I’ve been working on this for a while: a list of abilities that I believe a person needs to work in humanitarian development successfully – including to work at the United Nations. For my purposes here, I define such success as meeting the requirements of your job and the goals of your program and getting along well with others while also staying personally satisfied.
These are the skills I’ve seen that have made the difference in success, as I have just defined it, for oh so many people – and myself. Many would call them “soft skills.” These skills usually won’t be listed in job requirements. You can’t major in any of these skills at a university; you get them from working, volunteering and collaborating on anything with others (co-workers, neighbors, family…), and you can do all of that (and gain these skills) no matter where you live.
Also, it’s good to approach at least some of these as job interview questions: “Tell me about a time when you needed to adapt and improvise regarding a strategy you had planned out but you realized wouldn’t work as planned…” or “tell me about a time when you broke down a process into smaller steps so that it was easier to understand by co-workers or community members…”
To work in humanitarian development successfully, you need the abilities to:
- read large amounts of text, and to understand what you have read and apply it to your work.
- memorize.
- manage time effectively.
- speak comfortably in front of audiences, including those that may be hostile to your subject matter.
- shut up, listen and learn from others (and I am using “shut up” because too many don’t understand “listen quietly”).
- adapt and improvise when you realize a strategy has to be altered or something unexpected happens.
- negotiate.
- write words to educate, persuade and influence others.
- cultivate trust quickly and on an ongoing basis with others.
- make decisions based on facts and not on emotions or just your “gut” – and be ready to do that despite what you wanted to believe in your gut.
- break a process down to smaller steps.
- reframe complex ideas into plain language.
- delegate tasks appropriately and frequently with an eye to building the skills of others.
- build the skills of someone to eventually take over a process you currently undertake.
- guide without micromanaging.
- work with co-workers, community members and others you don’t like.
- know how to quickly tell your boss what you are doing and why you are doing it, what you are achieving and what is challenging you – and make sure your boss’s boss knows all of this too.
- not let an insult of you derail the work you need to do.
- read the room, to be aware of the feelings and opinions of those you are talking to, and to be able to alter your approach if you realize it’s not going to work or be inappropriate in that circumstance.
- keep trying and experimenting, and learn from failure.
- do self-analysis and let go of ideas when it’s clear they won’t work.
- stay positive and hopeful – and get that back when you lose it.
- understand what others feel, even if you disagree with their values.
- ask for advice and help and know how to seek and find the expertise you don’t have.
- recognize situations that are unnecessarily dangerous or when you are personally at risk and react to keep yourself safe.
- process your own stress, anxiety, and other negative feelings, and address feelings of loneliness in a healthy way.
- balance priorities with personal needs and know when it’s time to take a break.
- pick your battles.
- know when to ask for permission and when to do it without prior approval and be ready to ask for forgiveness.
- own your mistakes.
- know who you are working with that has your back and those who do NOT.
- how to get back up when you stumble and fall.
No one person can have all of these abilities all the time, by the way.
And, yes, it’s helpful to have abilities like being able to learn another language so that you can work in a language other than the one your own family and neighbors speak – your native language. And you need the abilities to obtain a university degree and a lot of work experience and on and on. But you need these “soft skills” as well – and just as much.
For those of you who have worked in international development, what abilities would you add – abilities that might not ever be named in a role’s Terms of Reference?
Also see:
- Is it really *impossible* to break into humanitarian work?
- In defense of skills over passion.
- Want to work internationally? Get involved locally.
- You can volunteer to address the critical needs of refugees IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY.
- When volunteering is bad for your mental health.
- Why qualified people get passed over for jobs.
- How I got my first job with the United Nations.
- What I did in Ukraine with the United Nations.
- What I did in Afghanistan for the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, via the United Nations.
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