Zainab Aderounmu 
As a young career professional, there’s so much to learn and catch up with. It’s not enough to have the technical skills, there are some non-negotiable soft skills you must have to outpace your peers in the workplace.
And guess what? No one would teach you these skills in school or in a formal setting, you have to pick them up yourself.
Here are 4 essential skills you’ll need to get ahead in your career:
Public Speaking: Picture this; you’re in a team meeting to brainstorm ideas for a new project. Your line manager throws a question to the team, and everyone is blank. You know the answer but you’re afraid of speaking up because, ‘‘what if it doesn’t make sense”?
Then you whisper the answer to yourself and your colleague picks it up, boldly shares the ideas as if it’s hers and takes credit for it. She got the praise, the promotion, and the pay raise, all for an idea that was originally yours.
This actually happened to a friend I know. She regretted not putting enough effort in developing her confidence and communication skills. Of course, that was the push she needed to take it seriously.
However, you don’t have to wait till something so drastic happens before you improve your communication skills. Beyond career professionals, the single most important skill an entrepreneur could have isn’t vision mapping or product development, it’s effective communication and sales.
What’s the point of a good product if you can’t tell people about it?
Networking: The same goes for your visibility in the workplace, it’s not just about what you know, but who you know and who knows you.
Knowing how to build relationships within the organisation would put you on opportunities you didn’t even know existed. When I first started working post-university, I was a clam. I hardly spoke to anyone outside of my team, just greeted them and moved on. Until one day, the company needed someone to anchor a small gathering for the company and everyone recommended my happy bunny colleague and she took the opportunity. She got the spotlight, and I watched an opportunity I would have loved slip by, all because she was more visible. This isn’t about navigating office politics, it’s about building bridges with every interaction.
Speed: Even when you communicate well and build bridges, there’s a skill that sets you apart from everyone – speed of execution. There was a time when you needed years of experience to reach the top 1%. Today, speed is more important than time spent. What is the distance between your idea and its execution? That’s the new measure of how successful you’ll get. If you dilly dally on executing your ideas or tasks, two things may likely happen. The world may move on or someone will do it first and you’ll look like a copycat. You don’t have a monopoly on ideas, but you can have first comers advantage. Use it.
Storytelling/Documenting: You should have a brag sheet. That’s non-negotiable. Document every single result you create. How did you contribute to the success of a task or project? Do you have pictures or videos? If you don’t document, you’ll forget and it’ll be harder to tell your own story when it matters the most.
Imagine this: you’re on a team charged with delivering a project. The team lead reports directly to management but you did a bulk of the work. One day, the managing director walks into the room and asks you how the project is coming up. What would be your response? ‘Fine, sir.’ I hope not.
Keeping track of the details helps you connect the dots, not just for yourself, but for your growth, your visibility, and your confidence.
Finally, there are numerous soft skills you should master to succeed but these four, even though not listed in your job description, would define how fast you rise on your career ladder. Don’t wait until you lose an opportunity before you start learning them.
Zainab ADEROUNMU A. W. is a First Class graduate of English Language and the Overall Best Graduating Student from the Lagos State University, Lagos Nigeria. She’s a professional Master of Ceremonies, known as The Hijabi Compere , a public speaking coach and Communications Professional. She is currently a Youth advisor to the European Union where she doubles as the Spokesperson and Head of Communications & PR for the Youth Sounding Board.