Professional Survival Skills 101: Critical Thinking, Growth Mindset, Leadership, and Tech-Savvy

When it comes to working in a professional setting, there are many important soft skills to possess besides having the relevant educational background or working experience. Some of the most important ones include critical thinking, growth mindset, leadership, and tech-savvy. Here’s our take on what each means and why they belong in the must-have professional survival skills 101.

Critical Thinking 

Critical thinking is a constructive thinking process to find solutions in which you must make reasonable, logical, and well-thought-out judgments. When you think critically, you take all arguments and conclusions for granted and question the validity of those arguments and conclusions.

People who think critically often have various questions when faced with a phenomenon or information. There are several types of questions that critical thinkers often ask, including:

• Where did this information come from?
• Are the sources of information reliable?
• Is the conclusion based on evidence or just a hunch/gut?
• Are the applicable rules final, or can they be modified?
• Does the conclusion answer the question?

Growth Mindset 

One of the professional survival skills 101 here is a growth mindset. It’s a mindset where someone believes that basic abilities can be developed through hard work, dedication, and intelligence. Talents are only initial capital in this equation. Simply defined: someone who has a growth mindset always wants to learn new things to improve their abilities, just as the name implies.

People with growth mindset skills value the improvement of a process more than just a good end result. This makes them more open to challenges because they don’t see challenges as threatening but rather opportunities for improvement. This skill dares you to try new things outside your comfort zone and not be afraid to fail or make mistakes. From these experiences, you’ll end up not hesitate to work hard, look for the right strategy, seek feedback from others, and learn from the success of others.

Leadership

Leadership skill is often needed in the working world and in the academic field since it leads someone to successfully achieve a particular objective. People with this skill are considered to have a distinctive charisma that easily makes them a center of attention and thus have people following their principles.

Not surprisingly, people with leadership skills are also usually emotionally intelligent as well. A person with great leadership skills can guide, protect, and encourage their team to develop their potential and push them to be a valuable asset in the company. Most importantly, leaders must make the right decisions in times of urgency, especially in an era when trial and error can’t be avoided.

Tech Savvy

As the last skill on this list of must-have professional survival skills 101, tech-savvy isn’t about knowing how to do complex sets of coding, have the latest gadgets, be the most up-to-date person in the room, or boot up a computer. This skill focuses on how we efficiently deal with technology by utilizing your knowledge of technological advancement that can be seamlessly integrated into personal and professional aspects.

There you go, some of the most important and must-have professional survival skills 101: critical thinking, growth mindset, leadership, and tech-savvy! Have you started honing in one of these skills? Whatever stage you’re at, we wish you all the best at the process!

When it comes to working in a professional setting, there are many important soft skills to possess besides having the relevant educational background or working experience. Some of the most important ones include critical thinking, growth mindset, leadership, and tech-savvy. Here’s our take on what each means and why they belong in the must-have professional survival skills 101.

Critical Thinking 

Critical thinking is a constructive thinking process to find solutions in which you must make reasonable, logical, and well-thought-out judgments. When you think critically, you take all arguments and conclusions for granted and question the validity of those arguments and conclusions.

People who think critically often have various questions when faced with a phenomenon or information. There are several types of questions that critical thinkers often ask, including:

• Where did this information come from?
• Are the sources of information reliable?
• Is the conclusion based on evidence or just a hunch/gut?
• Are the applicable rules final, or can they be modified?
• Does the conclusion answer the question?

Growth Mindset 

One of the professional survival skills 101 here is a growth mindset. It’s a mindset where someone believes that basic abilities can be developed through hard work, dedication, and intelligence. Talents are only initial capital in this equation. Simply defined: someone who has a growth mindset always wants to learn new things to improve their abilities, just as the name implies.

People with growth mindset skills value the improvement of a process more than just a good end result. This makes them more open to challenges because they don’t see challenges as threatening but rather opportunities for improvement. This skill dares you to try new things outside your comfort zone and not be afraid to fail or make mistakes. From these experiences, you’ll end up not hesitate to work hard, look for the right strategy, seek feedback from others, and learn from the success of others.

Leadership

Leadership skill is often needed in the working world and in the academic field since it leads someone to successfully achieve a particular objective. People with this skill are considered to have a distinctive charisma that easily makes them a center of attention and thus have people following their principles.

Not surprisingly, people with leadership skills are also usually emotionally intelligent as well. A person with great leadership skills can guide, protect, and encourage their team to develop their potential and push them to be a valuable asset in the company. Most importantly, leaders must make the right decisions in times of urgency, especially in an era when trial and error can’t be avoided.

Tech Savvy

As the last skill on this list of must-have professional survival skills 101, tech-savvy isn’t about knowing how to do complex sets of coding, have the latest gadgets, be the most up-to-date person in the room, or boot up a computer. This skill focuses on how we efficiently deal with technology by utilizing your knowledge of technological advancement that can be seamlessly integrated into personal and professional aspects.

There you go, some of the most important and must-have professional survival skills 101: critical thinking, growth mindset, leadership, and tech-savvy! Have you started honing in one of these skills? Whatever stage you’re at, we wish you all the best at the process!