VALYOU: Create Personal Competitive Advantage in Your Career

The most important skill for all professionals, in this time of uncertainty, big data, hyper-specialization and false news is Critical Thinking.

Show Notes

Our fifth, most important, skill for professionals, to future-proof one's career is Critical Thinking.
 
To understand it better, I speak with Dr. Ashok Korwar, former Professor and PGP Chairman at the Indian Institute of Management IIM Ahmedabad and now a consultant and coach to leaders of high-growth companies.
 
Highlights of the conversation
 
Critical Thinking is critical because of three reasons:
Too much data is available
Growth of False news
Increasing levels of specialisation
 
Critical Thinking is the ability to:
Distinguish between what is true / appropriate / likely, and what is not
Obtain insights and observe patterns from large amounts of data
Apply learnings from one field to another, to solve problems
 
It is difficult to teach critical thinking because it requires (a) us to be inherently interested in learning diverse topics, make the required investments; and (b) the teacher to have the capabilities to instil such interest over time.
 
Unfortunately, our education system does not encourage Critical Thinking. We value Knowledge, knowing the facts… but not Understanding, how we make sense of and apply the facts.
 
In order to develop Critical Thinking, one practical tip would be to ask the question, Why, when faced with any situation, fact or data. Asking such a question repeatedly, with the intent of seeking a solution, is bound to lead to Critical Thinking.
 
 
In future episodes, we will deep-dive into these five skills and explore more stories on how we can build competitive advantage in career.  
 
Connect with us at programs@globalgyan.in or send a Whatsapp message to +91 892 843 9578.

What is VALYOU: Create Personal Competitive Advantage in Your Career?

Srinivasa Addepalli and all the other gurus at GlobalGyan Academy of Management Education share their secrets of how to build a successful career. Speaking from their years of experience across sectors, geographies and functions, they offer practical insights on how you can create competitive advantage for yourself. In the future of work, you will face competition from not only others like you but also talented people across the world, and even machines! Most young people believe that graduating from a well-known college with a coveted degree will set them up for life, but that is no longer a guarantor of success. Firstly, a majority of smart young people do not get admission into such colleges. And even if they do, what they learn during those few years is often meaningless compared to what they would need to do over the next 30 to 40 years. Creating competitive advantage requires us to learn new, relevant skills but that is not all; just like businesses need to think of the 4Ps (and more), individuals need to work on multiple dimensions to create their own strategy to win in the marketplace for talent. Discover how you can uniquely design and build your career, from those who have succeeded and failed at doing so.