Soft Skills at the Workplace
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Soft skills are the social and technical characteristics that reflect on the individual’s ability to solve problems, collect feedback, collaborate with others, and maintain its value (William, 2020). For a skill to be considered soft, it must be portable and valuable, no defined way to master the skill, the skill can never be fully mastered, i.e., there is a willingness to continue learning. As one progresses in their career or prepares for new opportunities, it is necessary to develop soft skills that will enhance their value while at the workplace. Soft skills enable one to develop a workplace persona, thus guaranteeing more opportunities from the employer.
While most of the workplace skills depend on the level of education and the job experience, reports suggest that 80% of the employees are more concerned with the employee’s soft skills (William, 2020). Thus, they will require the job applicants in the job listing to provide their soft skills alongside the required technical qualifications. A job applicant who possesses soft skills is more likely to be considered for the job position, thus giving them a stronger competitive position. The top ten soft skills that the employees are always looking for have been discussed below.
- Communication skills
Communication involves talking with the customers and coworkers and expressing oneself clearly and appropriately on matters that can improve the workplace setting (Contessa, 2019). Communication also involves strong writing capabilities, active listening, and nonverbal communication. Having soft skill defines the individual’s ability to build a relationship and improve performance on matters related to the organization’s goals and objectives.
Benefits
The soft communication skill enhances the individuals’ productivity as they can clearly express themselves on who, when, why, where, and how. Moreover, good communication enables individuals’ ideas to be readily accepted as they are communicated in a way that everyone understands.
- Self-awareness
During an interview, you will always find the interviewer asking, “What is your weakness?” This is a question that many people fail to answer correctly because they cannot view themselves from an outside perspective and determine their self-perception compared to how they feel about themselves. Self-awareness enables the individual to fine-tune their instincts that determine how they respond to matters beyond their control. These soft skills enable the individual to react quickly and embrace the right traits for every circumstance. Maintaining a self-aware state of mind can help create a harmonious environment as it is easier to build positive relationships at every time.
Benefits
It is a deliberate introspection to develop a better understanding of one’s thoughts and emotions. It reduces the chances of individuals lying or stealing; they have an enhanced capacity and capability.
- Emotional intelligence
Even though the employers will not list that they require individuals with emotional intelligence, managing your emotions and those of others gives the recruiting team a view about yourself. This including handling information, thinking, acting right in emotional situations, and helping coworkers when they are overwhelmed with emotions. People with a high performing emotional intelligence get an increased salary as they are crucial resources at the workplace and overall.
Benefits.
Emotional intelligence enables one to connect regularly with the team as everyone understands each other. In return, regular interactions help the individuals gauge the mood, strengths, and weaknesses of the workers and help everyone achieve their best state.
- Adaptability
Adaptability helps new employees to set themselves up at the workplace easily. In today’s fast-paced business world, the workplace is continuously changing, and so is the workplace setting. Therefore, the new employees must develop a passion and willingness to learn and adapt to the latest approaches critical for workplace development. They must remain open-minded at all times, failure to which they will have set their limitations to becoming top employees at the workplace.
Benefits
It enables the employees to align with the speed of change of workplace settings as they can maintain their dynamism with changes in the industry requirements.
- Project management
Project management is an increasingly effective soft skill that enables the individual to plan, implement, and assist any organization’s project (Müller & Turner, 2007). This soft skill builds the individual’s ability to multi-task and lead their peers into achieving the project objectives within the set duration. Project management soft skill includes six essential elements, i.e., leadership, risk management, team management, personal organization, negotiation, and effective communication.
Benefits
Project management soft skill is important because it brings a variety of soft skills in the same setting. Therefore, an individual who possesses the skill can operate in various fields to help achieve goals and objectively easily.
- Problem-solving
In every interview, you must demonstrate your ability to overcome challenges that arise at the workplace. The answer that you give enables the interviewer to determine your work ethic and make appropriate decisions when under pressure. Problem-solving skills build the individual’s ability to make decisions with a measurable result when problems arise. In this case, the individual must involve others as a resource because they act as sources of insights that can help make better decisions.
Benefits
Errors are inevitable, and problem-solving soft skills prevent small problems from becoming a nightmare to the organization because they are not tackled at the time of occurrence.
- Teamwork and collaboration
Employers are interested in hiring individuals who have good qualifications in technical requirements and can also get along with others and fit in the workplace setting. This soft skill enables an employee to be a good follower, monitor their progress appropriately, and lead appropriately when required to steer others. If a person is eager to work with other team members, they will also be eager to collaborate to produce the expected results more conveniently.
Benefits
It helps build a friendly culture that enables every employee to fit in the corporate culture. Also, it enables an easier achievement of organizational goals. Collaboration also creates opportunities for attracting top talents as they are aware that coworkers will aid them in strengthening their quality and relevance at the workplace.
- Conflict resolution
Conflicts are solved through negotiations and persuasions and are an essential soft skill for organization and professional relationships (Kaipa et al., 2005). Having soft skills enables the individual to keep in mind the organization’s interests, customers, and coworkers when trying to get the best outcome from an underlying conflict. Conflicts can be a source of unnecessary segregation and division, and having soft skills would enable the individual to manage the situation more effectively to produce the best results.
Benefits
Being a good problem solver means that you can bring an end to arguments and help the conflicting parties to associate constructively. This is a very necessary skill for leadership as it would help build a healthy and collaborative workplace free from unnecessary disagreements.
- Compassion
Compassion is an important element in modern-day workplace settings. It helps the employees innately learn about each other for them to collaborate appropriately. The leader should be compassionate to help learn and elicit the best out of their followers.
Benefits
Compassion plays a huge role in building interpersonal skills, enabling individuals to work effectively in a team setting. It becomes easier to connect with people and manage each other’s success. Personal accomplishment in the technical requirements is crucial, but compassion determines how the individual will effectively put them into practice in people with different personalities.
- Critical observation
Employers are looking for individuals who can envision emerging patterns and what the organization can do to leverage or avoid the oncoming scenario. Therefore, critical thinking is an important soft skill to avoid getting overwhelmed by the growing dynamist.
Benefits
Critical thinkers are a source of fresh and unique perspectives in light of any undertaking. This is because they can offer ideas and intuitive solutions to improve the internal approach to outside forces.
From the above discussed soft skills, I have been aware that qualifying for a job position is not necessarily having the right technical skills but rather combining them with soft skills. I would say that I am a good communicator, a problem solver, solve conflicts, work in a team setting, be self-aware, and easily adapt to changes because I am compassionate.
References
Contessa, C. (2019). The Communication Soft Skills You Need at Work (+ How to Use Them) | Career Contessa. Retrieved 29 November 2020, from https://www.careercontessa.com/advice/soft-skills-definition/#:~:text=Communication%20soft%20skills%20are%20the,work%20with%20others%20on%20projects.&text=Verbal%20and%20written%20communication%20come%20into%20play%20every%20day%20at%20the%20workplace.
Kaipa, P., Milus, T., Chowdary, S., & Jagadeesh, B. V. (2005). Soft skills are smart skills.
Müller, R., & Turner, R. (2007). The Influence of Project Managers on Project Success Criteria and Project Success by Type of Project. European Management Journal, 25(4), 298-309. doi: 10.1016/j.emj.2007.06.003
Williams, R. (2020). The growing importance of “Soft skills” in the workplace. Retrieved from https://raybwilliams.medium.com/the-growing-importance-of-soft-skills-in-the-workplace-8c452c7c8647