Technical skills are fundamental to a mission, but they are not enough. We must also count on human qualities, “soft skills“.So what are these skills particularly appreciated by companies and how to develop them?
At a time of massive development of Artificial Intelligence (or “AI”), human qualities are taking more and more place when it comes to recruitment by placing the Human — long relegated to the second rank — in the heart of the business.
Wanted by companies, these personality traits are essential to the success of your career. To be convinced, it suffices to analyze a job offer … Immediately after the technical profile (hard skills), come personal qualities. With equal job skills, it is often the soft skills that make the difference between 2 candidates.
These human skills bring those “extras” that make the difference in a professional environment: knowing how to communicate, being able to integrate quickly into a team, adapting to changes, showing a great sense of organization, being empathetic, creative or even having a sense of the collective or showing relational and emotional intelligence … So many assets to assert and develop!
Soft skills: Human qualities still inaccessible to robots
The upheavals linked to the era of new technologies are pushing companies to make significant transformations, to change their habits in terms of recruitment, especially in terms of required skills. The qualities needed yesterday — more focused on know-how, level of education and experience, even if they retain specific importance, gradually give way to more subtle qualities.
It is precise because they are characteristics specific to the human being and that our robot friends — as intelligent as they are — cannot claim to master them — to possess them — these skills are known as “soft” (in addition to “hard-skills”: technical, intellectual skills, e.g., sanctioned by any diploma or particular professional experience) are now part of the significant recruitment criteria.
Each organization — and each position — has its specific requirements in this area. Because if each of these “soft-skills” can be more essential than their peers in this or that mission, all interact more or less with each other.
There are many reasons for this enthusiasm for these so-called “soft” skills:
- The most developed AI will never be as developed as the human brain and its complex functioning — or at least not in the years to come!
- Human capital is the best asset of a company in terms of its competitiveness, innovation, and sustainability. Without men, no business. Human is at the heart of transformation and evolution. Hence the importance of talent management and skills assessment.
- Human relations are the basis of our world — the same is true in companies, especially in positions where we are in contact with people (HR, sales, management, e.g.).
- In addition to technical skills, behaviors speak volumes about a personality that will match — or not — with the values and the mode of operation of a particular company.
The most sought after soft skills in business
There are many techniques and tools to increase the potential of your personality. You have to research on the internet to find countless short or in-depth training courses. While it is undeniable that specific fundamental characteristics of the person are difficult to change, many points can nevertheless be cultivated over the long term.
1. Adaptability
Knowing how to adapt … It is an essential quality in a world where professions are born, die, and evolve at high speed. You don’t spend your entire career in the same single box anymore. The context is constantly changing, companies, to continue, must reinvent themselves every day: missions are diversified according to innovations, daily work evolves with new tools, management styles evolve, e.g.
WHY KNOW HOW TO ADAPT: FLEXIBILITY, SPEED OF ANALYSIS, OPEN-MINDEDNESS.
2. Communication
If it is undeniable that knowing how to communicate is a definite quality at all levels, it is even more true when we have to supervise a team: get its messages across effectively so that they are heard and understood, decipher the codes of non-verbal communication to adapt and avoid misunderstandings, conduct a job interview, prepare a suitable email, request an increase, defuse conflict, e.g., Communicating is the basis of healthy and peaceful relationships.
THE ADVANTAGES OF COMMUNICATING WELL: CONVINCING, NEGOTIATING, MANAGING CHANGE.
3. Organizational direction
Being able to organize … Anticipating, planning, planning your work, and that of your team … this is an essential skill for any manager!
Knowing how to manage priorities, stress, apprehend changes, and relieve the reluctance that they inevitably induce a certain sense of commitment and responsibilities. These are indeed assets to highlight and develop for anyone needing to supervise employees.
WHAT THE SENSE OF ORGANIZATION INDUCES: VISION, COMMITMENT, EFFECTIVE DECISION-MAKING.
4. Empathy
If this ability to listen thoroughly and attentively to the other, to deeply feel the emotional and cognitive state of his interlocutor is more difficult to perceive, it is nonetheless a pillar in management.
Indeed, an empathetic manager will have more ease in resolving a conflict, anticipating resistance to change, effectively convincing his troops, e.g.
THE BENEFITS OF EMPATHY: LISTENING, CARING, CONFLICT RESOLUTION.
5. Creativity
Having a creative mind … Here is perhaps one of the most sought-after soft skills in today’s world — continually evolving and fast, but also one of the most “rare” and delicate to spot. Yesterday’s trades are becoming obsolete and gradually — or not — giving way to new jobs, new activities, or ways of working that are as disruptive as they are unexpected. Companies must continuously show creativity and innovation to stay in the race, adapt to these new markets and modes of operation, retain their talents, and/or attract new ones.
Thus, being creative induces for an employer that one is not afraid of the unknown, or even to try, to be mistaken, that one knows how to bounce back and make his pitfalls a force for the following missions.
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF CREATIVITY: PROBLEM-SOLVING, INNOVATION, DISRUPTION.
6. Sense of collective
It is well known: alone, we advance, indeed, faster, but together, we go further … In the era of digital transformation, massive sharing of collaborative tools, and more participative management methods — more and more often transversal, working together more than ever makes sense.
WHY HAVE A SENSE OF COLLECTIVE: COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE, ADEQUATE MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE AND SKILLS
This list is far from being exhaustive. Other human skills can complement it: assertiveness, self-confidence, resilience, the ability to manage stress, e.g.
