What are Soft Skills?
Soft skills are the combination of people skills, social skills, communication skills, emotional intelligence, and personality traits that make it easy to get along and work harmoniously with other people. Soft skills can be taught, but they're not as straightforward as hard skills which are the specific qualities that can be clearly defined, measured, and taught for success in a job. With hard skills, you can learn advanced techniques and methods that yield measurable results. They can even be tied directly to the business's bottom line. You need hard skills to land a job, but you need soft skills to progress in your career.
It takes time to develop soft skills, but they are an important element that can help you throughout your entire career, regardless of job level or industry. It’s important to be mindful of what you’re trying to achieve and have an accurate sense of self-awareness of your successes and areas of improvement. Once you understand yourself, you can further develop your soft skills and expand your opportunities.
Here are five soft skills that will help you make an impact on your coworkers and your career development:
Communication
An experienced communicator can express ideas clearly and engage productively with others. But communication is a two-way process: they’re also adept at listening, understanding instructions, and carrying them out accurately.
You need communication skills to:
• Build a rapport with new connections
• Nurture long-term relationships
• Explain complex issues
• Delegate clearly
• Utilize feedback
• Deal with a variety of personalities
Tailoring your approach to suit different people will demonstrate that you’re sensitive to others and don’t expect everyone to conform to your ideals.
Adaptability
No matter what your role, and no matter what your industry, the ability to adapt to change — and a positive attitude about change — go a long way toward growing a successful career.
Whether it's a seat shuffle or a huge company pivot, nobody likes a complainer. It's important not only to accept change as a fact of life in the constantly-evolving business world, but as an opportunity to try out new strategies for thriving in environments of change. If you don't feel comfortable with frequent changes, either on your team or at your company, write down your feelings and reactions, instead of immediately voicing them. By laying out how you feel and why you feel a certain way, you'll be able to distinguish legitimate concerns from complaints that might not need to be discussed with your team.
Teamwork
No company’s success relies entirely on one person doing everything themselves. Collaboration and teamwork make working towards a common goal easier, while building a sense of camaraderie. Employers look for people who can join their existing team, work within that system and amplify their teammates work output.
Time management
Employers who took part in the UK Employer Skills Survey 2015 rated time management as the most difficult soft skill to find among candidates. The ability to manage your own time involves being realistic about your capabilities and prioritizing your workload to ensure that you consistently meet deadlines. Leaders must be able to manage their own time as well as the time of others. They need to consider individual workflows when delegating tasks and prioritize them within the company’s wider goals.
Empathy
The ability to understand what your co-workers and customers are going through is an invaluable skill that will take you up the corporate ladder. Listening and empathizing lets them know that you understand what they’re going through and that you’re a resource for them. It also allows you to solve their problems through your products and services.
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