Metaskills: What Are They and Why Do Modern People Need Them?

The concept of “metaskills” appeared, and was described, in books by the American psychotherapist Amy Mindell at the end of the last century. To be brief, metaskills are capacities, competencies and traits that ensure success in developing other skills and necessary abilities. They are often skills that apply to a wide range of problems.

These talents are also called "super-skills"; they represent the basis for the productive creation of professional and flexible skills, also known as hard and soft skills.

Earlier, metaskills were considered inborn and not amenable to changes, like traits of the character. The latest research has proven that the presence of super-skills helps a person to live and work harmoniously. Moreover, they can be developed and improved at any time.

Metaskills do not have a specific classification. They are responsible for how a person lives a life, interacts with other people and the world around them; whether a person knows how to make decisions and draw conclusions correctly.

What is the difference between metaskills and hard/soft skills?

Hard skills are professional skills that we master to work in the chosen direction.

Soft skills are certain skills worked out to automatism that allow us to act quickly and without hesitation in different situations. For example, responsibility, discipline, leadership qualities, workflow management, the ability to convince others, and working in a team are soft skills. They can be improved through courses and training, but it is impossible to represent the level of proficiency at such skills in numbers or percentages.

Although soft and metaskills share some similarities, they are decidedly different. For one, metaskills can't be developed directly - only through constant work on oneself. This process has no end. Instead, the skills improve as you grow, catapulting you to new spheres where your previous experience comes in handy. An attitude where an unknown area is seen as a fascinating experiment or a field for research helps a person to become better and get visible results.

Why is there so much talk about metaskills now? Our world is changing at such a great speed that it creates anxiety and uncertainty about the future even among the most stable ones.

Earlier, mastering a certain profession guaranteed you reliable career growth and a steady income. However, now abilities to learn constantly, to become more flexible, and to apply required skills for solving specific problems without delay are now more important. That is why the development of metaskills is so important!

I recall an incident that I was told about by a bank employee a couple of years ago. In their department, there was a new vacancy for a cashier. The deputy manager interviewed candidates for several days in a row.

Most of the applicants were women aged 50+ years. Moreover, almost all of them had impressive work experience, a flawless reputation, and knowledge of cash discipline. They were attentive, accurate, and knew the necessary instructions. However, the vacancy was given to a 25-year-old girl whose experience was a little more than a year.

What swayed the decision in her favor? According to the interviewer, in addition to responsibility, intelligence, and suitable education, she had the main trump card — her desire to learn new things. Most of the “old school” cashiers expressed uncertainty about their ability to master the newly created programs, online interaction with the head bank, and reporting. They agreed to keep paper books, fill out journals manually (even if it required a huge amount of time), form documentation into folders, and staple warrants, and receipts.

I think each of us has met people who do not understand why it is so difficult for them to find a job. They are worried about this, but absolutely do not want to learn new things.

They have not developed the metaskills responsible for the ability to learn. Thus, mastering new materials turns out to be a huge problem. Oddly enough, some people are still “not friends” with the phone — they cannot send SMS; they do not know how to order a product or a service as well as how to search for information on the Internet. They are scared to death of online banking.

There are many examples of people like these all around us. If they find themselves in an unfamiliar place, they instantly lose the ability to assess a situation correctly, act quickly, and communicate in a sensible way. Who needs such employees? The answer is obvious.

According to modern psychologists, successful people have several essential metaskills:

• Awareness. It is an ability to be aware of your peculiarities, thoughts, emotions, and states as well as to understand that your actions will lead to certain consequences, and accept the real state of things. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses allows you to use the existing qualities effectively while developing the missing ones. Mastering this metaskill provides you with the possibility to interact with other people better, cope with conflicts, take the initiative, formulate goals and achieve them.

• Empathy. Mastering this metaskill helps to build long-term relationships, negotiate with people and create a productive atmosphere. This skill is a must-have for leaders. If you do not know how to put yourself in the other’s shoes, sympathize, keep your head calm and cool, you will have difficulties in hearing other people and accepting an alternative point of view. This will give people self-doubt and negatively affect further teamwork.

• Learning and adaptability. The ability to find a middle ground and quickly solve complex problems is your competitive advantage. Constant skill improvement will develop your professional competencies as well as will help to solve unexpected problems. The future belongs to people who have self-learning skills and can adapt to any scenario; 2020 proved this clearly.

• Planning. The ability to plan actions for the future and imagine your life strategically as well as use resources correctly and analyze various situations will be your best friend. The most important skill now is the ability to prioritize, and choose the right methods for solving difficulties. Today is the best time to invest in your potential and future achievements.

• Critical thinking and creativity. These skills allow you to comprehend events without fear of asking as well as use alternative ways to resolve difficult situations. You gain the ability to check facts and work with various event results, without applying template solutions and being afraid of making a mistake. If the metaskill “Creativity” is on the high level, you can understand where you need creativity (and you’ll create something unique), or where no improvements are needed.

• Communication. This metaskill will help you to reach mutual understanding, establish business and personal relationships, as well as feel an emotional state of other people. You will be able to cooperate, compromise, show a sincere interest while providing your support and attention.

• Emotional intelligence. This skill is for creating trustworthy and respectful relationships between people. It helps employees to be confident about their abilities, be active and increase productivity. You can “roll with punches”, understand others better as well as accept yourself and other people the way you and they are, regardless of status or appearance.

• Sustainability. Develop this skill to stay in control of any situation, deal with hardship, recover quickly, and never give up after failures.

According to research, most leaders in large companies say that they use technical skills as levers of influence to manage their team on a daily basis while metaskills allow them to understand when and how to use these levers correctly. You should not try to remake people, it is better to change the situation so that they can thrive. By the way, using humor in your managing style and continuous team motivation help to destroy the barrier between the manager and employees.

In addition to the metaskills above, there are some more that business owners value in their employees:

• flexibility and attentiveness;
• being able to improvise in any situation or to act within uncontrolled scenarios;
• an ability to present and sell yourself;
• a desire to be not just a specialist, but an outstanding professional;
• knowing how to manage your money;
• being able to live in uncertainty;
• proactivity: taking responsibility for yourself and your life;
• self-organization during the transition to remote work.

Thus, the question arises, How did we live without this knowledge before? In fact, metaskills have always been around, but we used to call them differently without modern “compound words”.

Let's refresh our memory with the "ingenuity" concept, which is no different from adaptability. A person knows how to adapt to circumstances, see opportunities and frames ways to achieve them. To solve problems, savvy people assess their strengths, find necessary information, and ask others for help. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” is a phrase with great meaning.

Benefits gained from the ability to work in a team are shown by the well-known proverb: “Two heads are better than one”. “Live and learn” is the golden rule for everyone who loves and wants to master new knowledge.

"A friend in court is better than a penny in a purse" is a reference to the metaskill for building relationships, which we now call communication.

Back in the 16th century in Japan, the principle of flexibility's benefits was formed. While explaining to students the main rule of "jiu-jitsu" (Japanese martial art), mentors often used the expression: "A flexible willow straightens after a storm while a mighty oak lies defeated." It is important not to break through the wall with your forehead, but to catch the moment when you need to get out of your stereotypes by choosing the appropriate actions and behavior.

Let’s speak about intuition. “You cannot fool a woman, she sees with her heart” (a quote from the soviet movie “The place of meeting cannot be changed”) is a great example of how an unscientific and unexplained concept helps in a real situation. Yes, a lot of people are skeptical concerning the existence of intuition. However, in my opinion, this skill is critical to a successful life, and we should develop it.

“If you do not act, there is no point in being full of thoughts” is a phrase that has been relevant for centuries. It is from the poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” by Shota Rustaveli, which the poet formulated in the 12th century! Only those who are active and move forward can use their mind and knowledge to the maximum. If there are favorable circumstances in your life, but you stay inert, you will miss all the chances.

The constant pursuit of money and pleasures prevents the modern man from connecting with nature. Learn to enjoy beautiful sights, sounds and smells, walk in the forest, go fishing, and change your focus from the material world. The ability to feel the beauty and majesty of nature as well as interact with it at a deep level is perfectly demonstrated in the science fiction movie “Avatar”. The picture makes us remember that we should not fight with nature and treat it as consumers. It is necessary to learn how to take the desired resources carefully and to cherish nature at the same time. Perhaps, one day such a subtle relationship between people and the world will be a reality!

To summarize, we can say that metaskills are the key to all doors. Do you have hard and soft skills, pretty smart, but still poor? Do you feel that it is difficult for you to readjust and make decisions? Are you stressed and late all the time? It means you have not developed the metaskills which are necessary in today's world. Understand the paradoxical but obvious fact that changes are possible only here and now!

Remember that you should not complain about fate, lack of money or relations. It is impossible to return to the past and change the start.

Nevertheless, you can begin doing something new right now and change the finish line! The main moment is to determine the most valuable things to you. It is better to move towards the goal at the speed of a turtle than to justify why you are passive day by day. If you really want something, the Universe will give you the opportunity to achieve it. Try and you will be surprised how much you can change in life just by getting off the couch!