Fundamental career skills are critical to your success regardless of the type of work you do. You can never be too good in the basics of any craft.
This is true in business and in sports.
The game of basketball provides us with many lessons on the importance of fundamental skills. It also helps us better understand why even those who are most committed to success sometime struggle with the basics.
If you aren’t as good as you want to be in the basics in your career, be encouraged. You’re not alone.
And, you can keep making progress by being aware of these three common barriers and taking action to push through them.
The importance of fundamental career skills
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or what type of job you have, the people in your organization will likely agree in many ways about fundamental skills.
In your field most people will know what skills everyone needs to do well. The core competencies are particularly obvious when a teammate doesn’t perform well in one of these areas.
Poor performance highlights the need
Here’s an example I’m confident you’re familiar with.
Communicating in a professional manner is a fundamental skill that applies to every career.
Think back to a time when you’ve heard someone in your organization says things in a way that was entirely inappropriate. Or, maybe you’ve read an email that makes you cringe.
In those moments you, and everyone else involved, were keenly aware of the importance of mastering the fundamental career skill of professional communications.
The failure to execute this basic skill well highlighted its importance.
Communicating poorly can limit a person’s career.
Fundamental career skills are general and specific
A skill like communicating well is an example of a general competency. Things every team member should know how to do well.
Other important fundamentals skills are competencies unique to your trade. They are the little things. The basics that are required to be successful.
Most of these fundamentals are tasks that are done over and over but aren’t necessarily glamorous.
If you and your teammates stop doing these things, your organization will shut down.
These fundamental career skills are important. Critical. Essential.
It’s hard to argue with this statement. And, people rarely do.
Nearly everyone would agree fundamentals are important, in theory
If you were to talk to people in your organization at any level and ask them if the basic skills are important, they would respond with an emphatic, “Absolutely!”
In my career, these fundamental career skills are things like communicating well, whether in emails, presentations, and in person. Leading projects and project teams. Critical thinking. Getting along with others.
These competencies are critical for most people in many different career paths.
In theory, nearly everyone will agree that these general fundamental skills are important.
Reality and theory often don’t match
But, if you were to ask these same people if they invest in improving themselves in these areas to further their career, do you think they will respond with the same enthusiastic, “Absolutely!”?
I don’t think they will.
They will probably say something about not having the time to work on these or they’ve done a little bit of training a long time ago. And, they do them well enough already.
The truth is most people say fundamental career skills are important but their actions reveal something else.
In my experience, many people really aren’t that good at executing the fundamentals. And, they aren’t investing time or money to get better.
This doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable team members. They are.
But, it does expose their hidden truth that they don’t actually consider these fundamental career skills as important as they say they do.
So, why the disconnect?
Why don’t most employees excel in executing the basics and work to continually improve in the fundamental career skills they need?
3 reasons everyone struggles with fundamental career skills
There are many reasons, but let’s start with three.
1. Fundamentals must be practiced. And not everyone is willing to practice.
In the game of basketball, shooting free throws is a fundamental skill.
For men and women who earn their living playing the game, it’s a fundamental career skill. An important part of their job is shooting the ball well.
One of the greatest shooters of all time is Stephen Curry.
Stephen Curry’s example
In the book Raise Your Game: High-Performance Secrets From the Best of the Best, Alan Stein, Jr. gives us insight into why Steph Curry is as good as he is.
Stein describes how at a high-school camp for high-level prospects, Steph Curry would not leave the court until he swished five free throws in a row.
For you non-basketball followers, a “swish” means the ball passes through the rim without touching it. Hence the phrase, “Nothing But Net.”
Swishing a free throw is not that hard for skilled shooters, but swishing five in a row after an incredibly intense workout?
That’s difficult.
Listen to Alan Stein, Jr. describe Steph Curry’s commitment to practicing the fundamentals and see just how good Curry is in this short video.
Steph Curry’s does his job at an amazingly high level of excellence.
How does he do this?
He relentlessly practices his fundamental career skills.
And, I think it’s safe to say he does this more than anyone else.
Did you catch how Stein mentions that other players were not as committed to putting in the effort to practice the basic skills?
Not everyone practices like Steph Curry practices. And, it’s no coincidence that no one else shoots as well as Steph Curry either.
To perform the basics with excellence we must follow Steph Curry’s example
We can also perform in our jobs with high levels of excellence. But, we must do as Steph does.
We too must practice our fundamental career skills.
But just like the other very good players who left the court when Steph Curry stayed to shoot free throws, we often don’t practice. We accept good as good enough.
As a result, we don’t improve in our fundamental career skills. We perform them at a decent level. Maybe even a good level, better than many of our teammates.
But, we’re not as good as we could be if we practiced our fundamental skills more often.
And, sometimes that lack of practice causes our performance to decline. The results we deliver aren’t what we expect them to be. Or they aren’t what others expect them to be.
Then the pressure starts to build. Inside us and around us.
2. There is pressure to do something different
We know executing fundamental career skills consistently over time will lead to success, but we often feel pressure to do something else.
This pressure can tempt us to make poor choices. We entertain the idea of not investing time to get better at the basics, but rather to seek different solutions.
Internal and external pressure
Whether it’s internal pressure from the words of our inner voice or external pressure from others who have strong opinions about our approach, the influence can be hard to resist.
It may be judgmental comments from a critic or a seemingly innocent question from a teammate. Both can suggest that staying the course and doing the basics more consistently just isn’t going to work.
“Surely there’s a better way” they tell us. “There must be a shortcut to get the results you want.”
There’s always a new and flashy path to success.
These methods start to look attractive, especially when we’ve have had setbacks. We think maybe being committed to the basics really is too simple.
Those fundamental career skills we thought we could trust may not be so trustworthy after all.
We can all find ourselves facing doubt when these internal and external pressures come our way.
The pressure comes quickly when the results don’t
In December of 2019, the Texas Tech men’s basketball team had just lost two games in a row. The record was 5 wins and 2 losses. Not a terrible early season record, but they had played for the national championship the previous season. They were expected to be 7 and 0 at this point.
A reporter asked head coach Chris Beard if he was going to do something different based on these two recent losses.
His response showed his commitment to sticking to the process he had established with his team. A process built on the consistent execution of the fundamentals that he knew would bring success.
Chris Beard’s words in this one minute clip should be applied not only by every coach and athlete but also by every person who wants to have a successful career in any field.
Most of the basics Coach Beard lists in his response are specific to the athletes in his program. But, the application to us in any career is obvious.
We can trust that consistently executing a sound process of applying fundamental career skills will bring success over time.
We just need to stick to the process and continue doing the basics as we’ve been trained to do them.
But what if we haven’t been trained in the fundamental skills we need in our career?
Sadly, this is the situation for many people.
3. We don’t get properly trained
This final reason we struggle with fundamental career skills may be the most important because it’s often the easiest problem to fix.
Take a moment to think about the basics of your work. The things you need to do well every day to be successful.
Have you received training in these areas?
Or, did you only get hands-on training when you first started your job and you’ve had no meaningful guidance after that?
Proper training is not a problem for professional basketball players
You are most likely not feeding your family by playing basketball. But, if you are, you probably have been trained in the fundamentals. You likely have a group of talented people committed to making sure you are doing the fundamentals of your job to the best of your ability.
You have professional trainers studying your footwork. Coaches dedicated to analyzing your shooting form. Nutritionists ensuring your body is fueled to perform. Staff members breaking down your game film to prepare you to rebound more effectively against your next opponent.
If you’re a professional basketball player, you have all these things and probably more.
But, we’re not you.
Most of us don’t have groups of people who are personally dedicated to helping us continually improve our career fundamental skills.
But proper training is a problem for many of us
Many of us are not properly trained in the basic tasks we use every day to make a living.
Despite this lack of intentional training, too many people are expected to be highly competent in these fundamental career skills.
Training in the basics is sometimes considered too, well…
Basic.
Doesn’t everyone know how to write an effective email, or lead a meeting, or have a professional conversation with a customer or their peers?
No. Everyone doesn’t know how to do those things.
They don’t intuitively know how to do them well. Sure they’ll figure it out on their own. Or they’ll learn from someone else.
But, is that how organizations should train their employees on the skills they use continually to deliver results for the company?
Of course the answer is no. But based on my conversations with many people, this is a common approach.
Too many companies don’t consider it valuable to train their employees on fundamental career skills. They don’t consider it valuable despite the fact their employees spend a significant amount of time each week applying these skills.
You can get the training you need
If you aren’t getting the training you need to perform your fundamental career skills with excellence, I encourage you to invest in yourself.
Explore your organization’s internal training resources to find classes to help you improve in these core skills. Investigate external options to get training like this too.
Free resources are abundant. You can find articles, podcasts, and webinars on a variety of relevant topics.
If you’re serious about being exceptional in executing fundamental career skills, online courses are also an excellent option.
For a reasonable price you can learn and continually improve the basic skills that will benefit you in any role you have in any field or organization. A one-time investment in yourself will pay for itself quickly and continue to benefit you throughout your career.
Don’t let your organization’s lack of investment in you hinder your career growth and performance. Find a way to get better at your fundamental career skills.
But, what are those skills?
What are your fundamental career skills?
I don’t know what specific skills apply to you. But, in my career, I’ve found there are fundamental skills that benefit every person I’ve encountered.
Here are a few examples.
- Communication skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Problem solving
- Hustle
I’ve got a much longer list, but this is a start.
What would you include on your list?
Do you do these things with excellence? Do you invest to continually improve in these areas?
I hope you do. But, if you don’t, don’t be discouraged. Just take the next step to improve.
Start now to find ways to perform the basics a little better each day.
It will be worth it.
Executing fundamental career skills with excellence will bring success
People who do the basics extremely well have successful careers. They break through the three barriers we discussed in this post (and many others) and execute these skills with excellence.
And, they deliver exceptional results for their organizations.
Exceptional team members continually strive to execute the fundamentals with excellence.
This is true in basketball and every other field. It takes practice, training, perseverance, and courage to stick to the process. And the results will be worth all you invest.
Let’s lead with kindness and confidence.
Greg
Discussion Questions
- What are your fundamental career skills?
- Are you investing to improve these skills? Are you helping your teammates do the same?
I’m interested to know how you put this into practice in your life. Please share your experiences in the comments section so we can learn together.
