Career Reskilling: I ‘Want’ to Vs. I ‘Have’ to Vs. I ‘Should’
Understanding the motivation behind the decision will help.
I remember sitting at a bus stop early in my career (1995) with a GMAT ‘MBA Entrance’ Exam book.
I was young and thought I should do an MBA.
So, I had bought a couple of GMAT books.
I had 2 hours before my work (at the bank) started at 9.00 a.m. I used to reach my office area early, make myself comfortable at a nearby bus stop, and open my GMAT book.
But I never completed it. I never came around to applying for an MBA.
I lacked focus and direction.
I was driven by ‘I should do something’ for personal development.
Today, the world is constantly screaming:
“You need to reskill and upskill for the future of work.”
Driven by the constant noise and articles, you will feel the need to ‘Do Something.’
You will look around.
Some options you will see are (e.g., for a 25-year-old Corporate Executive):
- Education: Do an Executive MBA, CA, or a course on Strategic Thinking
- Hard Skill: Related to your job, a course on ChatGPT, Design Thinking, or Artificial Intelligence
- Soft Skill: Get better at Public Speaking, Relationships, Managing Conflict, or Business Storytelling.
- Networking: Join a Networking forum, get active on LinkedIn, or build a Social Media presence.
- Side-Hustle: Learn Share Market Trading, Coding, or App Development.
You will likely pick one and devote your time, money, and effort to it.
Don’t.
You are less likely to learn something that will help your career.
A better option would be to think through it and choose something that aligns with your interests and goals.
There are different frameworks to help you decide.
- One of the most famous ones is the Japanese IKIGAI method.
It means doing something that ticks all the 4 boxes: what you love to do, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.
The IKIGAI method is helpful for overall life orientation.
2. A framework that I find helpful for a shorter timeline is to evaluate the motivation behind the decision.
Is it driven by —
- Desire (I want to) or
- Necessity (I have to / I need to) or
- Obligation (I should)?
I ‘Want’ to
We all have some professional interests/hobbies that we gravitate towards repeatedly. We cannot stop thinking about it.
For me, ‘Management’ is one such topic.
I keep up to date with new books from Marcus Buckingham, Adam Grant, Marshall Goldsmith, Chip and Dan Heath, etc.
I frequently refer to the books I have read to research topics such as hiring, culture, EQ, etc.
Likewise, I regularly read management-related articles on the HBR website and Medium.
It is a source of joy to me.
As I dig deep, I uncover insights. I thus learn it well.
I ‘Have’ to | I ‘Need’ to
Sometime back, a professional wrote on LinkedIn that he had to learn left-hand driving because he had moved to the USA from India.
Another person wrote how he finally got better at MS Excel because it was affecting his work.
Likewise, many of us — including kids — learned Zoom, MS Teams, etc. during the pandemic.
We learned because it was affecting our work. We had to.
I ‘Should’
This is driven by societal pressure, conveyed through articles, conversations, etc.
An Example
A couple of years back, I attended a half-day session on ‘Salads and Dressings’, which cost Rs.5000. (USD.60)
More than 3 years have passed. I haven’t made any of the 6 salads (Greek, Russian, etc.) that we were taught.
As I now realize, it was driven by societal pressure: ‘I should eat Salads to stay healthy.’
Like this, I have invested time, money, and effort — in joining a Networking Forum, a Public Speaking club, engaged with others on LinkedIn, joined a Gym, etc.
All were driven by ‘I should’.
There was no follow-through or consistency, so the learning/habits didn’t form.
Words from Experts
- In ‘The Values Factor’ — an excellent book on Values — author and personal development expert Dr. John Demartini suggests a way. He writes:
“.. anytime you find yourself saying, “I should…,” “I need to…,” or “I really must…,” you can be pretty certain that you are talking about social idealisms or the values of some external authority instead of expressing your own true highest values.
When you hear yourself saying, “I desire to…,” “I choose to…,” or “I love to…,” then you know that you are talking about a goal that is truly valuable to you.”
2. Likewise, entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant, in the book ‘The Almanack of Naval Ravikant’ writes:
“If you can’t decide, the answer is No.
If I’m faced with a difficult choice, such as:
- Should I marry this person
- Should I take this job?
- Should I buy this house?
- Should I move to this city?
- Should I go into business with this person?
If you cannot decide, the answer is No.
And the reason is modern society is full of options. There are tons and tons of options. We live on a planet of 7 billion people, and we are connected to everybody on the Internet. There are hundreds and thousands of careers available to you. There are so many choices.”
But | But | But
In an ideal world, the above would be the best way to decide: Do what you ‘want’ to do.
But — like most things in life — there are subtleties to it.
The following is something I realized after much thinking.
Before you pursue what you ‘want’ to do, you have to ensure you are addressing what you ‘have’ to do.
In other words, if you are struggling at your (existing) work — either in soft skills or hard skills — address them first.
How do you know if you are struggling at your (existing) work?
- You find yourself under stress/pressure most of the time.
- You usually sit late and come on holiday.
- You are repeatedly pulled up by your boss for work-related issues.
- You struggle with conflict/handling a difference of opinion
- You have less-than-good relationship with your boss/ peers
- You find it difficult to take time for holidays and social events.
- You aren’t progressing in your career at the pace you would like to
All these are indicators that you are struggling with something — internal or external.
Address them first.
If you don’t address them — soft skills or hard skills — the situation will progressively become difficult. You might even be forced (by circumstances) to leave that job, with or without having another job in hand.
And the issues will carry over to your next job.
Peter Drucker, the management guru, said it likewise — though in a managerial context — decades back:
“The first practice is to ask what needs to be done. Note that the question is not “What do I want to do?” Asking what has to be done, and taking the question seriously, is crucial for managerial success. Failure to ask this question will render even the ablest executive ineffectual.”
I think this applies to both, individual contributors and managers.
And it applies to all professions.
An Example
If you ask me, I want to just write good management articles.
I don’t want to do any marketing, think of reaching new readers, etc.
It took me time to realize that if I want to sell my books and courses down the line, I need to / have to build an email list.
So, in the face of much discomfort — I got around to building a landing page, a lead magnet, a call to action below articles, a set sequence of emails in an email software — and I continue to do all that is necessary to reach my goal.
This discomfort was made easier because I could tie it to a goal.
That brings us to another point.
The Role of Goals
Learning anything becomes easier if you can tie it to a goal.
Goals are like the compass, the North Star, which helps you to make day-to-day and big decisions easier.
As an aside, any worthwhile Goal will stretch you — it will have components of what you ‘want’ to do, what you ‘have’ to do, and what you ‘should’ do.
If you can delegate or outsource the ‘have’ and ‘should’ part, well and good. Else be ready to address them too.
What is your Goal?
If you have one, you will find it easier to decide on what to learn next, and also progress in your learning in an orderly way.
If you don’t have a Goal, it isn’t an issue.
For start, your first goal should be to do your existing job well. Learn all that is required to do that well.
Once that is done, continuous reflection will help you to uncover what you ‘want’ to do / your goal.
Conclusion
Learning anything new takes effort.
However, before you commit to a 40-hour / 4-month course, evaluate where it fits in your overall scheme of things.
Don’t do it the lazy way, choosing the default option:
- Go for an Executive MBA Course
- Do an Internet search for ‘Top Courses on Udemy, Coursera’ and do one of those.
Instead, put some thought into it.
A couple of hours possibly to think through.
If required, engage a career coach/executive coach to get clarity on what you should reskill at next.
The investment you make in getting guidance will be well spent.
At the end, I am reminded of the following quote from Jeff Bezos of Amazon. I think it captures the importance of our decisions on what to learn next well:
“In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.”
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