10 Must Have Personal Development Skills for High Achievers (7 Mins Read)

The term personal development can be defined as a development right from the time a person takes birth and grows up to become a successful person in life. Personal development includes all the activities which improve the identity and awareness, develops the skills and the potential. It builds human capital and facilitates employability. Further, it enhances the standard of living and contributes to the belief of dreams and aspirations. Organizations which provide coaching courses like personal development to its employees see a rise in their productivity levels throughout the market. It’s a process for people to assess their qualities and skills, think about their aims in life and set goals so as to comprehend and maximize their potential.

Personal development courses for communication skills, interpersonal skills, organizational skills, job hunting skills, negotiation skills and team building are in great demand. They can prove to be a real asset for any professional performing in any role today in the highly competitive world. These personal development courses will help you to enhance your communication, negotiation, etiquette and behaviour. They will help you to achieve your desired goals while focusing on your behaviour. Personal development teaches the strategies for goal setting, self improvement and personal growth.

Here are some of the courses which will definitely help you to take your career to new horizons. You will learn how to be more confident, productive, happier and successful in your job or at your workplace.

The top 10 personal development courses are as follows:

1. Interpersonal skills: Interpersonal skills are nothing but the ability to communicate effectively and build relationships with others. These skills incorporate both your innate personality traits and how you are able to handle certain social situations. Effective interpersonal skills can help you for the job interview process and can have a very positive impact on your career growth. Interpersonal skills are the skills which you rely upon when you interact and communicate with others.

Few examples of interpersonal skills include teamwork, active listening, responsibility, dependability, motivation, leadership, flexibility, patience and empathy. Having strong interpersonal skills is an asset which helps you navigate the complexity, change and day to day tasks at the workplace.

2.  Communication skills: The ability to communicate effectively with the colleagues, superiors and the staff is essential, no matter which industry you are working in. Workers in the digital age should know how to effectively convey and receive the messages in person as well as through the phone, email and the social media. Some of the examples of communication skills are active listening, friendliness, confidence, volume and clarity, empathy, respect and responsiveness.
3. Organisational skills: Organizational skills are the abilities which makes you to stay focused on the different tasks in hand and use your time, energy, mental strength and physical space effectively and efficiently in order to achieve the targeted outcome. Some of the examples are collaboration, communication, teamwork, delegation, planning, prioritizing, time management and work life balance.
4. Job hunting skills: A lot of opportunities are there for the young professionals who are looking to carve out their own place in the corporate world. But, in order to find the right opportunity, you’ll need to stand out from the crowd and differentiate yourself from the rest of the candidates who are in the run for the same opportunity as badly as you do. Job hunting skills are a fixed set of steps which you need to follow while you go hunting for a job. You need to first clearly define your skills and interests then create a powerful resume, do the research, strategize your job search and practice for the interview.
5. Delegation skills: A manager should know it very well that who will be the most fit person in the team to get a particular kind of job done perfectly, so it is very important to know how to delegate. Hence, it is an essential management skill, serving as the link between leading and managing the work. For a successful delegation these steps are to be followed:

At first the manager needs to assess the work opportunities and identify the right employee for delegation, set the expectations for completion of the task with the employee, provide support to the employee for successful completion of the task and follow up with the employee to ensure success.

6. Win Win Negotiation skills: Most of the professionals prefer to aim towards what is known as a Win Win solution to a problem. This involves looking for resolutions which allow both the sides to benefit. In other words, they aim to work together towards finding a solution to their differences which result in both the sides being satisfied at the end.

Key points while aiming for a Win-Win outcome are:

• Focus on maintaining the relationship i.e separate the people from the problem.
• Focus on the interests specially
• Generate the options which provide gains to both parties.
• Aim for the result needs to be based on an objective standard.

7. Time management skills: Effective time management skills allow you to get better results at the workplace. It also helps you withstand the stress and live a more fulfilling life outside work. The following strategies will help you get the things done in quickest possible time.

• Start the day with clear focus.
• Have a to do task list
• Focus on the high value activities first
• Minimize the interruptions
• Stop procrastinating

8. Personality development skills: Personality development is all about building your potential or capacity, nurturing your talent, enhancing new skill sets, working on your weaknesses and transforming them into strengths. Some personality development tips are as follows:

·      Leave your comfort zone

·      Define your area of excellence

·      Be Optimistic

·      Evaluate yourself

·      Network

·      Read a lot

·      Improve your body language

9. Assertiveness skills: Assertiveness is a skill which is referred to in the social and communication skills training. Being assertive means to be able to stand up for your own or other people's rights in a calm and positive way, without being either aggressive or passively accepting the 'wrong'. The three Cs of an assertive communication are:

• Confidence: Ability to handle a situation.
• Clear: The message you pass on is clear and easy to understand.
• Controlled: You deliver information in a calm and controlled manner.

10. Teamwork & team building skills: You must build a team where everyone would work to uplift each other and work together all the time even in challenging situations. This can’t be built in a day, so you need to follow these in order to build a good team.

• Make a paradigm shift from individual of team
• Build a creative and calm atmosphere
• Healthy communication fosters collaboration
• Work together and celebrate together
• Keep the employees stress free

TAKEAWAY:  Self awareness is the fundamental factor at the core of this broad and significant pursuit of personal development. Personal development starts from a point of self awareness where you come to know what exactly you need to do in order to grow in your career and lives. In fact through the significant impact of personal development an individual can grow and improve careers, wealth, relationships, health and happiness too.