Meta-skills and their importance in the new business reality

Becoming a successful entrepreneur isn't easy, but it's entirely possible. And building a successful business requires a certain set of skills:

• hard skills (from English "hard" skills) are professional skills that can be taught and measured;
• Soft skills are universal competencies that are not measured by quantitative indicators: they depend on a person's individuality, character, and are acquired through personal experience;
• as well as meta-skills, which we will discuss in this article.

Taken together, all these skills provide a foundation that builds confidence, helps manage business processes, and guides and inspires you to achieve your goal—the implementation of an interesting business idea.

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Mastering fundamental knowledge at a university and earning a specialist degree is not a problem. It's more difficultbecome A successful entrepreneur. For most, it's a path of hard work and self-development. And every founder has their own personalized "young fighter's course" that helps them become the leader of a profitable business.

However, everyone's "trajectory" is largely similar. For example, at the initial stage of a business project's development, hard skills are prioritized, since the MVP (minimum viable product) is usually created by the business founder. As the business grows and develops,soft skills.

But in the new reality, a different set of skills is also needed. A time of rapid and often radical change has determined the popularity of so-calledmeta-skills.

Let's explore what meta-skills are and why they're essential in 2021. We'll also discuss how to develop these skills to become a successful entrepreneur or a sought-after candidate in the job market.

The Importance of Meta-Skills in Modern Reality

Literally, meta-skills are skills that “go beyond.” Firstly,beyondtype of activity (trans-professional, interdisciplinary). Secondly, these are skills that require an outletbeyondour “blocks”: habitual thinking, perception of the world and ourselves in it.

In 2020, many employees faced layoffs. The result was a highly competitive labor market, which continues to this day. To be ahead of the curve, it's crucial to be able to quickly adapt to new conditions and acquire relevant technology skills. After all, anyone who, for example, couldn't figure out how to use Zoom at the beginning of the quarantine likely experienced significant difficulties at work or even found themselves out of the picture entirely.

Meta-skills help you acquire new skills and impact all areas of life—or, more simply, they help you "survive." The formula "higher education is the key to career success" doesn't work today. Currently, it's crucial:

• be prepared for changes that may come suddenly;
• be interdisciplinary and be able to make quick decisions;
• be able to master another profession or a new type of activity in the shortest possible time.

For example, knowledge of English is a hard skill. The ability to learn languages, however, is a meta-skill. Someone with a strong grasp of this skill can easily master other languages. For example, learning Chinese, a popular language in business, is a good example. Many successful companies are interested in specialists with such abilities. And for any entrepreneur dreaming of going global, knowledge of several foreign languages ​​opens up broader opportunities.

Top 5 meta-skills

Trainability

This is undoubtedly a fundamental skill required by both a budding entrepreneur and an ambitious professional. The main trend today is that learning should be useful and enjoyable.

So, choose courses, trainings, in-person workshops, live webinars, marathons, and mastermind groups that will truly help you advance in your field. Or master a related profession that you truly enjoy.

Moreover, it is very important to be able to learn constantly, to perceive the world from a professional point of view (to analyze and draw conclusions, to benefit from any situation).

Assessing the Prospects

This meta-skill allows you to predict the outcome of your work before it even occurs. It's important to learn to see the world through the eyes of the end user—that is, another person.

For example, a good sales manager, marketer (and especially a manufacturer!) should see the product they are promoting or producing as a customer who has already purchased it and is using it.

They must clearly understand how this product will make the consumer's life easier or better. By developing this skill, you can anticipate customer reactions and therefore know how to answer potential questions.

Social Intelligence (Social Quotient, SQ)

It includes interpersonal skills (the ability to communicate, establish and maintain contacts, find a common language with different people, etc.) as well as the ability to draw conclusions and make decisions not only on the basis of immediate reactions, but also to be able to “dig deeper” (determine the intentions of other people, to a certain extent predict (both on a conscious and subconscious level) their behavior.

SQ helps you work better in a team, even without face-to-face interaction—only through online collaboration. This meta-skill allows you to quickly find more accurate, more correct solutions in any given situation.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

As is well known, EQ is contrasted with intelligence quotient (IQ). Emotional intelligence is the ability to consciously and subconsciously recognize feelings and emotions—both your own and those of others. But most importantly, it's the ability to manage them, using your own and others' emotions to achieve specific goals. For example, to curb anger or extreme dissatisfaction and convincingly argue your point of view. Moreover, emotional "arguments" are tailored to each interlocutor. We discussed the meaning of Emotional Quotient in detail in our article. article. 

Social and emotional intelligence are closely linked: they reveal a side of personality that IQ doesn't capture. EQ and SQ skills are crucial for managers, as well as for those who interact with clients, contractors, and others. You can find out your EQ level by taking the Hall test.

Design thinking

American author and speaker Marty Neumeier, CEO of branding at Liquid Agency, explains the meaning of this skill this way: "Design thinking is a generative approach to problem solving: you don't find answers, you create them." In other words, this skill allows you to create products that haven't yet existed and find unique solutions. This approach allows you to win over clients by offering them something new, something they haven't seen before. Such solutions become crisis-fighting solutions in challenging business times.

In addition to the meta-skills listed above, the ability to withstand a blow is crucial. Many talented and strong people, dissatisfied with their development direction, collapse after the first setbacks. Or, confused about their priorities, stuck in a rut, they experience burnout, anxiety, exhaustion, or chronic stress. Therefore, it's crucial to learn self-control and find the strength and motivation to overcome difficult situations.

Times of crisis require a different mindset and resilience from businesspeople. No one knows what might happen tomorrow, so it's worth allowing yourself to experiment in search of the right solutions: this will speed up the achievement of the desired results.

No one is immune to events and situations beyond their control, but you need to be prepared to perceive them correctly. A well-developed set of meta-skills will not only help you productively solve work problems and implement interesting business ideas, but will also allow you to adapt to global life changes..