WHAT CAN YOU DO?

 Have you ever found yourself in a situation where someone asks you "what you can do or what you do" and you don’t know where to start?

It has happened to me before, and it can sometimes be very challenging because you don’t know where to start, especially if you are a multi-skilled person like me.

However, let me share my secret with you.

• Know yourself

How deeply do you know yourself and what you can do?

Do you know the things you’re good at? Do you know your strength and how it can be of assistance to others? If you were to tell yourself now who you are, what would you say about yourself?

This is exactly where you start because you can't tell somebody what you can do without knowing yourself properly.

Take time to go deep into yourself to know what you are good at; your education; your skills; your work experience, etc. Your curriculum vitae should be at your fingertips as a professional.

• Know your environment.

This refers to wherever you are or is attempting to find yourself. Let’s say you find yourselves at a conference. You should be able to know who the attendees are, their activities, and possible interests. This will allow you to know what to say to anyone that may confront you with such a question.

The knowledge of your environment will permit you to be precise in telling someone what you can do that may interest him.

• Be direct and down to earth.

I once wrote an article where I advised people to be direct and customized in their answers to the question of what they can do.

When you use titles like CEO, manager, operation manager, etc., people don’t relate to you in your presentation. But when you say what you can do, it relates to you easily. If you tell someone, for example, that you are an account manager for a bank, he may not understand, but if you tell him that you can assist him in creating and managing his bank account, he will understand more clearly.

If someone asks you that question, go straight ahead and tell him what you can do and not your title, because he may need your services.

• Understand how to tell someone about your abilities.

As mentioned above, knowing the people you have around you can help you know what to tell them, especially if you are a multi-skilled person. If you know a skill would not interest someone, don’t go there. Stick to what can interest him, so you don’t talk too much and may make him uncomfortable.

Start with a problem you can solve that may be related to him. This is one of the approaches that I often use, and sometimes it works.

When someone asks you what you can do, he is simply asking what you can do for him or someone he knows. So, starting by citing a problem you can solve can help him relate to you better.

Let me take the case of a nurse. If someone asks a nurse what he can do and he tells him I am a nurse, it may not relate well, but if he tells him if you are sick or have health problems, I can be of assistance and support. That one will stick with him more than just being a nurse. People are more preoccupied with solutions to their problems than with other people’s titles.

If you need more support in your personal development and growth, then you can reach us at any time for assistance.