What Is the Most Used Essential Skill? Do You Have It?

The truth is that there is no right answer to that question – it all depends on the type of work that you do.

Every job is different and will require different essential skills.  And the essential skills you use one day on the job might be different than the ones that you use on another day.

Just as a reminder, the 9 essential skills are:

1. Reading
2. Writing
3. Document Use
4. Numeracy
5. Oral Communications
6. Thinking Skills
7. Working With Others
8. Continuous Learning
9. Computer Skills

For example, if you want to work in the restaurant industry, you will use all of the essential skills at one time or another, depending on what job you are doing.

As a waitress, you need to use thinking skills to decide whether you should put in a new order first or if you should take out the drinks for a table or if you should head over to another table to get their order.  You have to think fast and you need to be able to prioritize.  As  a cook you need to use those same thinking skills to decide whether to take the pizza out of the oven or prepare the spaghetti that goes with the order where everything else is ready or find out whether there is MSG in the dish that the waitress is asking about.  As a manager you will need to use those thinking skills to decide whether to deal with the customer that is not happy with their meal or visit the table of VIP’s that is sitting in the corner table or give your kitchen staff the help they need at rush hour.

Thinking skills seem pretty important don’t they? And they are, but are they more important than communication skills (which everyone needs in order to be able to interact effectively) or reading skills (which everyone need in order to be able to order inventory, read the orders from customers, find the right item on the menu so that customers are charged the right price) or is it math skills?

The truth is that the 9 essential skills are used together in order for everyone to do their job well.

Do you use your essential skills to the best of your ability.  Would you be able to do your job better if you brushed up on one or several of them? Or would you be able to get a better job if you were improved on one or several of them?  Or would you be able to get a promotion?