These skills don't matter as much as you think

The Daily Drip

"Is Microsoft Office important?"

A few days ago, I was sitting on a panel in front of a few teachers.

They were asking us questions about what they needed to make sure their students knew when they went out into the "real world."

Most of the questions were super tactical, like the one about Microsoft Office.

Many of the answers were similar. Like "Yes, they need to know Excel." "Yes, we want better communication skills."

I had to stop the conversation.

"Are we talking about success?" I asked.

Success isn't always tied to how well someone can write an email. Yes, we have really good, clear data that literacy around grades 3-5 have huge correlations with student outcomes, but let's be real for a minute.

The average reading level in the US is around a 7th/8th grade reading level.

The Trump Facebook ads campaign in 2016 was written at a 3rd-grade reading level.

Stop saying that you have to be writing at a college level to be successful. Not only is that not true, but you could be losing many people in your intended audience.

This isn't prescriptive advice, what teachers need to do isn't tell kids what to do or what to know. Their job is to tell them how to assess the context they're in and how to know what tool to use. How to be flexible and adaptive.

It's also my opinion that being able to manage difficult personalities (jerks and bullies) in a workplace is a much higher indicator for long-term success than writing skills. I have no data on this--I'm speculating.

Being able to bounce back from failure and get back on the horse fast is also high up on my personal list of requisite skills for success.

What else do you think are "meta" skills for success. Not just reading and writing--those are obvious and not worth talking more about.

What are the key skills beyond writing n' arithmetic that actually matter?

What skills are you practicing to improve your odds of reaching your goals?

I can't wait to hear your thoughts.