How to improve your business skills

The business environment is constantly changing and growing, and if you want to advance in your career, you need to be equipped with skills that are in demand.

So if you want to keep up the pace, then you also need to constantly improve on your business skills.

Even if you’ve learned quite a few business skills throughout your life, this is still important. You should always be striving to have a wider skill set, that you can hone until your skills make you an expert and keep you motivated. Her are some ways to achieve this.

Take a course

This is perhaps the most obvious course of action to take and this will help you to experience firsthand what it’s like to collaborate, communicate, and create actionable solutions to real challenges from top-ranked organizations.

There are many courses to choose from and Suffolk University offers a great MBA online program to get you started.

Learn through social media

You can easily turn your Facebook timeline into a learning hub – all you need to do is to follow relevant sites and thought leaders in your industry.

This way, instead of staying up to date with numerous trivia, you’ll stay up to date with relevant changes and news in your industry, enabling yourself to predict future trends better and be generally more aware.

Find yourself a mentor

This is a really great way to learn first hand from somebody that is already in business and understands what needs to be learnt in the process.

Having a mentor with business experience is a crucial part of your professional development and you will find that opportunities will always arise when around people who are directly involved in the area that you want to work in and learn from. 

The idea of a mentor is that they can provide you with the right support and relevant advice when you need it and probably most importantly, they’ll be able to support you with any gaps in your knowledge, by explaining things in a way that you’ll understand and also tailor it to the level that you’re currently at.

One key to finding a great mentor is to have some clear goals in mind for the type of experience you want your mentor to have. Are you looking for someone who works in an industry you’re interested in learning more about? Someone with experience in raising capital for a new business?

Someone who’s senior to you at your current company? Think about who you might want to ask to help you out. It might be tempting to ask people that are very successful (and no doubt very busy), so it’s worth looking around your own network, such as any contacts you might have on LinkedIn that would fit the profile well. 

Listen to speakers

A great way to really learn and absorb information, is to listen to successful business people talk. When it comes to business, you will learn about the importance of asking the right questions, surrounding yourself with the right people, and finding the courage to do things that are out of your comfort zone.

There are a range of mediums in which to listen to speakers, but you can find a range of speakers on YouTube and many business leaders have podcasts available too.

Photo by Kinga Cichewicz