The 35 psychological competencies that you should promote

Our current standard of living and the demands that the environment puts on us every day force us to develop different types of abilities in order to be able to adapt to the environment. Both in the world of work and in everyday life, there are a series of competencies that are very useful for this, both at a social, cultural, psychophysiological and psychological level.

Regarding the latter, which apply to almost all areas of life, we present a series of 35 psychological competencies that should be enhanced due to its high utility in various vital areas.

• You may be interested: "The 30 talents (or skills) that every psychologist should possess"

What is a competition?

Being competent in something means having the ability to efficiently carry out the required action, let's be talking about actions on a physical or mental level.

There are psychological competences of very different types that we develop to a greater or lesser extent throughout our personal growth. In this article we will see the main

35 psychological competences to reinforce

Detect personal weaknesses and improve them through the enhancement of psychological skills it is a good way to improve both our quality of life and our work performance simply introducing some habits in our day to day. Choose the ones that you think are best suited to your case.

1. Empathy

Being competent in putting yourself in the place of the other is essential when establishing an effective coexistence. This allows us take into account how they see the world others and be able to act taking that perception into account.

• Related article: "Are you empathetic? 10 typical traits of empathic people"

2. Analysis capacity

Understanding the different events and phenomena is the first step in establishing different strategies and ways of responding to them. For this, it is very useful to be able to decompose each problem into the different elements that make it upespecially when it comes to complex problems.

3. Synthesis capacity

Once each component of a problem is analyzed, it is essential to be able to reintegrate all available information on a topic. It's about the ability to link related ideas to each other.

4. Self-motivation ability

Human psychological functioning is largely influenced by the ability to stay activated and interested in what we do. That is why it is very useful to enhance the ability to self-motivate and establish goals and objectives that excite us.

• Related article: "Types of motivation: the 8 motivational sources"

5. Emotional awareness

Emotions are an integral part of the human being that is very important in explaining their behavior and greatly influences their well-being. The ability to identify what we feel and what causes it It allows us to better understand ourselves and adjust our behavior and attitudes to reality.

6. Self-management or emotional regulation

Being able to manage them, put them in perspective or adapt them to the context in which we are is a great advantage.

7. Emotional autonomy

It is understood as such the ability to feel and take into account one's own and other's emotions for oneself, without depending on external influences. The subject is responsible for her own emotions.

8. Teamwork

We live in society. Practically at any time we are in some way in contact with someone directly or indirectly, each of our actions can affect different people. Be able to join forces with others It can allow us to more easily achieve different objectives, by taking advantage of the resources and personal skills of each individual.

9. Stress management and psychological resistance

We are in a time characterized by a stressful lifestyle full of commitments and competitiveness. Being able to manage situations in which we are under strong pressure It is something very required at the work level, at the same time that it helps us to be able to overcome the various circumstances that we live and react in an adaptive way.

10. Mental flexibility

A psychological competence of great importance for our correct adaptation is the ability to have a certain level of mental flexibility. This means being able to capture other points of view, thoughts and ways of doing, and accept them as valid. It's about being able to assess other perspectives outside of our own and to be able to introduce changes in our way of seeing the world without locking ourselves in our original ideas.

11. Communicative ability

We can know many things, but in a social entity like the human being it can be very important to be able to express oneself. In this way other people can be aware of what we are trying to convey and act accordingly. Training this type of skills means improving our social skills.

• You may be interested: "The 10 basic communication skills"

12. Creativity and lateral thinking

Establishing new ways of acting in the face of specific problems, without depending on pre-established options, supposes the possibility of obtaining new results while allowing us to develop as individuals and even as species. Develop creativity and be competent in creating novel strategies It is therefore very useful.

13. Decision capacity

In life we ​​must make decisions and prevent doubt from blocking us. While we must try to take into account the different perspectives and options, in the end we must act. The ability to make decisions is an essential element in our daily life, although for some people it can be complex. But like all competitions before and after, it can be trained and optimized with practice.

• Related article: "The 'paralysis of analysis'; when overthinking becomes a problem"

14. Planning capacity and vision of the future

Every act has its consequences, and being able to visualize the effects of both our behaviors and environmental phenomena will allow us to start developing preventive action strategies.

15. Improvisation ability

Although in the previous competition mentioned we talked about the importance of being able to prevent different aspects of reality, we cannot always be prepared for what is going to happen to us. occur. For this reason, it is necessary to be able to quickly develop a course of action in the face of unexpected events, improvising in order to emerge well from surprising or novel phenomena.

16. Information selection capacity

At present we have practically any type of information within the reach of a single click. We can access numerous sources of knowledge, some of which are not entirely reliable or even offer information that may be contradictory. It is because of that being able to select the information is very useful.

17. Assertiveness

When certain things happen to us or conflicts between people break out, it is possible to react in different ways. A conformist passivity or an imposition of one's own will may not only not solve the current problem but exacerbate it or even generate others in the future. One of the attitudes that will help us the most in most cases is assertiveness, which allows us to defend our rights and opinions clearly and efficiently without violating the rights or integrity of others.

18. Reflection capacity

Our impulses are part of us and it is advisable to avoid a total repression of them. However, this does not imply being continually carried away by them. We must be able to put a middle ground and act in a way that allows coexistence with the other human beings while looking for the best possible alternative of behavior to achieve the adaptation. Training this quality does not imply the repression of instinct, but rather that we are capable of acting rationally.

19. Discipline

Discipline is understood to be the establishment of a code of behavior and conduct that allows us to maintain order and act in an organized and systematic manner. Being able to maintain discipline will make us trustworthy and that we can achieve more complex objectives.

20. Critical thinking

Each of us has our own agenda, intentions, and wishes. What others communicate to us or the things we see can be biased by different aspects. Being able to analyze the reasoning that leads to a certain statement allows us to doubt the information we receive and forge our own idea regarding reality in a more objective.

21. Willpower and persistence

Although it is necessary to be flexible and take into account different perspectives on the same topic, it is important that if we are clear about our objectives we can be able to achieve them. Discipline and self-motivation are aspects derived from willpower. Be competent in setting and persistently pursue our goals It will help us meet our goals and feel more satisfied with ourselves and our lives.

22. Sense of self-efficacy

Believing in your own possibilities is necessary in such a competitive world. Expectations about our own performance should motivate us to keep going. Perceiving ourselves as ineffective can cause us frustration and suffering, in addition to decreasing our motivation and performance. In fact, a pygmalion effect that causes us to end up having the performance we expected to have.

23. Spontaneity

Although being thoughtful is very useful in many respects, it can sometimes lead us to be excessively rigid and to neglect our authentic naturalization. It is necessary to be competent in being ourselves, doing things that we feel like doing despite the fear of the possible consequences.

24. Mental agility

Having an agile thinking is essential today. Think and observe the different parts of a problem with a certain speed it facilitates our immediate reactions to environmental stimuli in an adaptive way.

25. Inference capacity

The data we obtain from the environment can be analyzed and synthesized with great efficiency, but there is a very important aspect linked to observation that entails a certain level of subjectivity and that It allows make predictions based on the data. It is about the ability to infer, to link the data and information obtained and synthesized with other aspects of reality with which they are related.

26. Responsibility

Being able to take responsibility for one's own actions is a basic competence for proper functioning. Take into account the effects of our actions and take charge of the damages that they may cause, repair them and solve them. And the responsibility does not refer only to this aspect, but also to know what is expected of us based on our role and act accordingly. It also means being able to recognize your own merits.

27. Persuasive and influencing ability

Convincing others of your own vision and causing changes in your habitual behavior is a key type of competence in certain aspects of life. Highly sought after in different market nichesBeing competent in persuading others also helps us to defend our rights and positions against any type of external abuse.

28. Leadership

Linked to persuasion, leadership competencies involve the ability to take the lead and direct one's own and others' behavior towards a common goal. It is not only about influencing but also about being able to organize, establish objectives and methods of achieving them, motivate others and help resolve any doubts that may arise.

29. Setting realistic goals

People need to motivate ourselves in order to give meaning to the emission of behaviors. For this we propose goals or objectives. However, many people have trouble setting what goals to set, demanding too much or too much little, so that either they cannot meet them or they do not involve too much effort and they lose their ability motivational. It is because of that we must train ourselves to establish goals adjusted to our possibilities, that suppose us an achievable challenge and that can be structured and subdivided into small steps that allow their achievement.

30. Context assessment

Apart from the handling of the different information that surrounds us, we have to take into account that these are located in a specific context. What happens has a different meaning depending on the place, time and the people who experience it. That is why we must train ourselves in contextualize any information and situation.

31. Knowledge application

Although theoretical knowledge is important, being able to put this information into practice or apply it in real life is just as important. Train this competition involves putting theory into practice, discovering or analyzing concrete ways in which the same or other knowledge is transformed into different behaviors and actions.

32. Resource management

When solving problems we need to take into account what we have for it. We must be able to recognize and be able to take advantage of all the elements that are available, improving the chances of success of our company or project.

33. Delegate

We have to be responsible for our own actions, but also we must be aware of our limitations. In many cases we will have to trust and delegate to other people. Knowing who and what specific aspects can be beneficial to have someone else in charge so that the task is carried out successfully can also be trained with practice.

34. Attention and targeting capacity

Another key competency has to do with the ability to focus on a specific aspect. This allows us to be able to clearly recognize what our objective is and the means at our disposal to achieve it, ignoring other elements that have no effect on it.

35. Proactivity

Have initiative and forge new goals and avenues for improvement It's very important. Linked to creativity and innovation, it helps to stay motivated and enjoy new experiences, always starting from the basis of responsibility for one's own conduct and having supplied the basic.