How to build strategies, habits, & skills

First, let’s define what a strategy, habit, and skill are and how they differ or relate to one another.

Strategy: an approach or plan that considers both short-term and long-term moves and impacts, working towards a goal. For example, a strategy may be to use social media platforms to recruit clients. The goal is to recruit clients. The strategy is to use social media.

Habit: a consistent behavior, either voluntary or involuntary. A habit can be broken down into the framework James Clear outlines in his book, Atomic Habits. There’s the cue + craving + response + reward. For example, brushing your teeth is a habit. The framework may break down like, cue (bedtime) + craving (clean teeth) + response (brush teeth) + reward (clean teeth).

Skill: is the ability to perform a specific task. For example, you may need cooking skills to make dinner. Or, you may need marketing skills to lead an ad campaign.

Strategies, habits, and skills work together to support your career. For any given area, you may utilize 1 or all 3 to grow. Here are some examples.

Example growth area: improve communication skills, specifically emails to increase the action/response

• Strategy: review my email communications 3 times before sending, considering 1) my audience preferences, 2) answering who, what, when, why, where, how, and 3) for call to action.

• Habit: after I draft an email, review 3 times. Cue (draft email) + craving (action from emails) + response (review 3 times) + reward (action from emails).

• Skills: I need to be able to research my audience to understand their preferences - are they analytical, structural, social, or conceptual thinkers? I need to be able to write with brevity and cover all of the details. I need to be able to pinpoint the specific call to action for the recipients. There are several other skills needed.

Example growth area: improve networking with people in the tech industry

• Strategy: attend industry events and engage in networking during sessions and special events

• Habit: once a week, search for new industry events to attend. Cue (Monday) + craving (strong network) + response (research industry events) + reward (strong network).

• Skills: ability to research and find tech industry events to attend. And, once there, the ability to network with professionals.

Example growth area: improve ability to execute and follow through

• Strategy: write down all tasks on a to-do list, schedule in my calendar, and refer to my calendar multiple times a day

• Habits: first, write down tasks. Cue (new task) + craving (to be accountable) + response (write down tasks in one spot) + reward (organized). Second, schedule in my calendar. Cue (written task on to-do list) + craving (desire to complete it) + response (block time on calendar) + reward (organized). Third, refer to calendar and execute. Cue (finished current task) + craving (desire to get stuff done) + response (look at calendar for next task) + reward (complete to-do list).

• Skills: write lists, prioritize time on calendar, and discipline to follow through.

Now that you have an idea of what a strategy, habit, and skill are and how they can connect, you can go through these lessons to see which strategies, habits, and skills will help you thrive in your tech career. Here are the steps that you’ll follow.

Step 1: Overview - you’ll learn what the strategies, habits, and skills are for a specific area, like communication or strategic thinking.

Step 2: Identify the specific strategies, habits, or skills that you want to develop.

Step 3: At the end of each chapter, you’ll build on your action plan, specifically outlining the steps to build the strategy, habit, or skill.

For strategies, habits, and skills that you want to develop, you need to DECIDE to develop these; really commit.

Then, BELIEVE you can do it. Are there any beliefs that are holding you back? How can you reframe those, so you can believe?

Then, design the habits for every component that will enable you to build the skill, habit, or strategy.

Set up an accountability. Either put the habit in your calendar and refer to your calendar often. Or, tell someone that can help hold you accountable. Or, determine another way to hold yourself accountable, such as a habit tracker file.

Then, do it! And, keep doing it, until you build the habit that aligns with the strategy, habits, or skills.

For example, a skill requires practicing. You’ll outline the specific practice, i.e. writing an email with a clear call to action. And, then, you’ll define the supporting habit. Each time I draft an email, I will review it to ensure it has a clear call to action. The supporting strategy is that I’ll review every email before I send it out. Pinpoint the specific habits, answering, when and what you’ll do, and you’ll see improvements.

Next up, start reading through the strategies, habits, and skills to see what you want to create!