‘Multiplier’ skills you can work on to help your career and business

Scott Adams, in his best selling book, How to fail at almost everything and still win big, has lots of great takeaways. One chapter in particular struck me when I read it, which was his list of skills that everyone should learn. I like to think of the list as ‘multiplier’ skills.

What’s a multiplier skill you might ask? It’s a skill that helps add value in different ways to existing skills you already have. For example, one of the skills below is public speaking. If you have expertise in say, microbiology, you can ‘add’ the skill of public speaking and do speeches or talks at conferences, do a video log of a day in the life of a microbiologist, provide your expertise on panels and much more. I also like the fact that Scott says that every new skill you acquire doubles your odds of success. Here are the skills that Scott recommends:

Public speaking

How to write and give a speech, engage the audience, body language. Normally I would recommend going to Toastmasters to learn this skill, but if you are not able to attend, the best way to improve is to prepare a speech, video tape yourself giving the speech, and then critically look at the recorded video. Look for:

• Crutch words like um, ah or so
• Eye contact