Valuable skills for any profession (soft skills)
Once it was enough to be well versed in your professional field to achieve success in career. Today, it is not enough to be a niche specialist whose knowledge and skills are limited by the framework of professional duties. Employers value employees who have a wide range of soft skills much more.
Real life example
John is the most experienced specialist in the IT department. The most important and time-consuming tasks are entrusted to him, since he is the best at working with a complex program. Despite this, John is not promoted and his salary is not growing. He hopes to be appointed to the position of head of the department, which has recently vacated. However, this place is given to a newly hired and less experienced employee.
Being offended, John goes to the director for clarification and receives the following answer: “Of course, I respect you very much, but the new employee quickly finds a common language with other people, explains complex things in simple words, and constantly offers interesting ideas.”
So, the management rated the more universal skills of a beginner higher than the highly specialized skills of John. But why?
Flexibility in a changing world
We live in an era of constant change. What was relevant yesterday becomes obsolete today and becomes completely unnecessary tomorrow. If earlier it was possible to work for decades according to the same schemes and rules, now the methods of work can change several times a year. And here the ability to adapt to new conditions, reconfigure thinking, quickly master advanced technologies and strategies comes to the fore.
Recall what Aristippus of Cyrene, who understood the importance of adaptability 2500 years ago, said:
“Be flexible and able to change in response to new life circumstances.”
Let’s get back to our example. John is proficient in working with the complex program, but what happens when the program becomes obsolete and useless? Will he be able to remain the same valuable person for the company? At the same time, the new employee, due to his/her sociability, openness and creativity, will easily adapt to any conditions. These are soft skills, which sometimes turn out to be more important than in-depth knowledge in a narrow field.
Skills that are valued today the most
A study of sites dedicated to recruitment allows us to highlight the most popular soft skills. Surprisingly, most of them coincide with the personal qualities that the ancient philosopher Aristippus advised to develop.
1. Ability to work in a team
“Be able to cooperate with others,” Aristippus instructs. Teamwork involves communication, exchange of ideas, brainstorming, coordination of actions. Therefore, the popularity of co-working spaces, small workplaces where a group of people work together, is growing. It is believed that this increases the efficiency of interaction and information transfer.
2. Critical thinking
To solve problems competently, one needs to suppress emotions and approach the issue analytically, relying only on facts. Aristippus says this directly: “Be able to think rationally and only in terms of facts and figures.”
3. Creativity
“Be able to create new ideas” — this phrase of Aristippus could be said today by any business coach, top manager or business owner. In the conditions of fierce market competition, each fresh, original idea is worth its weight in gold. The top management is ready to nurture the employees who are able to come up with something that no one else has thought of.
4. Emotional intelligence
This term refers to the ability to recognize one’s own and other people’s emotions, to subtly feel the mood of the team. The ancient Greek philosopher reminds: “Be able to know and understand your environment and those interested around you.”
5. Ability to learn new things quickly
We have already said that the world today is characterized by constant change. Only those who keep up with all the trends of the times and are always open to new knowledge and experience can be successful in the 21st century. Against this background, the words from the Aristippus’ Code sound very modern: “Be capable of achieving personal growth, learning and development.”
How to develop soft skills?
A lot of training materials, courses and seminars are available on this topic — it is enough to enter a query in a search engine. Yet do not forget about personal experience. Relationships with colleagues and superiors, the reaction of others to your actions are indicators of which skills you have developed well and which ones are poorly developed. If you feel that you need professional support, you can contact a career counselor.
Take any action that contributes to self-development. The main thing — do not rest on your laurels!
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