All portable executives need to develop the ability to apply their core skills in a multitude of ways that offer real value in the marketplace. It is important to recognize that this ability goes far beyond the question of marketing. An executive with a core expertise in selling consumer products, for example, can transfer that expertise to selling services within a very short period of time. He simply needs to shift from the specifics of selling a hard product to the relational selling required in a service business. Allen Grossman is a prime example of someone who employed his core skills to manage two vastly different types of businesses successfully—moving from a regional paper and packaging distribution company to become the CEO of Outward Bound. These quantum skill application shifts are achieved only when engages in an intensive assessment of his or her core skills and attributes and then develops both to the point that a career shift can naturally evolve.
Natural Skills
Natural skills are skills that an individual already possesses that can easily be developed into core skills. Natural skills are the skills that career changes are made of, since they offer both the greatest challenge and the most opportunity. And because these are innate skills, they can be developed very rapidly. When Joe Cullen took an interim position putting together a national distribution warehouse for the United Auto Workers, one of his assignments was to train one of his own employees and his supervisor. Cullen, who had never been involved in training before, soon discovered a natural talent for teaching that gave him an all time high. Keith Darcy, who had moved successfully up the corporate ladder as a banker in his early career, realized that his natural skills and interests concerned ethics and values in the marketplace. This realization eventually led to the development of his own foundation dedicated to the study of ethics in leadership.
It is often tricky for the emerging portable executive to determine how to apply her natural skills and to what degree she should commit to developing them. Of course, this requires a commitment of time and capital which, when used to further natural skills, takes away from further development of existing core skills. The answer to this question can only be found in discovering how deeply one feels about using one's natural skills. For many, the depth of passion that arises at the prospect of aligning their work lives with their natural skills is the deciding factor, while for others, searching for creative ways to apply their natural skills in a way that is personally satisfying in an existing position may be the appropriate balance. Clearly, who can combine both her natural and core skills will have the best of both worlds. Eileen O'Kane, for instance, used her natural talent for art to become a chef, which eventually lead to her be coming a restaurant entrepreneur.
Developing a Natural Skill into a Core Skill
The development of one's natural skills is often rapid due to the individual's inborn talent. Does, however, need to decide how much time and effort he is willing to invest in trying to develop a natural skill into a core skill. Both Manny Elkind, who found a way to pursue his vocation and switch his career path while still employed by Polaroid, and Keith Darcy, who left banking to pursue his passion for ethics, undertook a great deal of work in transforming their natural skills into core skills. Both strengthened their knowledge base by taking courses and reading in those areas unfamiliar to them, putting all of their energy behind their dreams of developing their natural skills into businesses. The key here is learning how to gauge how steep your learning curve will be during a transition of this magnitude and planning accordingly. Attention must be paid to whether one's natural skills will be worthwhile in the marketplace once developed, as the economics of skill development and maintenance are a serious consideration in establishing a plan for business creation.
Generalist Skills
Generalist skills are basically skills that anyone can acquire and which, in most cases, are more economical (both from a financial and a time management point of view) to purchase. Accounting, basic business law, insurance, and marketing are all examples of generalist skills. Whether chooses to develop any of them is strictly up to the individual, but remember it is wise to subject these skills to a simple cost benefit analysis before making a decision. In writing a business book for high school students, Frank Gilabert decided to buy the printing, marketing, and distribution expertise from professionals in each of those fields so that he could publish the book by himself. In doing so, he retained a focus on quality control for his book, and was able to spend his time writing and doing research.
Regardless of whether chooses to buy generalist skills or develop his or her own, these are important skills to which every emerging portable executive must pay close attention. This is particularly true for those establishing their own businesses or acquiring existing businesses. But the decisions one makes about developing or acquiring certain generalist skills will often change over time, as one's skills change and the marketplace changes. A sole practitioner in marketing, for example, may choose to produce his or her own direct mail campaign with the aid of a desktop publishing package, handle accounting needs with the addition of some accounting software, and handle the legal and insurance needs while the business remains small. As business grows, however, these generalist skills should be passed off to others as quickly as possible in order to maximize the time spends applying core skills in the marketplace.
Computer Literacy
While some executives group computer literacy with generalist skills, truly cannot afford not to be computer literate. For those portable executives who work alone, computer literacy must be developed to the level of a core skill. If you are not computer literate-even if you subcontract out all of your word processing, accounting, and marketing-you are closing yourself off from the constantly expanding knowledge universe. The research capabilities, networking opportunities, databases, and other knowledge readily available to computer users cannot be ignored by any portable executive who expects to thrive.
