Important Skills for Contract Professionals, Part 1

Skills are vital since they are what you use to accomplish your daily tasks. However, we need to be careful about exactly how we talk about skills in relation to abilities. Wikitonary quickly summed up the differences, but they are paraphrased below.

• Skills: Methods or techniques you learned to perform some task. Examples are talking, adding and negotiation.
• Abilities: Something you’re born with and naturally good at. It can also be said you have an affinity for something. An artistically minded person is probably a natural when it comes to art.
• The Difference: You learn skills, but your abilities, you’re born with your abilities.

The Contenders

There are major differences between the skill sets provided by International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) and Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI).

FAI’s breakdown is in-depth and complete, but a hassle to read. On the other hand, IACCM’s is shorter and easier to read. In addition, IACCM distinguishes between core and additional skills. Core refers to skills you’ll need in any contract position. Additional means skills that are necessary for some jobs but not others. FAI fails to distinguish between core and additional skills. However, FAI illustrates differences between general business skills and technical skills. These are handy once you have a strong grasp on the profession.

For the purpose of this blog, I focus on simpler items since I try to turn complex topics into digestible bits. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’ll be concentrating on IACCM’s breakdown.

Here’s a quick interpretation of each area identified by IACCM.

Core Skills

• Commitment to change and personal development (self motivation): What drives you? Is it money? Recognition? Competition with the Jones? Be honest with yourself. Use that as motivation when as you learn new skills.
• Communications: Make sure people don’t have to repeat themselves twice. Write things down. Get to the point. Summarize. Mindtools has a great communications section loaded with free advice and lessons.
• Interpersonal relationship skills: Be pleasant, but don’t be a pushover. Find a right balance. Laurie Ruettimann put it best with her number one rule for employees.
• Negotiation skills: Read Getting to Yes and absorb its lessons like “only yield to reason” and “always seek a fair solution”. The lessons should be common sense, but they are often overlooked.
• Analytical / problem solving skills: You are employed to solve problems, not cause them so you’d better know this. Mindtools has another area specifically for problem solving.
• Teamwork: Two parts to teamwork. (1) Follow this mantra – if the team succeeds, you succeed. If the team fails, you fail. (2) There are different times that we need to lead, follow or get out of the way. Know yourself and the situation well enough to select the right choice so it benefits the team.
• Time management: Knowing when to stop a task is just as important as when to start a task. Use a calendar and check off completed items. Mindtools (yes, I clearly like the site) has another topic area focused on time management. Also, follow Stephen Covey’s advice: follow a mental model of this time management matrix. It puts things in perspective and you get more done.

That’s all for today. Just absorb this knowledge, and come back for Part 2 where additional skills will be covered.