Bridge the Gap with Skills
Soft skills or non-technical skills to be taken up after graduation.
Did you miss being a bit more serious in graduation, and can no longer reverse the time. The time now is actually slipping fast, don’t forget the automation is taking upon manual jobs and upcoming on millions and millions of people will be fewer jobs. The skillset is now changing, only machine-related skills have been valued in older days, now the focal point is on adopting unique human skills that artificial intelligence ( AI) and machines are incapable of replicating, our focus is also on such skills and preparing freshers to work alongside AI successfully.
Your social and emotional intelligence is what makes you truly different. There are many students who are good with their subjective knowledge but extremely poor in non-technical skills, networking, or even board discussions. They feel uncomfortable putting their best ideas across the table, because of the lack of trust in their skills.
The Super Six Skills (L-A-C-T&C-V-W) which are in demand apart from your technical skills:
1. Leadership: Leadership is all about leading a group towards a goal in such a way that results are achievable and all the stakeholders are happy and motivated. This is extremely important, without motivation nothing moves ahead.
Example: Anuj was an underperformer for a team, but moving to Aman’s team made him more confident, Aman sat with him, understood his strong points, and motivated him to move forward while both of them worked on his weak points. Anuj was so motivated, he started giving extra time to the project as well which henceforth resulted in success.
2. Adaptability: Skillset that includes the ability of a person to adjust and adapt quickly to changing environment, idea responsibilities, expectations, new projects, new teams, strategies, work processes, and transfer.
Example: Top performer Raman’s boss got transferred to a different project and Raman was not very comfortable with the new boss. He had frequent arguments with his new boss, out of all six members he was the only one who had adjustment issues hence resulting in less productive work and more stress.
3. Critical Thinking: Critical thinking skills help you to consider a problem based on all relevant evidence and knowledge to resolve it.
Example: Rajesh was able to solve the conflict between his two employees on the basis of critical thinking. He asks them questions like why? when? how ? and analyzed the situation to understand the reason and could differentiate between who was right or wrong.
4. Teamwork & Collaboration: Collaboration skill describes as the ability to work together towards a certain goal irrespective of different thought processes, working styles, idea conflict between the team members.
Example: Aashu was good in work in comparison to Payal, but he failed as a team member, he will always have an argument with the team members related to work, he will never listen to other’s idea due to which the submissions were mostly delayed and ultimately Aashu was asked to leave the current team. If Aashu worked on his skills to be a team player, he could have adjusted quickly.
5. Verbal Communication: A tricky skill but gives you a lot of attention, the way we speak determines a lot about our personality. The first interaction creates an image. In fact, there are high chances of you cracking an interview because of the way you speak primarily.
Example: A big smile at Ram’s face with a clear voice made the project more sellable in the meeting. Clients loved the way he was speaking while talking about the project. Bingo! you can't forget a face which speaks well!
6. Written Communication: This skill is important as the mail or report drafting talks a lot about your clarity of thoughts. The use of proper grammar, punctuation, sentence frame, tone of the sentence, and choice of words actually have a greater impact on the reader’s mind.
Example: The mail to your manager in the below manner is not acceptable and considered quite rude. No matter how good your attached report is, the manager won’t even consider it as he is already not very comfortable about your email drafting.
Dear Y,
Attached document. Go through and revert further suggestions. (Rude)
Instead, use this.
As per our discussion, attached relevant documents. Would really appreciate it if you could help me with your valuable suggestions on the same.
Waiting for your prompt opinion
The mail above clearly gave respect, clarity, and a nice vibe to the reader, even if your report is not up to the mark and needs improvement, the reader will help you with the improvements and he will surely reply as you had created an urgency as well.
Soft skills are personal qualities that affect how well you can function or communicate with others. These skills make it easier to maintain relationships with individuals, build confidence and efficiency, and lead teams. Hence we understood some soft skills are important apart from the technical skills which should be worked upon.
