Guest Post - How I Combined my Skills to Remain Artistic in the Age of Technology

Steven Forth is co-founder and managing partner at Ibbaka. See his skill profile here.

Ashley Anderson is an assistant team leader with two years of experience. As a leader, she is always trying her best to seeing her team motivated.

We are living in an era where technology has made it easy to find instant information on anything that we want to do. Unfortunately, the constant consumption of readily available help can impede our artistic capabilities. It becomes hard to come up with original thoughts and ideas.

I realized early in my career the importance of remaining artistic in what I do, even in the midst of technology. Having new perspectives and fresh ideas made me stand out in my work. I made the decision to use my skills to stay creative and original in coming up with innovative solutions to situations, which has made me a good leader. 

Why I need to remain artistic

I have been an assistant team leader for two years now. My biggest responsibility among others is to assign work to each team member and follow through to completion. I’m also tasked with assessing employee performance. As a leader, I’m always focused on seeing my team do the best and remain productive. Moreover, the best way to have a team perform optimally is if there is teamwork and team collaboration. In this case, I try so much to bring the team together to create personal relationships. I use my skills to come up with situations that encourage members to bond with each other through sharing their personal stories and having fun together.

Using technology to our advantage

Technology has in a way taken predominantly in our lives. Everywhere you go, be it in coffee shops, bus stops, and even at home, people are buried in their smartphones. The real way of communication has taken a back seat for most of us. As a leader, I can’t help but worry about the extent that technology has captured the life around us. It is very important for us to remain conscious of other things that matter in life lest they are overtaken by technology. I’m always reminding my clients that aside from technology, they should stay awake to other important things in life.

But then again, technology isn’t that bad. Instead of complaining and criticizing the use of technology in our lives, we can use it wisely to our advantage. For instance, I use technology to educate my clients on various issues such as the importance of having a good online presence through virtual training. In order to do this, I make use of residential proxies to protect my private information when browsing the web. This tool has also enabled me to identify the perception that international clients have of our business by logging in to the internet with residential proxies from around the world. This has helped me find better ways to deal with them for their best experience.  

Skills that are important to me

As an assistant team leader, I know that my team members have their eyes on me to provide guidance and support in their roles. The skills that I find important in my career include communication, teamwork, responsibility, decisiveness, empathy, creativity/innovation, honesty, and relationship building. These skills make me confident about what I do as a leader. Clear communication, honesty, empathy, and teamwork help me stimulate productivity by bringing everyone together to work on the same page. Creativity, responsibility, and decisiveness help me inspire respect and trust from my team.

How I develop my skills

I have prospects of advancing my career to the highest level. This is why I keep honing my skills to become better at what I do. For starters, I try as much as possible to practice what I preach. I also take on projects that allow me to practice my skills. In addition, learning never ends for me. I constantly take online courses to learn different skills. Most importantly, I teach these skills to other people around me whenever I find an opportunity. For instance, I use technology to share files on important skills with my clients and team members. I convert my documents from word to PDF to protect them from alterations so that the people I’m sharing with can learn from my original ideas.