What would you like to say: “They have no skills” OR “Everyone has skills. ” We are all born ‘skilled.’ Watch a baby carefully and see his activities. This will give you the answer of questions, like What are these skills? What can we offer to the world? Basically there are three kinds of skills that we have: skill as verbs, skills as nouns, and skills as adjectives/adverb.
Skills as Verbs
Some of your skills are verbs. These skills represent your actions. These skills usually related to one of three domains: people, things, or data/information/ ideas. These skills are also known as Functional Skills or Talents. For example, acting, calculating, constructing, communicating, driving, swimming, sewing, persuading, motivating, memorizing, negotiating, organizing, planning, researching, synthesizing, etc. Functional skills are your strength. These are transferable skills and with some efforts you can learn. Sometime these skills can be gifted. For example, some people my born with good negotiation skill. And if you are not born knowing how to negotiate; you can learn/acquire how to do it as you grow.
Skills as Nouns
You may wonder, but your vocabulary is an important skill. It is your Work Subject Skills, or Knowledge Skills. For example, apple, antiques, auto mobiles, contents, computers, colors, data, flowers, farm equipment, fashion, images, graphics, the stock market, etc. You learn these subjects over the years through apprenticeships (formal or informal), school, life experience, books, or from a mentor. It doesn’t matter how you learned them; you did. This knowledge is stored in your brain and you can use it in problem solving situation. Normally, you use it to develop your expertise to offer to the world.
Skills as Adjectives/Adverbs
The third type of skills relate to your Personal Trait Skills and are adjectives or adverbs type. Like: accurate, adaptable, creative, dependable, flexible, methodical, persistent, punctual, responsible, self-reliant, tactful, courteous, kind, etc.
Trait is a distinguishing but stable characteristic or quality that causes a person to depict a response to any situations. In 1936, Psychologist Gordon Allport discovered that more than 4000 words in an English language dictionary describes personality traits. Allbort viewed traits as building blocks of personality. According to him, there are three classes of traits.
- Cardinal traits are the traits around which a person organizes his whole life. Allport suggested that these traits are developed later in life, and are in fact quite rare. But, these traits play such an important role in a person’s life that they often become synonymous with the names of the person. For example, greed, lust, kindness, narcissism.
- Central Traits which represent individual’s major characteristics. These can also be considered as the characteristics that lead to the foundation of an individual’s personality. Example of central traits: shy, anxious, intelligent, dishonest.
- Secondary traits refer to the general behavior patterns that only appear under certain circumstances. An example would be getting nervous to speak in public.
Here are some examples of character traits. Use this list to discover more about yourself and your personality.
| Adaptability | Appreciation | Attentiveness |
| Availability | Commitment | Compassion |
| Concern | Confidence | Consideration |
| Consistency | Contentment | Cooperation |
| Courage | Creativity | Decisiveness |
| Deference | Dependability | Determination |
| Diligence | Discernment | Discretion |
| Efficiency | Equitableness | Fairness |
| Faithfulness | Fearlessness | Flexibility |
| Forgiveness | Friendliness | Generosity |
| Gentleness | Gratitude | Honesty |
| Humility | Integrity | Joyfulness |
| Kindness | Love | Loyalty |
| Meekness | Mercifulness | Observance |
| Optimism | Patience | Peacefulness |
| Perseverance | Persistence | Persuasiveness |
| Prudence | Punctuality | Purpose |
| Resourcefulness | Respect | Responsibility |
| Security | Self-Control | Sincerity |
| Submissiveness | Tactfulness | Temperance |
| Thoroughness | Thriftiness | Tolerance |
| Trustworthiness | Truthfulness | Virtue |
Just to conclude, you need to understand that there are thousands of skills in the world; no one has all of them. You can define yourself, either, in terms of what you can’t do, or, in terms of what you can do. Your positive attitude will help you to learn more skills. Start from evaluating yourself in term of following seven basic skills:
- Social Skills. Being good with people. You like to be with them, serve them, help them, and you make a good friend. Or, is it:
- Physical Skills. Being good with your body. You like to use your body, in communication: signing, dance, drama, sports, or in feats of great strength. Or, is it:
- Musical Skills. Being good with sounds. You can mimic well, or create music, or tap out rhythms, or sing. Or, is it:
- Picture Skills. Being good with images or pictures. You can create them in your head, or on a computer, or through drawing, poetry, painting, film, writing, or visualization. Or, is it:
- Number Skills. Being good with numbers. You like to work with them, in your head, or on the computer, or on paper. You reason very carefully, step by step, very logically, in all things. Or, is it:
- Word Skills. Being good with words. You like to read, you like to express yourself with words, and you use words well. Or, is it:
- Intuitive Skills. Being good with the part of the world that cannot be seen. You understand people’s feelings, you understand your own feelings, and you have a strong tie to faith and prayer.
Aivacon Knowledge Services 