Building a unique super power that can propel your career to new heights is easier than it may seem. It's not about become some hyper-focused guru and a master of some one single skill. What can you do to set yourself apart? It's something available for everyone: skill stacking.

Read on: blog.WednesdayWin.com​

Read time: 3 minutes

Let's explore:

1. What is skill stacking?

Skill stacking is the practice of identifying and building new capabilities and knowledge in multiple areas that are distinct from your primary expertise.

Today, whether you work for yourself or are part of a small business or large enterprise, the demand for diverse skills is ever growing. While there are places for experts who have exceptionally deep knowledge of one topic area, the demand for such narrow skillsets can fluctuate wildly and one can transition from being highly in demand to no longer valued in an amazingly short time.

By adding new, complementary skills to your repertoire, you can stand out, grow into new opportunities, and have a more rewarding career overall.

• Choose new skills based on interest and ability
• Be thoughtful about what new knowledge might be complementary to your existing abilities
• Pursue new skills with an eye towards entry to new and beneficial opportunities

2. Why skill stacking?

While not everyone can be among the best in the world in any one highly in-demand skill set, nearly everyone can achieve a top 25% level in two or more valuable skills.

As you start building a collection of capabilities, you become attractive candidates for teams that have emerging and dynamic needs. Start reading a large number of job descriptions in your industry and take note of how often traits and abilities like good communication skills, experience with certain software tools, and project or staff leadership are mentioned. Note how often domain knowledge is combined with these other skills in the description of the ideal candidate.

Companies are struggling to find these kind of dynamic contributors, but you can step up to fill these opportunities.

• Pursue both complementary and unique skill combinations
• Obvious examples might be building copywriting chops or social media experience if you are a marketer
• And rarer combinations might include building demonstrated skills in public speaking or event planning if you are software engineer

These kinds of combinations make you stand out and open unexpected doors. I was hired at one role earlier in my career for a specific skill that made me stand out among the other candidates even though I was never actually asked to do that in my years in that new role. My hiring manager saw those extra skills as a sign that I could adapt to changing needs over time.

3. Which skills to pursue?

Take a self-inventory of your strengths and experiences. You might already have some additional skills to build upon. What did you do earlier in your career? In school? In your community? What do you enjoy as hobbies?

After those, it pays to be strategic. What would make you stand out in your industry? In your company? What tasks are going undone or are underserved, but you could possibly address?

This is also a good opportunity to challenge yourself. I am always impressed when I see candidates struck out to learn something new. For example, sales and marketing staff who pursue some technical certifications or coding experience, technical staff who pursue leadership experience, or legal professionals who build mathematical and analytical skills. And in almost any role, learning to be an effective recruiter and interviewer will add significant value for you to the organization.

Some other evergreen opportunities to expand your horizons:

• Technical training and software and tool certifications
• Public speaking, writing, social media, and other communications skills
• Demonstrated project and people management experience

4. The most versatile skill to stack

Of all the skills, I suggest one is the perfect skill to stack to nearly any job role: learn how to write well.

Writing well requires two things that will also add to your capabilities: read regularly and write regularly. Writing concisely and at a level that is easy for your audience to consume only comes through practice and experience.

Writing is one of the greatest employment super powers that is open to absolutely everyone. Being able to express ideas, information, and plans in writing in ways that connect with the right audience remains one of the easiest ways to have massive impact.

• As Jim Rohn frequently said, "All leaders are readers"
• Embrace the practice of writing regularly: a daily journal, project plans, or even just essays to share with friends. Explore ideas in writing
• Every job role is better fulfilled by one who can write clearly

Action Summary

Skill stacking is the key to creating a unique super power that differentiates you from all others. Keep learning throughout your career and actively seek out new ways to discover, build, and demonstrate skills that make you uniquely valuable to the market. That will help no matter what kind of business you aspire to join or run.

• Be strategic in skill stacking, but also be open to where interest and inspiration take you
• Leverage free and low cost training and courses
• Raise your hand and join in as a volunteer to build demonstrated experience
• Make room to write and pursue it as the universal complement to your other skills
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What do you think? Reply to this email and let me know.

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To your success,

Christopher

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