Have you ever been in an interview and asked a question like, “Tell me about a problem you had and how you overcame it”? Have you ever wondered why these kinds of questions are even asked? This is because the employer evaluates your analytical skills. Employers value employees with good analytical skills because they have seen how to solve problems. So let's take a look at what analytical skills are, why they are important, and the 13 most important analytical skills that will help you succeed at work.
What are Analytical Skills?
Note that hey, are called analytical ability, not analytical ability. This is a very important distinction, since talent refers to a natural ability. A skill is something that can be learned or acquired. And like any skill, analytical skills get better with time, repetition and practice. But what exactly are analytical skills? For our purposes, analytical skills include the ability to:
Recognize and identify problems
It's not enough to admit that a 20% profit rate for a product is a problem. You must determine the cause of the problem….
Research and data collection
It's not always as easy as it seems. There may be a lot of data in there. You need to be able to separate what's important from what's the noise.
Analysis of data collected
It's part of separating what data is relevant and what isn't. But it also means being able to weigh all the factors. For example, that 20% return rate could be due to a combination of manufacturing defects, the customer's poor education, and delayed delivery. And how much weight does each of these things carry?
Problem Solving/Critical Thinking
Once you've gone through the first three steps, you can now determine the steps needed to resolve the issue. You must be able to offer solutions that have a high probability of a positive outcome. Now, in addition to these analytical skills, there are secondary skills that are just as important to your success. These include:
Communication
You could have the best analysis and advice in the world. But in order to be useful, you must be able to communicate effectively with the team, management or shareholders.
implementation
It is important to have a plan in order to implement the solutions you propose. Just saying that the solution to the rate of 20% profit is to reduce the number of manufacturing defects is not very useful. But they say that one hinge causes the most returns, and that's the replacement. Now this is useful.
Creation
Sometimes identifying a problem is easy, but coming up with a solution is difficult. Being able to look at data and think "outside the box" is a skill that will really make you stand out. As an example, I had a company that sold small fryers for bowling alleys, movie theaters, and the like. They can produce small batches of fries, chicken wings and cheese sticks for their customers. The problem was that the price tag was more than many of them could afford. We decided to cooperate with a food distributor. We wanted to give fryers for free, but they had to buy food from our distributor. We then received a commission from the distributor for every chicken wing and cheese stick they sell. It was a victory, a victory, a victory for everyone. All of the analytical skills mentioned above are important and in demand by employers. They are part of a well-balanced team. So how can you take these skills and make them work for you, your company, and your career?
13 Ways Your Analytical Skills Will Help You Succeed at Work
1. Budgeting
Owners, managers, and department heads need to be able to create budgets for their departments, teams, and projects. A good manager will use analytical skills to collect, analyze and interpret data obtained previously in order to accurately forecast future budgetary requirements.
2. Making your ideas and suggestions stand out
So, let's say that your boss has tasked you and three other executives to come up with ways to increase efficiency. It's tempting to rely on your knowledge and experience to come up with 3-4 ways to achieve your goal. Someone might offer a bonus for completing timed tasks. Someone else can suggest a way how to transfer the project is assigned. But if you can be one, what comes in concrete decisions backed up verifiable scientific research and data. You will immediately set yourself up and our ideas are just for relaxation.
3. Evaluation and competitive projects
Whether you're a contractor going out and bidding on million dollar building projects, or a web developer, building websites, being able to accurately evaluate and job offers is critical. And only through analytical skills and experience that will keep you from losing money.
4. Collaboration
When working in a group or team, it is important that each person has a clear understanding of four things:
- What is the problem
- In what part of the decision are they responsible for
- Deadlines they have to decide
- What an acceptable result looks like.
It is an analytical approach to project management.
5. Comparison
There is no such thing as a "perfect" solution. And many times, a problem has more than one solution. Analytical skills will allow you to evaluate the pros and cons of various scenarios in order to maximize the benefits и minimize downsides.
6. Recognizing correlation and causality
We have all heard the phrase “correlation does not mean causation”. And it is true. Did you know that an increase in ice cream consumption leads to an increase in violent street crime? This is absolutely true, but ice cream consumption does not cause street crime. They are interconnected, since the growth is in the summer when it is hot and there are more people outside. But you don't want to solve the problem of street crime by banning ice cream.
7. Correct Diagnosis
Having good analytical skills enables a correct diagnosis of problems or shortcomings in an organization. The data may show that there is a problem in the production process, but in data analysis , which indicates the problem. Is the problem caused by a design error, supplier release, human error, or quality control?
8. Human Resource Management
Using analytical skills, a manager or team leader can assess the strengths and weaknesses of each person, thereby assigning tasks according to skills. It is also helpful in pointing out areas where additional or recovery training is required.
9. Project Planning
Analytical abilities allow you to break down a large project into separate parts. Then, coordinate a synergistic appropriate timeline to complete the project. This is the very definition of analytical skills that can help you succeed at work.
10. Prioritization
Whether it will be a new project or the identification of problems and deficiencies in the system, one question rarely arises. Most of the time, there are several steps in the process that need to be addressed. It is through analytical thinking that you can prioritize the problems you have identified. For example, you have determined that your 20% return rate breaks down this way. 50% manufacturing defect, 25% shipping damage, 15% bad customer education, and 10% design. Now we can address these issues appropriately.
11. Recognizing Bias
Everyone has biases and there is no way to eliminate them in discussions and decision making. The best thing you can do is to be aware of them in both yourself and others. It is a skill that takes both the self-discipline and self-awareness of the teacher. There are funny scenes in the TV show The Office where boss Michael Scott runs a budget surplus at the end of the year. Half of his employees want him to spend on a new copier, and the other half want him to buy new office chairs. Michael is torn until he discovers that if he returns the corporate surplus, he will receive a bonus of 25% of the surplus. Suddenly his selfishness created a bias.
12. Process Analysis
This is especially useful when there are system issues that are causing the problem. Too often we see only the solution to the problem by the result. The client does not like the way the site was built so let's assume that this is a communication problem between the programmer and the customer. It's easy, but through process analysis, we may discover that we've been assigned a retail site for a programmer who specializes in B2B websites. So the real answer is to fix the project assignment process.
13. Reporting, both oral and written
Everything in business has a boss, from the janitor to the chairman of the board. And the reporting of these bosses is an ongoing process. From written status reports to individual and group meetings, providing information to superiors is a never ending cycle. So, if you've been asked for a personal opinion, it's always best to have your thoughts and suggestions backed up by empirical evidence. Your opinions, suggestions and recommendations will be taken more seriously if you have data to back up.
How to develop, improve and hone your analytical skills
So, we talked a lot about analytical skills, what they are and why they are valued by employers. But how do you recognize these skills, how do you distinguish relevant data from outside interference? The answer is through a combination of education and experience. We will start with education as a foundation and then we will talk about how to get real life experience.
Education
Community colleges are a great place to start. Almost all community colleges ((Best School: Top 50 Colleges in the US)) have courses in business, business administration, and statistics. But in reality, you don't even need to go that far. With the advent of the internet, there are low cost accredited online courses that you can take in your spare time. YouTube is another great place for free educational videos on analytical skills and thinking. There are many videos on what analytical skills are, as well as practical ways to develop them. Finally, take advantage of professional retraining and courses offered through your place of work or trade organizations. This can be especially helpful, as these programs are usually designed for a specific industry.
Опыт
We've all heard the old adage that experience is the best teacher, and that's certainly true with learning analytical skills. There really is no substitute for putting in 10 hours of repetition and practice to become an expert. But there are some things you can do to start improving your skills immediately. Start playing brain games. There are a lot of them out there, and you can start training your analytical mind just by playing them for just 000 minutes a day. Some of the most popular include, master, lift and brain trainer special,((WeForum: 8 brain training apps)) but there are many others. But, if you're not into apps or computer games, then chess and sudoku are great choices too. Pay attention and start questioning everything. When you get your morning coffee, notice how to put it back in place. Where the customer places his order, where the jobs are, how the order is transmitted through the system. Can you understand why the store is set up this way? Are these efficient installations, or can you see bottlenecks that reduce efficiency? What solutions can you come up with to fix any problems? After a while, thinks how it will become second nature. Find a mentor. We said right away that experience is the best teacher, but experience takes time. Finding a mentor who has experience is the next best thing. Indeed, having a mentor for your professional life can literally mean the difference between mediocrity and greatness. Having great mentors means you are standing on the shoulders of giants.
Conclusion
Analytical ability can help you at every stage of your career, help you stand out from the crowd when applying for jobs to advance your career in the industry. And just like a good salesperson, having good analytical skills means you will always be in demand. But the key to improving your analytical skills lies in your desire to succeed. By developing and honing your skills you can make a variety, as we discussed earlier. But it's up to you to make the decision and the commitment to invest time and effort into developing your analytical skills. You can start by giving yourself a basic foundation through courses, videos and training. Then practice, practice, practice. Soon, the whole process will become second nature to you and your value in the industry will skyrocket.
More necessary skills to develop
- How to develop critical thinking skills and thoughts become clearer.
- 10 Practical Ways to Improve Your Time Management Skills
- 10 organizational skills, teaching methods are overloaded
- 13 Essential Skills to Accelerate Your Success