Do you think soft skills are really ‘soft’? Well, I don’t agree. Soft skills are one of the primary traits a leader needs to possess. These are the set of skills which are required by each and every employee of a company to work effectively day in and day out. Let us understand in details what soft skills exactly are.
Soft skills are a set of inter personal or people management skills which are essential for a person to climb up the corporate ladder. Majority of the employers look for these inter personal skills in a candidate during recruitment. Some of the soft skills are mentioned below.
Collaboration
Almost any kind of job requires collaboration. You would need to have the ability to collaborate with your team members for you to perform effectively in your role. When you collaborate effectively, your team works efficiently and that’s what team work is about. For example, in my role as a Business Analyst, I need to collaborate with developers and quality assurance team so that all of us are in the same page regarding the goal we need to accomplish for a release.
Communication
Another key skill to have is communication. The way you communicate with others plays a huge role in making sure your team succeed in the long run. Miscommunication is often faced in the work places. Communication gap between team members ultimately hinders the progress of a project. One really needs to be a good communicator in order to convey an essential information to his or her team members. There can be several ways of communicating an information. Presentation is one form of communication. If you think that you would need to communicate via presentation, go ahead and do that. You should stick to the way which suits you the best. Also make sure that the information you conveyed gets understood by others. Take questions from your team members for any clarification or doubts if they have so that you and others are on the same page.
Listening
The next soft skill which you must have is listening. The more you can develop the skill of listening, the more you would get better in acquiring leadership skills. When you listen to what the other person is saying, it means you are giving importance to him. That way you will be approachable to people and people would feel free to discuss their concerns with you. If you want to know how to improve listening skills, you can click here. I have written this article based on my experience.
Conflict Management
Conflict often comes at workplace and if you are good at managing conflicts without hurting others, you are doing a great job. There can be conflict with your boss or with colleagues and it is bound to happen. People often have disagreements on certain topics. So it’s very important the conflicts get resolved at the earliest else a project’s progress will get hampered. Please check this article to know how conflicts need to be managed at workplace.
Willingness to learn
If you get complacent with the knowledge you have presently related to your area of work, then you may not flourish in the long run. Always have the passion to learn and explore any new ideas that come along the way. Develop the habit of reading if you think you are lacking in that area. Note that all the famous leaders have a habit of reading books. Take trainings and keep yourself updated with the latest trends that are happening. The more you learn, the more innovation you can bring in to your work.
Being Proactive
A team work well when the leader is able to resolve any concerns proactively. The team leader with his experience will know the possible concerns or challenges that may come up in the future. If he is able to take a preventive action promptly without waiting for the problem to arise, then he and his team will be in a better shape to meet the deadline of the project they are working on currently. As Edward Young rightly said ‘Procrastination is the Thief of Time’, the same concept applies at your workplace as well. The more delay you do in taking an action or resolving any concerns, the more your team is going to suffer.
Ability to work under pressure
Nowadays, with increasing competition, the pressure to deliver a project on time is even more. People who can perform extremely well under a pressure situation will outshine other employees. One of the ways to work under pressure is to remain calm so that you do not get deviated from your goal. When you remain calm, you can still think clearly and deliver exactly on what you are asked to.
Conclusion
These are some of the soft skills which I thought people would definitely like to know about. Try improving one soft skill at a time. For example, give yourself a goal that you would need to be proactive from now. So, make sure you are able to showcase that skill when the opportunity comes. Take feedback from others if you have improved on that particular soft skill. Once you improve, then target the next one. Gradually, you will see the improvements in all the various types of soft skills. All the best in your journey!
Would you like to mention the soft skill you are good at ?
