What I Wish I’d Known

The modern workplace requires skills we don’t learn in school

Now that I’ve been a professional coach for several years, I’ve started to notice some common topics that clients want to work on during sessions. They are most often soft skills, or interpersonal skills, or how to manage themselves and others. Whether it’s a small nonprofit, or a Fortune 500 company, whether they’re a new manager, or a seasoned CEO, often the challenges they want to address relate to how they show up for themselves and with others.

How many of us are actually taught the essential emotional intelligence skills we need to navigate the workplace? We kind of learn them through real-world experience in school and life. But what about that first time you have to give difficult feedback to a direct report or a manager? How are we prepared for those human interactions that have a significant impact on our career?

I’m curious what skills you wish you’d had when you entered the workplace.

Please respond to this newsletter or email me. My intention is to write more about these skills that are so essential to our success, but we don’t really learn until we’re on the job. Or maybe we learned about them, but never practiced them.

Here are some of the common skills I’ve observed we don’t learn before entering the workforce:

How to…

• Build a professional reputation or brand

• Listen effectively

• Have a difficult conversation

• Manage my time

• Manage up

• Manage others

• Overcome Imposter Syndrome

• Navigate office politics

• Say No

• Work with a disinterested or micromanaging manager

• Think strategically about my career

• Have a coaching conversation

• Balance friendship with professionalism

• Give excellent presentations

• Manage conflict

• Manage my emotions

• Prioritize my physical and emotional wellbeing

• Lead a team

• Inspire others

• Network in my industry

• Balance work and life

• Create psychological safety for my team

• Develop a growth mindset

• Plan and lead an efficient meeting

These are just a few of the topics I’ve covered with clients during coaching sessions. How many of them have you developed on the job? How many are you still working on? What would you add to this list?

If you were to sit down with a young person who is about to enter the workforce, what wisdom would you impart to them? What should they develop or focus on so they can have a fulfilling career and life?

This week, take inventory of the skills you’ve acquired since you started your career. How would you teach those skills to others? Please send me your thoughts so we can help create a more conscious workplace together.

Work happy. Live happy. BE happy.

Meredith

---

The way we work and build teams is rapidly changing. Leaders often feel unprepared to navigate the transition. As a conscious leadership coach, consultant, and communicator, Meredith helps leaders and their teams create new ways of working and relating so they can prepare for the future by consciously co-creating it.

Contact her to develop your conscious leadership and transform your organization into the workplace of the future.

You can support my work developing more conscious leadership in the world by investing in a paid subscription to this newsletter. Upgrade your subscription today!

Connect with Meredith on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for content related to these topics.

www.MeredithTurney.com