What Skills Do You Need To Be Successful In Your Business?

Running a business involves a huge variety of skills. Indeed, the Forum of Private Business estimates that a business owner makes decisions on over 3,000 issues in any one year. The sheer number of issues which those in business have to deal with and the skills required can easily be under estimated. Most people in business have little idea of just how many different skills they possess to make a living. In any one day, often in any one hour, they have to assume the role of product specialist, salesman or woman, motivator, accountant, public speaker, mentor, coach and many more.

Just think of the skills you use in a day's work. Which of the following skills do you think you use regularly?

• decision-making
• project management
• written communication
• making presentations
• accounting and book-keeping
• foreign languages
• negotiating
• word processing
• computer skills
• selling
• marketing
• coaching
• communicating with employees
• communicating with customers
• communicating with suppliers
• communicating with the media
• communicating with shareholders
• delegating
• motivating
• persuading
• managing meetings
• condensing information
  

Now think which of these skills do you use every day and which do you rarely or never use?



There are two dangers lurking behind this pot-pourri of skills:

1. The specialist - We have all met specialists. They are the small business equivalent of anoraks. They have a bright idea and know everything there is to know about it. If they make something, they are more than willing to give you a blow-by-blow account of every aspect of the production process in intricate detail. They are specialists to a fault. While they may know the exact pressure their product could bear on top of Everest, they are unlikely to know how many they sold last month or the idea behind the latest promotional campaign. They are poor with figures and uninterested in marketing. Customers are an incidental detail (though some are okay because they appear quite interested in the thermodynamic qualities of the product).
   
   
2. The generalist - At the opposite extreme are the generalists. They are handicapped by the fact that they are adequate at everything and exceptional at nothing. This appears an ideal situation for someone in a small business. After all, I have just pointed out how many skills you have to master. The trouble is that the terminal generalists tend to have to continually move swiftly. They are unable to sit down and really master details. Instead, they flit to the next activity. In the end they do a great many jobs badly. They tend, therefore, to measure their effectiveness by how busy they are. To them, a 15-hour day is nothing. They have to put so many hours in simply because they rarely achieve anything concrete. If you question the wisdom of working such long hours they become defensive, but fail to make the time to consider how they could work more effectively or how 15-hour days affect your health and family.

It is important, therefore, to avoid extremes or to recognize which of these two extreme categories you are liable to fall into. If you are a specialist in a particular area, you will have to ensure that you employ other people to handle the parts of the business which you are simply not interested in and unable to carry out effectively. If you are a generalist you will have to exercise self-discipline and sit down

You don't have to be a genius It is a mistake to believe that success relies on either qualifications or huge reservoirs of intelligence. You don't have to be a genius to succeed. Indeed, geniuses have a poor track record when it comes to running businesses. A lack of formal qualifications need hold no-one back from business success. Lord Hanson, Sir Colin Marshall of BA, Lord Wolfson of Great Universal Stores, Brian Pitman, chief executive of Lloyds Bank, Sir William Purves, head of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, are just some of the eminent business leaders who have risen to the top unhindered by university degrees.

While formal qualifications are not necessary, research is constantly unveiling the exact ingredients which make for successful business people. 'You cannot be successful at anything doing it for 90 per cent of the time,' Arne Naess, Norwegian ship owner, has observed. Research repeatedly suggests that those people who succeed have:

• drive and energy - they soak up work as surely as sponges soak up water
• broad experience - they have worked in a variety of different organizations, doing different jobs
• international exposure - many have worked abroad or have other international experience
• time management - they are adept at prioritizing what needs to be done and by who.
• You have to be very disciplined. You have to make sure you don't waste any time. Use every hour,' says Trevor Hemmings who has succeeded in a variety of business ventures - including buying Pontins Holiday camps and then selling them to Scottish & Newcastle. 'Nobody personally does anything, unless you sail a yacht round the ocean. But if you think about the problems all night, you come into work next morning and you know what you're going to do, and you have an advantage. That's why you're the boss.
  

It is impressive that some business people manage to survive on four hours' sleep and read strategic reports at 3 am. But at 3 am the average chief executive is sound asleep. Generally they are not superman or superwoman. They just work extremely hard and, more importantly, they work effectively.