10 Ways to Become More Well Rounded (With Tips and Examples)

Updated 30 September 2022

Working for different organisations throughout your career can benefit you, whether in salary increments or a widening of your professional network. As many candidates apply for each job opening, you may benefit from learning tips to achieve well-rounded professional development to outperform your competition. Learning to be a well-rounded individual may increase your chances of getting invited for an interview and securing a job. In this article, we explain 10 ways to become more well rounded to help you reach your career development objectives.

10 ways to become more well rounded

Before learning about ways to become more well rounded, it's important to understand the necessity of being adaptable. Hiring managers are typically searching for new hires proficient in a wide range of areas. Having both hard skills and soft skills increases your attractiveness as a candidate. It may be beneficial to take steps to develop more skills and attributes from the beginning of your career. You're also potentially a good candidate if your skills are transferable between companies. Here are ten ways to become more well rounded:

1. Be comfortable with promoting yourself

Promoting yourself means being comfortable talking about your strengths and turning your shortcomings into opportunities for improvement. Some situations where you may promote yourself include self-evaluations and individual meetings with your direct manager. If you're able to promote yourself, you have a chance to highlight to your superiors the value you bring to the company. Once they understand your capabilities and competency in the workplace, they may begin to give you more responsibilities and better opportunities to perform and build your portfolio. When promoting yourself, it's crucial to state facts and use numbers to quantify your success.

To practise promoting yourself, start by identifying some of your strengths. If you're unsure about your strengths, consult your trusted colleagues, close friends or family members for their opinions. Reflect on what others admire about you and consider creating anecdotes to support these aspects. Practise talking about yourself to your friends or even to yourself in the mirror. Over time, you're likely to gain more confidence when speaking about yourself.

2. Develop people skills

A wide range of connections with different professionals can help you develop people skills. Having people skills means getting along with others and diffusing potential conflicts. If you're caring and empathetic, you may increase the chances of successfully improving your people skills. Try relating to the anecdotes of others and understand what they see, think and feel. Think about situations from others' perspectives rather than your own.

3. Evaluate yourself

A crucial factor in becoming more well rounded is understanding yourself and knowing the areas you can grow in. Think about what you like about yourself and what you can continue to improve. Seek the opinions of others, whether these people are professional or personal connections, to better understand how others view you. They may see advantages or shortcomings you don't realise. Plan to improve yourself in a specific area. This may include setting aside time to watch tutorials and other educational videos to broaden your perspective.

Remember to set timelines and goals to keep yourself accountable and measure your progress. A good way to keep yourself focused on the end goal is to ask a friend or family member to keep you accountable by asking if you've met certain milestones at specific intervals. This way, you can rely on external motivation to improve yourself in the long term.

4. Learn continually

Being a well-rounded person requires investing time and effort in improving yourself. To ensure you stay at the top of your abilities, learning continually over the years is one option. Maintain your intellectual curiosity to learn, read, discuss and explore. Think from the perspectives of others, and acquire the ability to view issues from multiple lenses. Consider attending professional courses or seminars to benefit from the expertise and experience of more knowledgeable people. You can attend additional courses after working hours to maintain a good balance between working and studying.

Find a friend or colleague interested in the same topics as you and learn together to motivate each other. For example, if you work closely with foreign clients at work, consider learning their native language to build rapport with them. Looking for free resources online or attending paid classes may be effective in helping to improve your language skills.

5. Improve your communication skills

Communication skills are crucial in the workplace since you communicate daily with multiple parties, from colleagues to clients. Learning to speak tactfully, clearly and concisely can help you build a successful career as others may view you as competent at your job. Watch videos about improving your public speaking and body language. Speak slowly and clearly, with deliberation and correct grammar to maintain a professional image.

Another way to improve your communication skills is to ask for feedback. Others may notice certain speech habits you have. Depending on the situation, you can vary your manner of speaking to appeal to the audience and establish a connection with them. Remember to work on all aspects of communication, including verbal and written.

6. Be open to new experiences

When you're trying an activity or leading a task for the first time, be courageous and do your best to complete the assigned tasks. Through this exercise, you're likely to gain new skills and boost your confidence in your abilities to tackle challenges at work. Looking for new opportunities to grow and develop yourself is also a good way to show your manager you value your skills and aim to improve yourself.

7. Find a focus in your life

Being clear about what goals you want to achieve in life can improve your ability to become a well-rounded person. After setting a life goal, consider what steps to take to help you achieve those goals. Break up these steps into smaller and more manageable tasks. Then, compare these steps with where you're in life at present to understand the challenges to overcome in your self-development journey.

If you change your life goals, stop to reconsider what steps to take before continuing to improve yourself. One good way to stay committed to your goals is to remind yourself of your desired outcome. You can do so visually by having physical reminders of your goals written on paper, on your computer desktop or on your mobile phone lock screen.

8. Practise listening skills

Being a good listener can help you become a well-rounded person because you learn new information when listening to others. During meetings, other more experienced colleagues may share insights or analyses about projects you've not heard about. By listening attentively, you can mimic their thought process to achieve similar or better results. Also, listening allows you to understand the main points of the conversation and makes you better able to focus on the results you're aiming to achieve. This ensures the timely completion of your projects and enhances communication between you and your colleagues.

9. Do research

To ensure you become a well-rounded individual, you may want to emulate the examples of other successful, multiskilled people. Find good role models to learn how to improve. Since they may share tips and ways to overcome obstacles in your way, your journey to becoming a well-rounded individual may be easier. You can combine the positive traits of multiple people to formulate your ideal version of a well-rounded professional.

10. Be more active

A good way to become well rounded is to lead an active lifestyle. Balancing the mental and physical aspects of being well rounded can help you excel in the workplace. With better health, you may feel more energetic, having a greater capacity to take on more work or responsibilities. As such, your manager may find it worthwhile to prioritise your professional development over that of your colleagues. This way, you gain a better chance of receiving promotions or salary increases.

10 Ways to Become More Well Rounded (With Tips and Examples)