Skillmaxxing: The Skill Stack That Future-Proofs Your Career & Strengthens Your Personal Brand

Learn how skillmaxxing can strengthen your personal brand by building the skills, expertise, and capabilities that make you more valuable in the future of work.

From ‘looksmaxxing’ to ‘hobbymaxxing’, the internet is obsessed with optimisation trends. But there’s one form of maxxing that could have the biggest impact on your career: skillmaxxing. 

Your personal brand is not simply built through how you define yourself or what you say about yourself. It is built through the value you provide - the valuable combination of skills, expertise and experiences you develop over time.

1. What is Skillmaxxing? 

I propose that skillmaxxing is the intentional process of building and combining skills that increase your value, adaptability and career opportunities. It’s a deliberate and systematic strategy to future-proof your career.

For more on the importance of skills for your career see my earlier blog, Your skills are your career currency: How to increase the value of your personal brand.

2. Inspired by Skill Stacking 

While skillmaxxing might be a new word for it, the idea of optimising and expanding your skill set strategically isn’t. 

As I shared in my earlier blog, The Art of Reinvention (Part 1): From Who You Are to Who You Could Be. ‘Skill stacking’ is a concept popularised by cartoonist Scott Adams. He proposed that you don’t need to be world-class at a single skill. Instead, you can build a rare and valuable combination of complementary abilities. Combining several moderately good skills (e.g. your top 25%) creates a unique and valuable competitive advantage that is often better than being world-class in just one thing. 

Individually, each skill in your skill stack may be common. Together, they create a distinct professional profile.

For example, a marketer might benefit from building their skills in: 

• Storytelling

• Presenting

• Sales

• Copywriting

• Web Development

• Graphic Design 

• Social Media

• Video Content Creation

• Finance

• Data Analytics

A human resources specialist might combine skills in: 

• Leadership 

• Public Speaking 

• Safety

• People and culture

• Employment Law and Compliance

• Coaching and mentoring

• Conflict Resolution

Meanwhile, a project manager might stack their skills in: 

• Negotiation

• Risk Management

• Stakeholder Engagement

• Digital Transformation

• Presenting

Your skill stack becomes part of your personal brand. It’s the unique combination of expertise and capabilities that differentiates you in the marketplace.

3. Categories to Skillmax

When considering what skills to stack to build your competitive advantage, cover these key categories which are of value to almost any role: 

• Technical Skills (e.g. your core expertise)

• Commercial skills (e.g. sales, strategy, partnerships, growth)

• People skills (e.g. leadership, coaching, mentoring)

• Digital literacy skills (e.g. software, social media, web development, digital transformation projects)

• Communication skills (e.g. public speaking, writing)

• Community connection skills (e.g. social media, blogging, podcasting, video content, presenting, event management, networking)

4. Your Skillmaxxing Guide 

Here’s a simple framework to consider for the next steps of your skillmaxxing plan:

• Your core expertise: What am I known for now?

• A future-focused value: What skills will be valuable in five years?

• A rare combination: What skills are rare when combined?

• Compounding growth: Five years from now, what skills would I wish I grew earlier? E.g. in content creation. 

• Prioritise: What skill would make the biggest difference if I improved by 20%?

• Next Steps: What are the actions I can take in the next 3, 6 and 12 months to build these skills?

The key in developing your skillmaxxing plan is to create a combination of rare and valuable skills - with a view of what this means in the future of work too. Use your judgement and research the market to know what is likely to be valuable in the future, though it may not be mainstream yet. In a rapidly evolving market, this will help you stay relevant with a competitive edge. 

A Skillmaxxing Career Strategy 

Skillmaxxing isn’t about learning everything; it’s about learning the right things. By intentionally building a strategic combination of skills, you can increase your value, stay adaptable, and create a career advantage that compounds over time.

Your skills are your career currency. So what skills are you investing in today to shape the opportunities you create tomorrow?