In an age of mass layoffs, thousands of people applying for two job openings, and perky 20-somethings competing for positions with aging Boomers, you need an edge to get – or keep – a job. No, it’s not an Armani suit or pearly whites; it’s not even a list of references or the fact that you’ve never called in sick. The bottom line to compete in today’s tough job market is performance.
Yes, closing a multi-million dollar deal is good, but it is usually a result of your consistent performance. So what type of brain skills do you need, and how do you strengthen them? Here are four must-haves for today’s competitive market.
1. Auditory processing. Reading and writing in some form are a vital component of most jobs. Whether you write sales letters and emails, read technical instructions or even just want to take a continuing education class, strong auditory skills are a necessity.
Auditory processing is the ability to perceive, analyze and conceptualize what is heard and is one of the underlying skills needed to learn to read and spell.
“One of the core sub-skills of auditory processing is phonemic awareness,” explains Tanya Mitchell, VP of development for LearningRx, a national brain-training franchise that works with adults, teens, children and soldiers with traumatic brain injuries.
“Phonemic awareness is the ability to blend sounds to make words, to segment sounds, to break words apart into separate sounds, and to manipulate and analyze sounds. We’ve found that in adults with reading and writing difficulties, the weakest cognitive skills are phonemic awareness and auditory processing, although other areas may suffer as well.”
For working adults who suffer from dyslexia (“trouble with reading”) or dysgraphia (“trouble with writing”), brain training can be the transformation between struggling and excelling.
2. Attention. If you struggle with multi-tasking, staying focused on long-term projects or coping with constant interruptions in the workplace, you likely have weak attention skills.
Although there’s a lot of talk about children and teens with ADD and ADHD, weak attention skills are a factor for many working adults as well. Although many people loosely define attention as “focus,” in reality there are three types of attention: divided (enables you to pay attention to several things at once); sustained (enables you to pay attention for long periods); and selective (allows you to stay on task even when a distraction is presented).
Many adults struggle with more than one type of attention skill weakness. Professional cognitive skills trainers can measure the different types of attention skills and essentially ‘retrain the brain’ to strengthen the learning skills.
3. Memory/retention. Thanks to recent losses in the stock market, many would-be retirees are staying at their jobs longer. This makes for tough competition for seniors, who are often competing against younger brains with stronger memory skills (the most rapidly weakening learning skill for humans).
Memory can affect your job in many ways: forgetting clients’ names, missing appointments and meetings, and losing big accounts by forgetting important details.
And while age-related cognitive decline is a given, there are things you can do to decrease and delay its impact.
“There are actually three types of memory,” explains Dr. Ken Gibson, author of Unlock the Einstein Inside, short-term, long-term and working memory. In the workplace, short-term memory might be telling yourself to call a client after you finish typing up a letter. Long-term might mean remembering a customer’s name from five years ago. Working memory is about your ability to retain information for a short period while processing or using it, such as when you do math computations in your head. All three are important to almost every type of job, and cognitive skills training can strengthen these learning skills.”
4. Processing speed. Ever noticed how some people can complete a task in half the time of their coworkers? It is not that the other coworkers are lazy – or even slow. It is more likely that the faster employee has exceptional processing speed.
Processing speed is the rate at which the brain handles information. No matter what your age or education, processing speed can be improved.
“Many people assume processing speed has to do with intelligence or education,” explains Mitchell. In reality, it is just about the number of connections between your brain synapses. Cognitive skills training increases these pathways so the brain can find the shortest route to get information from point A to point B. It’s very common for us to see people with high intelligence that have low processing speed.”
According to Mitchell, processing speed is often one of the most significant determinants of performance. It helps employees respond quickly, process math computations faster, move from task to task in a timely manner, and perform well under stress – such as with deadlines or time-sensitive responsibilities. Just imagine what a slow processing speed could do if you worked at the New York Stock Exchange!
*All last names have been removed for privacy.
Wendy Burt-Thomas is a full-time freelance writer. Her third book, “The Writer’s Digest Guide to Query Letters” (Jan. 2009, Writer’s Digest Books) is now available in most major bookstores.
