Every individual should strive to develop and improve their soft skills at any chance they get.
In my opinion, the soft skills are teaching us to become a better version of ourselves and a better member of a community.
The improvement of soft skills brings up the character of an individual and helps them become a potential leader and enchanting your teamwork skills is the most important soft skill. While practicing you learn when to apply your leader skills, when to listen and understand the needs of the other side, as well as how to express yourself by the best way. It is important for any potential leader to be a great communicator. To get your foot in the door at your dream job, it’s important to have solid credentials: a degree, work experience, and professional references. But it’s your soft skills - not hard-hitting credentials and technical know-how - that ultimately determine your employability and staying power.
Soft skills help you work more effectively in your chosen career, build solid relationships, and navigate challenges that arise on the job.
1. The time - the only resource we cannot create more of. That means it is important, especially for every leader to manage their time properly. We could take advantage of some techniques in order to use our time much more effectively. Such techniques are for example to applying specific timeframes for each task. Setting up priorities properly is also very useful for time management as a whole.
2. Solving problems is extremely important part of the basket of skills of a leader. Conflicts at your job can be terribly distracting, frustrating and even upsetting. On top of the aforementioned, workplace conflicts can detract from concentration and the ability of employees to perform their jobs well. Rather than complaining to others, avoiding the issue, or acting rudely toward those involved, you should come up with a plan for resolution. Good problem solvers are able to analyze challenges and work toward solutions, either alone or in a group. This skill includes critical thinking, decision-making, and the willingness to ask questions and explore new ideas.
Discuss a problem calmly and objectively with a team;
Examine how a problem affects different constituents;
Come up with possible solutions and evaluate each idea;
Make a plan to carry out the solution.
3. Data Analysis Data analysis is all about how you use numbers and information to make decisions. These skills include mathematical reasoning, quantitative analysis, and quantitative communication skills. At work, you’ll use data analysis to: Study data to support business decisions, answer questions, and solve problems;
Identify information gaps where more data and analysis are needed;
Find statistics to support a project;
Create clear, effective spreadsheets;
Translate data into graphs, charts, or other visuals.
4. Productivity
Employees with strong productivity skills are able to strategize, organize, plan, and deliver results. When people can count on you to get things done on time, you become an invaluable member of the team. At work, you need productivity skills to:
Manage your time and stay focused to meet deadlines;
Develop a project plan that includes goals, requirements, resources, and a timeline.
5. Digital Proficiency
Digital proficiency is the ability to navigate technology to accomplish a task or reach a goal. When you have this skill, you know how to choose - and then use - the right technology for the job, so you can work as effectively and efficiently as possible. 6. Creativity
Creative employees can think outside the box to generate original ideas and solutions. Creativity is related to curiosity, which enables you to learn new things on the job. Creative people enjoy playing with possibilities. At work, you need creativity to:
Brainstorm groundbreaking ideas and solutions, either alone or in a group;
Ask questions to uncover new ideas;
Keep an open mind as you evaluate possible solutions;
Solve problems that at first glance seem unsolvable.
7. Agility
When you’re agile, you’re able to adapt to a changing work environment. You can do your job well even when the ground is shifting under your feet. Mental agility allows you to go with the flow, embrace complexity, and stay curious. Interpersonal agility helps you stay open-minded with others, which brings out the best in everyone. 8. Self and Social Awareness
Working professionals, as productive and competent as they may be, are human beings with feelings. Monitoring your emotions and being aware of how others are feeling are invaluable skills to have in the workplace. At work, you need social-emotional skills to:
Self-reflect and learn from past mistakes;
See things from someone else’s point of view.
9. Work ethic
Work ethic is a soft skill that proves your belief in the importance of work and its ability to strengthen your character. Demonstrating work ethic should be important in every career.
Soft skills examples related to work ethic include:
Integrity;
Responsibility;
Discipline;
Initiative;
Dependability;
Commitment;
Sellf-motivanotion;
Professionalism;
Teamwork;
Time-management.
Many people are strong in certain soft skills, while weaker in others. It’s common to either underestimate the importance of soft skills or overestimate your own abilities.
Why should students be taught soft-skills in Schools? In this way, students are going to be the leaders of future organizations, business and institutions and for this; they need to have adequately nurtured personalities.
An eminent psychologist Daniel Goleman states that soft skills are the people-skills because these enable the individuals to manage their role in society with harmony to others. No matter if a person is exceptionally high in IQ but not having interpersonal skills can lead him to failure in life.
“Children of today are the future of tomorrow and education is a vital weapon to prepare the children for their future role of the leaders of the community” – Nelson Mandela.
by Vanesa Husaini
Participant in
TC "Promoting visual facilitation" in Brolo, Sicily