Soft skills and their importance
When looking for a job, many people make the mistake of thinking that the candidate with the most impressive technical skills will be chosen, or in other words, their knowledge in that specific field, however, the candidates are also being judged on their soft skills. Now the easy and most obvious definition of soft skills would be non-technical skills that affect how a candidate can fit into a company and their interactions with other employees. These strengths include but are not limited to time management, critical thinking, and the way one interacts with future potential colleagues.
Now to fully understand the concept, we’re going to begin with a brief definition of the term along with a few examples, we will proceed by mentioning techniques to develop these skills and how important they can be.
1. What does the term “soft skills” imply?
The proper definition of the term is, currently, personal attributes that are related to how well you work and interact with others and are deemed essential in the process of succeeding in both your professional and personal life.
Let’s see a few examples of these interpersonal skills:
- Communication: a candidate is deemed a good communicator if they can express their arguments and ideas clearly without offending any other party. To become a good communicator, you need to master a few of its types, mainly:
o Written and verbal communication
o Pitching an idea to potential clients
o Socialising with both colleagues and clients
- Problem-solving: mainly consists in one’s ability to quickly and effectively solve issues. A problem solver is more often than not, a critical thinker (asks the right questions), decisive and explorative (takes risks by thinking out of the box and out of their comfort zone).
Many experts have considered 5 essential steps to problem solving:
o Analysing: putting the problem in simple words
o Generating a set of solutions
o Choosing the best most accommodate one
o Implement the chosen solution
o Assessing effectiveness
- Confidence: It is well known that being confident in your work and worth is a huge bonus for anyone, a hiring manager needs to feel that you think you’re a good pick for the job before considering taking you in. However, false confidence, where you lie about what you know and about your expertise is a huge no-no. As a matter of fact, the current CEO of Google, Mister Sundar Pichai, when interviewing for the position of VP of product management was asked a question regarding his opinion on Gmail, however, the email service being released that same morning, Pichai had no idea what it was, he preferred answering with the truth and admitted that he hadn’t had time to look through it. The interviewers then showed it to him and gave him the chance to give his opinion about it. Moral of the story: do not lie, and stick to what you know.
- Digital proficiency: This personal strength is especially important in our age, where more and more people are opting for digital numeric solutions. Being able to smoothly navigate through modern technologies can make you a bit more special in the eyes of the hiring managers.
2. How important can these skills be?
Acquiring a set of soft skills is the first step to setting yourself apart from other candidates, displaying your communication and negotiation abilities will complement your already obtained technical or hard skills.
Multiple studies have also shown that in the future, soft skills will be highly demanded seeing as they cannot be automated and they contribute greatly to the company’s growth. Admittedly, a 2017 study conducted by a Harvard student showed that, at that time, jobs requiring high levels of social interactions grew by no less than 12%.
These soft skills also impact positively more than one area, for the most part, those concerning the company’s productivity, its retention rates and the employee’s satisfaction.
3. How can you develop these skills?
You most likely already have soft skills from school or team projects, nevertheless, you can always better yourself in the field by:
- practicing public speaking: try and speak in front of a mirror first and then elevate to bigger crowds.
- Take your listening skills one step ahead: A good communicator is always a good listener, try avoiding interrupting the ones you’re conversing with, it’s preferable to wait until they finish to get your point across.
- Always be open to feedback and ready to learn: don’t shy away from asking questions.
- And finally, you can read all about how this side of you can be exceptional, here are some of the must-read books that discuss this topic:
o Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges — by Amy Cuddy
o Bridging the Soft Skills Gap: How to Teach the Missing Basics to Today’s Young Talent — by Bruce Tulgan
o Everyone Communicates, Few People Connect: What the Most Effective People do Differently — by John C. Maxwell
There you have it, a brief inquiry into soft skills and their importance in the professional world, how they can make you a better candidate, and as the scientist Charles Darwin said “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change”.
