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Soft skills' are often overlooked by business professionals, often to their detriment. Take advantage of these skills, which are the lifeblood of business…

What Are Soft Skills?

“Soft skills” (aptly called “power skills” or “human skills”) are one’s personality traits, work ethic and attitude, interpersonal skills, mindset and outlook, and more.

More than interpersonal skills…

These skills are often explained as:

• What they are not: hard skills, such as technical knowledge.

  OR …

• Simply as our communication skills with others, which is only a portion of them.

However, soft skills are a lot more than our apt for collaborating with others.

Soft skills, are how we act in an environment, whether that be in a workplace, a classroom, in a networking environment …

… (and most overlooked!) how we act behind the scenes, such as by working ourselves studying for hours on end or working overtime.

Can I Learn Or Practice Soft Skills❓

Soft skills are not entirely our personality, though that does dictate a large portion of it.

• For example, someone who is extroverted might naturally be a great communicator in the workplace.

The good news is that while personalities can change, and often do with age, these skills are often seen more as taught or learned skills, through things like:

• Experience in a work or school environment.

• Skills learned through motivation and drive to achieve something.

• A skill one wants and therefore works toward because someone might have pointed out a lack of this skill, or a need for improvement on another.

These skills might not come naturally to an individual, but they might be perceived skills by others because this person actively works toward them (with or without their knowledge).

• For example, someone might be seen as an early riser 🌅 because they get into the office earlier than everyone else, but they might actually prefer to come in late, but do so to beat the traffic or because they need to pick up their kids after school.

Examples of Soft Skills 📝

There are numerous soft skills… therefore, this list is far from comprehensive.

General / (Often Personality) Based:

• These skills and our level of ability with them are often natural, such as one’s ability to read a room or one’s ability to recognize patterns.

1. Emotional Intelligence

2. Logic / Problem Solving

3. Creativity

4. Critical Thinking

5. Decisiveness

Work-Ethic Based:

• Such as skills that might not come naturally, but might be based on one wanting to be perceived a certain way.

1. Time Management

2. Detail-Oriented

3. Resourceful

4. Confidence

5. Organization

Interpersonal Based (“Human Skills”):

• These skills are utilized in our interactions with others such as collaborating with a team.

1. Communicative

2. Listening

3. Empathy

4. Reliability

5. Leadership

Mindset / Outlook Based:

• These skills are often a result of an outlook on life such as one having a growth mindset.

1. Adaptiveness

2. Positive Attitude

3. Open-Minded

4. Goal-Setting

5. Innovative

How To Improve Soft Skills 🔨

Why Are Soft Skills Important?❕

Particularly in a business sense, having soft skills is critical because having positive qualities such as a healthy confidence in oneself, loyalty, and work ethic all makeup one’s reputation, which is a huge dictating success factor.

There are countless examples, but here are a few:

• Networking Skills 📱 — These are critical to having and maintaining relationships with others — especially in business. Poor networking skills lost one out on opportunities and relationships.

• Entrepreneurial Skills 💼 — One’s apt for recognizing a gap in the market, and understanding how to fill it is and has been critical to societal and business success.

• Willingness to Learn ✏️ — This is critical to all areas of life; scholastic, business, and personal success.

• Communication Skills (“People Skills”) 🗣 — One’s ability to communicate with others, and how they are perceived is essential for many positive outcomes, and most often, success.

Essentially, soft skills are one’s abilities, rather than their knowledge, though one can have a knowledge of how to act out or improve these skills.

Understanding “Power Skills” 💪

A huge misconception has persisted regarding soft skills which has resulted in people changing the verbiage around it.

Previously, and sometimes still listing soft skills on a resume, or using it to pitch your case in a job interview was deemed unnecessary or at most somewhat helpful.

However, now more than ever employers recognize the importance of what they are now calling “power skills”, previously called “soft skills”.

(Note: the “soft skills” verbiage is used in this article as they are still more widely used colloquially.)

Essentially, soft skills have a bad-wrap, and changing the verbiage is one step towards encouraging individuals to appreciate and improve their soft skills, especially in a world often seemingly dictated by “hard skills”.

Research That Supports Soft Skills 🔬

Virtually anyone can meet hard skill requirements such as having an Analytics Degree and a working knowledge of technical software, such as Tableau or Excel.

What employers recognize as far more valuable are power skills, such as being detail-oriented and a good problem solver for a technical role, or possessing strong emotional intelligence skills such as that of a salesperson … and those are much more difficult to find in an applicant.

LinkedIn ran a study in 2016 and found that surveyed approximately 300 hiring managers in the U.S. and 59% said they found it difficult to identify soft skills in hirees. Read More

Many studies are coming out in favor of boosting soft skills, and the benefits of teaching them in an educational setting.

A study was conducted in 2009 on management students that found significant improvements in the presentation of their soft skills after soft-skills training, indicating that soft skills can be taught, and improved through practice and training. Read More

Interested in learning more?

I highly recommend this TedX Talk by Scott Asai. He perfectly encapsulates the importance of possessing soft skills in your life, as they are some of the biggest predictive factors of success.

Important Take-Aways (if you didn’t have time)

1. Soft skills are essential for personal, scholastic, and professional success.

2. Soft skills can be and often are practiced or performed out of necessity or drive, and learned through life experiences.

3. Soft skills are somewhat dependent on personality, but research shows that training promotes soft skills.

Sources

John, Jessy, Study on the Nature of Impact of Soft Skills Training Programme on the Soft Skills Development of Management Students (September 17, 2009). Pacific Business Review, pp. 19-27, October/ December 2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1591331