“Magical” skills to succeed

Skill It Kill It: Up Your Game with Ronnie Screwvala. Published in 2021 by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Random House India Private Limited, 4th Floor, Capital Tower 1, M. G. Road, Gurgaon, 122002. Pp: xiii + 165. Price: Rs 299.

If you are a young graduate starting a career or about half a decade into your vocation, read this second book by serial entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala (pictured) from cover to cover. If you are an executive a decade or more into your climb up the office ladder, go directly to the five core takeaways and "call to action” listed at the end of each of the 13 chapters in the book, to revise what you learnt in college or management school, and to make pointers to yourself. Screwvala says in the introduction to this book, that he believes that "continuous learning” is now the norm.
With impeccable technical skills a must-have in every career, the author believes that the soft skills listed in each of the chapters will give an edge to working professionals, and importantly, help them maintain that edge. The 13 skills that Screwvala has expounded on range from sound communication and the importance of LOL (learning, observing and listening) to organized multi-tasking and how to cope with failure and the importance of good mentorship; each skill is broken up into simple axioms the reader could follow.
Short "case studies” resulting from interviews with "close to 1,000 working professionals across the country” are peppered throughout the book. The case studies are built around professionals who have adapted soft skills for success and those who find it difficult to do so. Harsh, a Delhi-based trading professional, shares his experiences in storytelling to win new customers; Ambika, a social media manager, narrates how she finds it difficult to multitask on a train ride. Each case study is followed by the author’s analysis of what the professional in question has done well or what he or she could do to enhance his/her "magical talents.”
Screwvala puts a premium on failure and how to cope with it and learn from it. As he states in the chapter "The One Thing You Do Control,” "No matter what you’ve failed at, I have failed bigger and more publicly than you… Failure is merely the down payment one must give on the way to learning, growth and ultimately, success… I am so familiar with failure that I wrote a book called Dream With Your Eyes Open (see "A dream come true,” Books, Parsiana, July 7, 2015).
The core takeaways are simply written. No management jargon here. The chatty style throughout the book and indeed specifically in the "call to action” makes it unintimidating, almost as if a colleague or senior is giving the reader friendly tips.
Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer of NITI Aayog, businesspeople Harsh Goenka and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw are among the "senior colleagues” who Screwvala says contributed advice and "words of wisdom” for every chapter. The author acknowledges Wynton (no last name mentioned) for "being such a great partner” in co-writing the book in Screwvala’s voice and the alumni at upGrad, the online higher education company he founded, whose "wise feedback and questioning” led him to write the book. (upGrad offers courses in marketing, law, data science and bachelor degrees in association with national universities.)
As the first generation entrepreneur states in the Afterword to his book, "I believe deeply in the power of soft skills for two reasons.” Education, he states, is essential and important, but in the end "from an employer’s perspective that is merely checking boxes on the resume of life.” Soft skills he says, are the "best protection against the blinding speed and ferocity of change that industries and global markets will experience in the 2020s and 2030s.”
FARROKH JIJINA