Always Be Learning: Chelsea Wheeler’s 5 Tips To Build Your Skills

Learning a new skill may be a roadblock for you or it could be part of what motivates you. It all comes down to who you are. Whether you love learning or have a hard time with it, the truth is that to grow both in your career and as a person, you need to take on challenges that make you uncomfortable.

Technology is evolving the workplace at a rapid rate and adaptability is a trait that will help you be successful. Being able to pivot and rely on different skills as needs change will also be useful when life presents you with challenges.

We sat down to talk with Chelsea Wheeler, a Training Consultant on our RockYou team. Her team builds learning opportunities for team members at all levels of Rocket Companies®. Chelsea’s passion for connecting our team members with the resources they need in order to grow their abilities is apparent. She dropped a lot of knowledge in our conversation.

Check out these 5 tips on sharpening your skills and continuing your learning.

need trust. Relationships with mutual trust and respect help each piece of your life. “One really foundational skill for anyone is getting to know the people around you,” Chelsea says. “Having knowledge, having a relationship and having trust built around you is going to always help you be more successful.”

Along with these trusting relationships comes another huge component: delivering and receiving feedback. Being able to give and receive fair and constructive criticism is crucial to growing. “Being able to say and hear the hard things is paramount to your success.

Delivering and receiving feedback is much easier when you have a trusting relationship which are defined by being able to share hard truths. Whether it’s with your colleagues, a mentor or someone who reports to you, you need to know how to establish trust with people to grow.

The truth is that we often don’t know what we don’t know. There are multiple facets of business that people work in that you may not even be aware of. When getting to know the people around you, take it a step further and start seeking out people in other business areas to gain their perspective.

“When you’re a kid and you’re thinking about what you want to be when you grow up, your knowledge of careers is small. Even when you go to college, unless you have exposure through an internship or relationship, you don’t know about the scope of jobs out there,” Chelsea says. “One of the things that’s really cool at Rocket Companies, is that we encompass so many things.”

Chelsea highlights that Rocket Companies team members have many opportunities to pursue new areas. Our organization has many resources for those wanting to take on something new. “Members who decide they want to be software engineers, we’ll teach them to code and pay them during that. And then we give them jobs as software engineers. There’s not a lot of other places that will do something like that,” she says.

Growth isn’t always about a new title or promotion. It’s about being engaged, challenging yourself and building your experience. We have a philosophy here at Rocket Companies (one of our ISMs): Numbers and money follow; they do not lead. Numbers can be a measurement of your success, but they’re not what achieves it.

“Growth isn’t about being promoted or becoming a manager,” Chelsea says. “Growth is any way you want it to be. There are ways you can grow outside of work that will help push you in work and vice versa – things that make you who you are at work are going to make you a better person outside these four walls.”

Keeping your head up and being aware of your surroundings will keep you in line with how the business is moving. It’ll also prepare you for opportunities when they arise. A huge part of building your skills is finding the opportunity for growth and stepping into it.

“The desire to learn comes in many shapes and sizes,” Chelsea says. “Maybe you want to figure out what your next steps are or perfect a skill.” The important thing is knowing that when working somewhere like Rocket Companies, there are always opportunities. Being aware of new trainings, networking events and upcoming projects will help you step into the opportunity when it comes.

To really build your skills, thinking outside the box is crucial. It could mean something like adding a new skill to the work you do every day. “We have software engineers that say, ‘You know what, I want to get good at public speaking,’” Chelsea says. “Awesome! We have a training for that.”

She goes on to say that “With an organization of our values and size, we’re going to invest in our employees.” By thinking of ways to build your skills outside of your direct responsibilities, you’re making yourself a more well-rounded individual. “It’s difficult to not be interested in that growth when you have support like we do,” Chelsea says.

If you’re thinking more creatively or responding to situations with greater emotional intelligence because of work you’ve done to build your skills, this benefits not only you but the business area you work for. Reading books and attending trainings that put you outside of your comfort zone are great ways to start familiarizing yourself with skills you don’t regularly use.

All throughout our conversation with Chelsea, she highlighted the many ways Rocket Companies connects its team members to the resources that help them build their skills. Her excitement around the way we support our team members is contagious. Where many people tie new titles and promotions to growth, Chelsea points out that true growth is tapping into what makes us the best versions of ourselves.