Sell and Spell in 2021
Shonna Waters shares two human performance secrets in The Practical Guide to HR Analytics: selling and spelling. An HR client of hers thought high GPAs, good references, and diplomas from a top university would predict high performance.
The data proved them wrong. They found employees with good spelling on résumés and sales experience lead to high performance.
What can we learn from this observation?
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For some, “learn to sell” evokes a used-car-salesperson meme: manipulation, pressure, barefaced lying.
But view sales from another angle. Forbes describes selling as the art of persuasion. At some point, you’ll want to influence a coworker, spread an idea, or convince a toddler to get in the car.
Selling teaches persuasion and persuasiveness leads to success.
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If good spelling reveals a good vocabulary, the data says that it, too, foreshadows success.
The Johnson O’Connor Institute tested hundreds of thousands of people to uncover indicators of career success, beginning in 1912. Their research found that vocabulary is the best single measure that predicts occupational success in every area.
Eleanor O’Connor co-led the institute. She graduated from MIT in 1906, was a distinguished architect, and lectured in architectural history through her late eighties. She made it her mission to convince girls to improve their vocabulary by reading and writing. Johnson O’Connor created a vocabulary development system based on their data that continues to pursue her mission.
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Why do selling and spelling skills lead to success? O’Connor explained that words help us understand the thoughts of others and persuade them of our own. Selling is the art of using words to motivate action.
So to improve your odds for career success in 2021, learn to sell and spell.
FOOTNOTES
The Practical Guide to HR Analytics, by Rachael Johnson-Murray, Lindsay McFarlane, Valerie Streets and Shonna Waters.
