Here’s One Skill You Need to Master to Remain Competitive
- Author: Tim Sanders
- Word Count: 449
Read the news article
The old saying, “What got you here won’t get you there,” applies to your professional life today with One Skill You Need. The world is quickly changing as well as the competitive landscape. Whether you are running a business or trying to increase your career equity, ramping up One Skill You Need set is important.
If there is One Skill You Need that stands out as a game-changer, it’s the ability to effectively communicate with people from a distance. It leads to more collaboration, better expectation management and an improved ability to lead others to outperform on projects.
For most of my life, I’ve heard that there’s nothing like face-to-face communications for connecting with others and managing relationships. But it’s harder than ever to make every interaction in-person. So, we rely on the phone and more recently, email and text. While those are convenient to use, they pale in comparison to video conferencing when it comes to high quality conversations that produce results and connections.
Here’s One Skill You Need to Master to Remain Competitive
A few years ago, I decided to invest in video conferencing by creating an area in my office with a backdrop and a lighting set and a high-quality webcam. I settled on Zoom as my platform of choice and then started to offer clients and business associates the option of doing video instead of a call or an endless email thread. Within a dozen sessions, I started to get the hang of screen sharing, which really improved my ability to collaborate with others and visually communicate difficult concepts. Today, I’m almost 100% video communications based, only doing the rare conference call.
There are many benefits to video communications. Stanford researchers found that when we conduct video conferences, we achieve neural synchronization with others, just like we do in-person. This allows us to be more candid, create mutual liking faster and get more done with less time. The other big plus is that you have more focused conversations, because video requires us to single-task unlike conference calls, email or smartphone conversations.
As a consultant, I’ve helped entire companies move their sales, service and supplier communications over to video, and it’s made a huge difference to their bottom line. It also gives them a competitive advantage over rivals who stay stuck in audio or typed out conversations as One Skill You Need.
Here are a few data points from our research that demonstrate the gains from video VS phone/email:
30% increase in value from suppliers
50% increase in closing ratio for high quality deals
25% decrease in remote employee attrition
Contact us at Speakers Inc and follow us on Twitter
Further articles you may enjoy:
- (56)
Robotheism: The Rise of AI Worship and Its Implications for the Events Industry What happens when machines become more than tools—and start becoming gods? As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, a provocative trend has quietly emerged: Robotheism—the belief in or reverence of superintelligent AI as a higher power. What sounds like science fiction is steadily […]
- April 30, 2025
- (11)
Over the last four weeks, I’ve elaborated on what I call the Closing the Loop. You can find the articles here. This consists of: Step 1: Recognizing the Unsaid – Unspoken things in your culture’s organization to recognize that your people aren’t telling their entire truth. Step 2: Seeking to Understand – Leaning in to […]
- December 20, 2022
- (10)
As a keynote speaker on the topics of leadership, connection, resilience, and relationships, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about empathy versus compassion over the past year and Why Leaders Must Choose Compassion Over Empathy. In fact, in my virtual presentations on personal connection, I quickly became aware of the buzzwords associated with […]
- January 18, 2023
- (37)
How to Book an Event Host when you Imagine this: you’ve spent months planning the perfect event. You’ve secured a stunning venue, curated an impressive guest list, and scheduled remarkable speakers. But when the big day arrives, something feels off. Transitions are clunky, the energy dips, and the audience starts to disengage. How to Book […]
- December 6, 2024
- (4)
10 Lessons Learned and the messages I want to share with all of you. At the end of last year, I made the awkward decision to leave the world that had given so much to me, to pursue something that wasn’t well defined, yet oddly was clearly the right path for me to take. After […]
- December 14, 2022
- (18)
Motivational North American Keynote Speakers play a crucial role in inspiring individuals, organizations, and communities to unlock their full potential. With their compelling stories, expertise, and dynamic presentation styles, these speakers captivate audiences, leaving a lasting impact. In North America, there is a remarkable pool of motivational keynote speakers who have successfully transformed lives and […]
- June 4, 2023
- (11)
I have worked with corporate teams that measure Leadership Effectiveness and what seems like everything. My concern with these teams isn’t what they are measuring, but rather what they are not measuring – leadership effectiveness. Teams measure on-time delivery, sales call per day, employee engagement, and so many more useful metrics. I’ve even seen a […]
- December 22, 2022
- (18)
Easter is obviously when Christians celebrate a miracle that is central to our faith in Creating Distinction. We are also in the seasons of Ramadan and Passover. Although my work here is never intended to be about any particular set of spiritual beliefs, it struck me when thinking about these observances that having faith — […]
- December 20, 2022
