Agreed, you are very skillful at what you do professionally, but do you possess the soft skills required in order to have a successful career?
Being a success in your career is no longer just about you being able to do the work. It has been discovered that employers have started paying closer attention to soft skills than ever before. Employers want to know how you'll fit into the company's culture, how well you'll interact with fellow employees and clients, how best you'll manage your time while handling tasks, how you'll handle conflicts when they come.
What are soft skills?
Soft skills have been classified as a combination of personality traits, behaviors, and social attitudes that allow a person to communicate effectively, collaborate with others, and successfully manage conflict when they arise.
Below is a list of (but not limited to) crucial soft skills everyone in the workforce should possess:
Communication
From verbal to nonverbal to listening to writing to visual, communication skills remain one of the most sought-after by employers. Verbal communication involves speaking clearly and concisely. Nonverbal communication involves projecting positive body language and facial expressions. Written communication involves passing your message across using written text. Visual communication involves relaying information using pictures and other visual aids. Active listening involves listening to and actually hearing what others say. You are expected to adopt one or more of the forms of communication to convey your ideas to your audience's minds and encourage them to take action. Your ability to effectively communicate in the workplace can eliminate unnecessary problems/confusion, promote better performance, increase overall productivity, and create a strong team. If employees consult with each other and consider the views of others, they will be interested in cooperating more and finding the best solution together.
Emotional Intelligence
Humans are emotional beings. We act on what we feel inside and what others project on to us. Emotional intelligence is being able to recognize and understand these emotions in oneself and others. This involves using this emotional understanding to make decisions, solve problems, and communicate with others. Embracing the varieties of human emotion in the workplace can influence better collaboration among employees and a happier workplace.
Positive attitude
I don't think anyone enjoys working with someone with a constant negative attitude, someone that always has something to complain about. A person with a negative attitude can create a really toxic environment for others. Having a positive attitude can make your work environment happy and a joy to be in for yourself and co-workers because your positive attitude can be infectious and over time, influence your co-workers. A positive attitude reflects in your words and actions. Your co-workers will like working with you and want to be associated with you. They will have only good things to say about you because people mostly remember how you make them feel. Having a positive attitude in the workplace won't necessarily make you better at your job, but it will improve the way people view you as a person, which can make them more inclined to help you succeed.
Team Work
You as an individual may prefer to work by yourself but collaborating with others apart from yourself to achieve a shared goal is mostly unavoidable. It is important you demonstrate to your employers that you understand and appreciate the importance of joining forces and working in collaboration with others to accomplish the company's goals. Now, it is not just about working with others but how well you work with others. Do your teammates trust you? Do you see their successes as yours, seeing that your focus is on the company's success?
Flexibility
Being flexible is all about the knowledge and acceptance that things are prone to change. Being adaptable to sudden changes means you can react to new conditions without necessarily slowing down or becoming stressed. Projects with many moving parts are more manageable when working with flexible team members whose skill sets overlap. Role reshaping within your team in order to meet your objectives means you can evolve and grow alongside your company, no matter your job description. Flexibility in business is an asset to most employers, and workers who readily demonstrate their ability to intelligently respond to a changing environment are highly valued.
Reliability
Be known as someone that says A and does A. Be known as that employee that is consistently trustworthy and reliable and you'll be given more opportunities to prove yourself which may in turn greatly advance your career. Being reliable simply means that you can be counted on to do whatever job you've been asked to do. This encourages people you've worked with/you're working with to recommend you for more opportunities, as you're known as a reliable person that will always get the job done no matter what.
Time Management
This is the process of organizing and planning how to split your time between specific activities. Good time management enables you to work smarter so as to get more done in less time, even when time is tight and pressures are high which in turn plays an important role in increasing an individual’s productivity. Output increases substantially when people manage their time well. Failure to manage your time affects your effectiveness and causes stress. Prioritize your activities and specify how much time should be allocated to each activity. Know which work should be done first and which can be done a little later. Effective time management speeds up your journey to the top and keeps you there for a longer duration. An employee who works without effectively managing their time fails to create an impression and is never taken seriously at work.
Public speaking
Public speaking is important not only in the delivery of speeches and public talks but also in professional presentations, training events, etc. Consultants, trainers, managers, sales representatives, and teachers, for example, all have to speak in front of others multiple times in their careers. A nervous speaker can make a solid product or proposal seem uninteresting, while a polished speaker can add allure to an otherwise mediocre proposition. Most professional-level roles require some amount of public speaking. It's often necessary to carry out functions like presenting findings, pitching proposals, training staff, and leading meetings. The best way to improve your public speaking is to engage in more public speaking. The more you do it, the better you get at it.
In summary, employees with these crucial soft skills become good team players, efficient managers, and generally become great assets to their companies. They are good at building/maintaining relationships and are easier to get along with. They also become great ambassadors of the company's brand and have the potential to grow in their role and at the company. So, why not develop these skills today?