
Why?
Well, we’re talking about success here. You don’t become successful once you are hired for the job. You’re not even successful the first, second or third time you’re promoted.
Success is a lifelong process. Success means the height that you can achieve all throughout your life, and a lifetime is pretty long.
You can fall anytime. You can be stagnant.
Failures
Okay. Let’s talk about falling first. Let’s say you did manage to cheat yourself into a tiny bit of success.
The thing is, when you lack the right values, you’re going to hit the peak sooner, and we all know what happens when one hits the peak. We fall down.
Going back again to only having the skills, but not possessing the right values, you won’t be able to get yourself back up.
Why?
You don’t have the right values to do so. It is only with the right values, that you are able to accept failure and get yourself back out there.
Stagnancy
Again, let’s assume that you did manage to cheat your way to a tiny bit of success. What happens now?
You’ve been a supervisor for quite some time, but it just seems like your boss isn’t seeing much potential for you to climb up the ladder.
It’s like he doesn’t notice you anymore. As a matter of fact, you feel like he is ready to have someone replace you anytime.
You just don’t know why this is happening. Back during the good times, life in the office was so easy for you.
You were like the star employee. Now, it’s like you’re stuck in once place and you don’t know how to move the speed.
Well, the thing is, you may be good, but you are not the only one. There are lots of people who could be better than you.
How do you work your speed again?
You need connections. When you have friends everywhere, a consistent promotion could become easier for you.
I’m not saying that you should cheat your way to being the CEO, but the thing is, good communication and social interaction are used in overall measures of job performance.
If you’re getting along well with your coworkers then it could demonstrate that you are also good at what you do.
You only get to make and keep those connections if you have a solid sense of your own values.
Author:
Hi, I’m Denise D. Rodriguez from California. Needless to say, I’m a nature lover.
I’m fond of going to the woods and takes pictures of animals for fun, which is why I also love traveling.
I’m a content writer for EssayHelp for which I share unique, quality and informative topics of thought.
EssayHelp is a custom writing website providing writing services, including rewriting, editing and proofreading.