Attitude, Aptitude & Skill

December 19, 2010 by Anthony Nicoli

Attitude: Manner, disposition, feeling, or position with regard to a person or thing. Tendency or orientation, especially of the mind.

Aptitude: Capability; ability; innate or acquired capacity for something; talent. Special fitness.

Skill: The ability coming from one’s knowledge, practice and aptitude to do something well. Competent excellence in performance; dexterity.

Many of you are working to better prepare yourselves to secure a new position or replace previous employment. As you do so, remember that your potential employer is constantly asking themselves questions related to the three areas cited above as they consider candidates for their role.

They are wondering:

Does this person possess the attitude required to help me succeed in my role?

Do they have the inherent qualities that will allow them to not only contribute to my organization, but also assume initiative and leadership?

Do they possess the skills needed to execute the role successfully?

While we remain in a time when employment is dear, recall that your task in seeking a new role is to find one that is a good match for what you have to offer. Too often, we believe that we must jump at a job simply because it is available or offered. This is particularly difficult to resist when we have been without employment for some time.

It is fine to accept a role temporarily to secure financial stability. However, do not let this distract you from your true purpose in seeking new employment. That is, to identify a role that better ables you to grow your level of contribution to the organization and community you serve, and thereby, grow your personal compensation, abilities and character.

The task of your potential employer and yourself is to find a good match between the objectives of the role and the person who will hold it. So, as you work to prepare to interact with potential employers, take time, perhaps substantial time, to become conscious of the attitude you hold and communicate, the natural aptitudes, or strengths, you possess, and the areas in which you have become skilled.

There are many techniques that can help you bring these aspects of yourself to mind and prepare to communicate them to potential employers. We can consider these later. For now, the important thing is to recognize that you must understand yourself so well in these areas that you can, with confidence:

1-      Communicate them to a potential employer to help them make an informed choice among candidates; and

2-      Hold them up to what you understand about your potential new organization, role and manager to make your own choice as to whether you want this new role.

Anthony Nicoli

→ No CommentsCategories: Differentiating You, career development, professional development, professional growth

No Comments so far ↓

There are no comments yet... Kick things off by filling out the form below.

Leave a Comment

The Olsen Group Blog

Archives

Categories