Analytical Skills: How to Develop Your Analytical Skills

Analytical skills are a wide-ranging set of professional qualities that include the ability to think critically, analyze data, make difficult decisions, and solve complex problems. These important skill sets all involve taking in new information and mentally processing it in a productive manner.

Several professional abilities fall under the umbrella of analytical skills.

1. 1. Brainstorming: Brainstorming begins with a narrow prompt or objective. Strong analytical thinkers can expand well beyond the initial kernel that launches a brainstorm to create broad, expansive ideas.
2. 2. Communication: Strong communication skills come in handy when you have to impart information to people with different ways of processing new concepts. A strong communicator can strategize about how to reach individual coworkers and speak in ways that will resonate with them.
3. 3. Research: Top-notch research requires poring over texts and datasets and then analyzing the information in a clear-minded way.
4. 4. Data analysis: Companies that work in sales and marketing may receive a trove of raw data, but without a shrewd data analyst, that information may do the company little good. Skilled critical thinkers can mine substance out of a data collection and design data analytics algorithms for future optimization.
5. 5. Troubleshooting and problem solving: Troubleshooting experts must take in information and analyze it to discover a root problem. They must also think creatively to solve unorthodox problems.
6. 6. Administrative organization: It takes an analytical mind to maximize the skills of a company's team members. Many considerations come into play, from company productivity to personal fulfillment among team members. Balancing all the competing factors requires strategizing and strong predictive skills.
7. 7. Forecasting: Predicting future trends in business, finance, and culture requires a mixture of research skills and predictive abilities.
8. 8. Creativity: The people who invent new data metrics, launch new brands, and come up with effective solutions to age-old problems all rely on creative analytical thinking.

Analytical and critical thinking skills help employees adapt and respond to new obstacles. Companies that employ skilled analytical thinkers are better able to adapt and respond to new market conditions as well. Accordingly, analytical skills show up frequently as a required quality in job descriptions. For example, a sales job description may list qualitative analysis or predictive analysis as requirements.

Whether you struggle with analytical thinking or seem to have natural analytical abilities, you can always improve your skills.

1. 1. Consciously analyze your surroundings. Get in the habit of forcing yourself to analyze seemingly obvious truths about the world. Exercise the analytical side of your mind on your daily commute, while reading the newspaper, or while observing the various mechanical fixtures around your home. Get in the habit of asking "how?" and "why?"
2. 2. Try teaching others. You can learn a lot about a subject by teaching it to someone else. The act of teaching requires you to process and analyze information adequately enough to communicate it in a way your student can understand. Teaching draws upon multiple elements of analytical thinking.
3. 3. Play new games. Learning new board games that involve strategic thinking, filling out crossword puzzles, and playing mathematical games are all ways you can actively engage the analytical part of your brain.

Depending on the context, there are many ways you can showcase your analytical skills to recruiters and hiring managers.

1. 1. On your resume: On your resume, create a hard skills and soft skills section where you can list analytical abilities. Hard skills that involve analytical thinking include data analysis, auditing, strategic planning, and writing. Soft skills—which tend to be closely aligned with personality traits—include strong organization skills, communication ability, time management, and responsible decision making. Research the specific keywords applicant tracking systems (ATS) look for to optimize your ATS resume.
2. 2. In a cover letter: As a job applicant, think of the cover letter as the place where you can direct the narrative about yourself. As you share your personal motivations and what drove you to apply for a particular job, find opportunities to highlight your creativity, communication skills, brainstorming ability, or experience in research and data analysis.
3. 3. In a job interview: Answer job interview questions with specific examples that showcase your analytical abilities. For instance, if the interviewer asks you to describe a time when you exhibited teamwork, you might share a story of how you helped troubleshoot a coworker's problem. Be specific and highlight how certain challenges helped you hone your skills.

Get the MasterClass Annual Membership for exclusive access to video lessons taught by business luminaries, including Sara Blakely, Chris Voss, Robin Roberts, Bob Iger, Howard Schultz, Anna Wintour, and more.