PETRONAS

Dr. Niza Adila Hamzah

The world we live in today is rapidly changing. The opportunities and challenges we are facing are immense. And the only way for us to keep up with it is to continuously learn. We need to learn as technology advancements could make our lives easier, faster, better, and happier. We also need to integrate learning into our daily lives to ensure we stay relevant. I share below the reasons why continuous learning matters and how learning could take us from where we are to where we wanted to be, from an individual perspective as well as an organizational perspective.

1. The Certificate: Do you have the paper?

Earning a professional certification will complement the accredited degree and can make us stand out from other applicants during recruitment. Having a certification is also an opportunity to be acknowledged as an expert in a specific field or as a recognition that we have gained new skills by way of training and passing a proper assessment by a recognized credential institution. Certain certifications provide us with a designation that we can place after our name, distinguishing us from other uncertified peers. While that could be a motivating factor for certain people, the real value in obtaining professional certification is the demonstration of our dedication to adhere to the highest standard in our profession and our willingness to keep on learning. Certification is definitely a great way to become a specialist or an opportunity to venture into a new field. For an organization, having talent with professional certification provides confidence in the reliability and competency of its talent, ensures talent’s knowledge is current, and could lead to improved adherence to industry standards and compliances. This provides a strong competitive edge to the organization. Hence, organizations must nurture the culture of lifelong learning by providing an eco-system where talent can self[1]drive their own learning. Empower talent to decide what they wanted to learn, how, and when, while providing learning recommendations and personal development feedback along the way. Talents that are motivated by lifelong learning are future-ready and would ensure the organization’s long-term viability.

" Certification is definitely a great way to become a specialist or an opportunity to venture into a new field. For an organization, having talent with professional certification provides confidence in the reliability and competency of its talent, ensures talent’s knowledge is current, and could lead to improved adherence to industry standards and compliances "

2. The Competency: Can you really do it?

While having the certificate provides verification that we are competent to perform certain skills, the challenge is whether we can make an impact on our job. A mere certification without much opportunity to put it into action could leave us less competent than our uncertified peers over time. This is where seeking opportunities to apply our skills in various scenarios or projects would help to elevate our competency. Competency is not just about having the necessary skills to perform the job; it is also about our knowledge and judgement in dealing with complexity, our ability to make timely decisions, and our ability to work well with others towards a common purpose. Highly technical talents would still require leadership competency to ensure successful delivery of a project or task, as they would need to set goals and inspire their team members. Talents with high leadership competency still need to equip themselves with technical competency to provide sound, evidence-based rationale in making decisions. This is where self-driven career development is crucial. We need to keep finding opportunities to explore new projects, functions, or roles to strengthen our competencies. If shifting from functional-based to project-based sounds too drastic, organizations need to allow execution of on-the-job learning or job rotation more easily by innovating the processes and procedures around mobility to be more flexible. An organization with a strong competency bench could benefit from minimizing attrition among top performers, promoting a high internal hiring rate, and reducing the range of performance in key roles, ultimately ensuring sustainable business results.

3. The Character: Do you have what it takes to be there?

We have witnessed many highly competent professionals who get complacent in their position, and self-interest has led to failure in their career and life. With knowledge and expertise, we need to always keep in mind that serving the needs of the organization is more important than our own personal desires. Talent with a strong character usually has a strong moral code and deep personal convictions, which serve as the guardrails for them in making their daily decisions. Similar to how parents can develop their children’s character by creating a positive environment, strong character can be learned, practiced, and cultivated in an organization as well. Having leaders who role model inclusion and collaboration while maintaining high integrity and having the courage to act will earn the highest respect from others who aspire to have a strong character. While others may look up to leaders to learn about the required characters needed to align with the organization’s culture, leaders need to realize that they are constantly being watched. Leaders then shouldn’t be afraid to be vulnerable—be honest to ourselves and to others, making us relatable and building trust with those around us. When leaders are themselves, show empathy to others, and invite feedback, an environment of psychological safety will be created. It’s ok if leaders need help, as that would be a demonstration of great leadership character. Just like others, leaders also need to continuously learn and model behavior for others. Leaders could learn from peers within and across the industry, and today we witness more experts and renowned leaders turning themselves into coaches, providing an opportunity for leaders to learn from the best. When leaders demonstrate trust and encourage teams to grow and learn, their true character shines through, improving the team’s commitment to the organization.

Regardless of what certifications we have or how highly competent we are, being self-aware of our own character and committing to lifelong learning so we could be the person we wanted to be and role model that for others will ensure success and happiness along our career path, which is part of our life journey towards our destination.