Whatever your thoughts on Nick Clegg and David Cameron are, they have succeeded because of their communication, confidence and resilience skill sets

I’ve always liked to think that I can, to a certain extent, turn my hand to a lot of different things in life and I’ve mentioned in recent weeks that I’ve taken on extra work recently in roles that aren’t directly related to writing.

I’m not saying that I’ve got a massive array of skills in numerous different occupations or every day tasks, but I do believe I’ve got a good set of transferable skills that work just as effectively with freelance writing as they do with many other roles.

It’s throughout the last few weeks that I’ve realised I use several skills on a regular basis with freelance writing, mainly because I can see these skill sets improving due to my involvement with other work outside of writing.

And it’s because of this why I believe that although a fantastic understanding of your chosen language(s) and all things writing is an obvious necessity to succeed as a freelance writer, these three skills are all particularly useful to have and be able to utilize throughout your career as a freelance writer.

1.  Communication

My communication skills are the skills that I’m currently working to improve most.

I’m not a bad communicator, but because I used to have a bit of a stutter when I was younger, I used to try and rush my words out and so I’ve got into the habit of speaking particularly fast, with it often turning into a bit of a mumble if I don’t stop and think.

The reason why I’m aiming to develop my communication skills further – and we’re talking verbal communication here, not written – is that as great as the written word is as your freelance writing product, I’ve found that generally speaking, the higher quality and therefore better paid work out there often requires for you to communicate regularly with clients, be it on the telephone, one-to-one meetings or in presentation form.

Although the level of your communication skills does tie in to how confident you are, you don’t have to be the most forward person ever to be able to speak clearly and be able to get your message across effectively.

Explaining how to speak clearly is a different topic, but if you struggle to do this at the moment, the one little trick I use is to understand that when someone asks you a question, you don’t need to reply instantly or with a massively in-depth answer – take a breath, think for a few seconds and then reply.

You might think this isn’t normal, but next time you’re in a meeting, have a look around you – how many people speak immediately after being spoken to?  They won’t be sat there for a long time, but a second or two will pass as they gather their thoughts before speaking.

2.  Confidence

I’ve talked about this briefly in the past, but I’m not a naturally confident person.  I pretty much shied away from any type of confrontation during most of my school years and although I’m confident around friends and family, it’s still something that I have to think about occasionally, as I’m more inclined to be quiet and reserved than confident and outgoing.

However, I strongly believe that confidence is a massive affecting factor for anyone wanting to succeed in freelance writing and it’s why I’ve effectively taught myself to be confident.

My fiancé is similar to me, but she doesn’t understand how this can work, as if you’re naturally not a confident person, she doesn’t believe it’s easy to just become confident.

I’m not saying it’s easy or something that now comes naturally, but I remember watching a documentary a few months back about Bruce Forsyth (for those out of the UK, he’s an entertainment /  TV personality, known for, amongst other things, his confidence, who has been in the business for over 60 years and is still working regularly) and he said that his whole TV persona is nothing more than an act that he’s become accustomed to performing.

He said – and this is the bit that sticks with me – just as he’s walking to the stage and seconds before he’s about to go on, he does this little skip and in effect transforms himself from the quiet person he is into this confident persona.

And this is what I do (without the skip, of course).

Before I head into a client meeting, for example, I put on my confident hat.  I walk into the meeting, shoulders back and head held high and say hello in a confident way – if you mutter or mumble with slouched shoulders, it gives off an aura that straight away makes you look like you’re not confident in your own abilities.

3.  Resilience

This is a skill that I didn’t use to have and my parents have got stories of me reacting really badly to change, even down to the fact that when I had just started school, the head teacher had left and I was really upset because I thought everything was going to change.

Just before I left secondary / high school, however, I realised that change is inevitable and rather than me afraid of it, I need to almost embrace it.

There’s a lot of change in the freelance writing world, from the fact you’re likely to be dealing with a range of different clients through to the fact some months are going to be a lot quieter than others.

Being resilient is the key here, as as long as you have a solid state to start from, one where you’re confident in your abilities as a freelance writer and understand that things in this career are never the same, whenever change happens, you’ll find that you move with it, returning to your original, comfortable state once it’s over.

Having a fantastic grasp on the language you write in is key to being a great freelance writer, but when you’re ready to take your writing career to the next level, it’s imperative that you have in place the confidence, communication and resilience skill sets.

Image:  The Prime Minister’s Office

I was chatting with a friend the other day and we got to talking about skills. Specifically, how to parlay the skills you’ve acquired into something that’s useful for building a freelance writing career. Transferable skills have been a career development buzzword for some time now, and that’s exactly what you need as a freelance writer. They turn up in the oddest places, too. Here are a couple of examples of transferable skills that can help you in your writing career.

Research

Way back when I did a BA – in modern languages as it happens. I don’t use them much unless I travel, but I did learn something from that process that helps me every day – how to research. Researching is not just about finding information, but about sifting it and triangulating it. (Triangulation is a fancy way of saying you should check things from multiple sources so you can make sure there’s a common core of information that’s likely to be right.) Good research is also about checking that your sources are reliable. I’m more likely to trust health information from the Department of Health than from someone who’s trying to sell me something. Although I research more on the web than in books, the skills I learned then have stood me in good stead now.

Organization

If you’re planning a writing career, then organization is key, and the skills you need are not specific to writing. In any job you have done, you will have had a list of tasks to complete and a way of keeping track of them. That’s a good starting point when it comes to managing your writing business. If you’re managing your own business, you need to know when work comes in, who it’s for, when it’s due out and what pay you will receive. Subbing work out makes it even more complex, as I’ve discovered in the past. Think about whether you have used any organizational systems that will help you streamline your writing career. If you think of any, let me know, as I’m always open to new ideas.

What skills do you use in your writing career that you learned in other places?

(Photo: somadjinn)