By Clive Mutame
Siachiyako
Job seekers equate to more than just their
resumes that outline their educational and employment histories. However
valuable these may be, there are other qualities that recruiters look for in
potential candidates. These are often referred to as “soft skills”. In the ever-competitive
job market, the measure of an individual’s general career success is the
ability to use these soft skills to adapt to any assignment.
It cannot be
expressed adequately how important soft skills are and how they can position a
candidate for success in the workplace. Job seekers should thus critically
leverage soft skills to land on a new job. Employers place a premium on
employees’ ability to communicate, to think critically and solve difficult
problems, to learn new skills, to lead others, to function independently, to
work as part of a team to accomplish a common goal, and to accept and thrive
with constant change. The problem is that the importance of soft skills is
often undervalued and there is far less training provided for them than hard
skills.
What are soft skills?
Soft skills
are personal attributes such as the ability to give and receive feedback, work
collaboratively, and manage time. They are usually self-developed (as opposed
to hard skills, which you typically acquire in school or on the job). They are helpful
in acquiring a wide range of jobs, not just one’s target job. Particularly with
increase numbers of graduates, recruiters look for people who can become
leaders, and leadership, itself, depends on several key soft skills.
Here are the
top soft skills in demand for today’s job market:
1.
Communication: the ability to communicate with others is a critical soft skill
in workplaces today. Communication in the form of written materials (such as
emails and letters) can support business objectives. Communication delivered to
peers and customers in a verbal format can make or break a business. All job
seekers can develop the soft skill of communication and become more valuable to
employers by taking public speaking classes, honing their writing skills and
learning more about body language’s role in communication.
More than
just clearly speaking the language, communication skills involve active
listening and excellent presentation and writing capabilities. One highly
sought-after communication skill is the ability to explain technical concepts
to partners, customers, and coworkers who are not tech-savvy.
2. Organisation:
Organisational skills allow individuals to arrange their thoughts, time and
tasks in a structured way. Individuals with this skills take a systematic
approach to every task. They complete work without having to rush through it,
balance multiple assignments and cut down on the number of mistakes. This include
allotting the appropriate amount of time to each step of your plan and making
decisions regarding required supplies and personnel.
3. Teamwork Skills: Teamwork is the art of
collaborating with others effectively and is vital in most professions. It has
to do both with how different pieces of a larger puzzles come together, with
different workers taking on different puzzle pieces, and how you approach specific
colleagues when you are working together. Many people have different working
styles and if you are great at teamwork you are able to interpret and adapt to
these, ensuring that you work well together.
The bigger
the company you work for, the bigger the chance that you are a member of more
than one team, which means solid team player skills are crucial. How well do
you work with other team members in reaching team goals? How do you help other
team members? Are you an asset to every team that you’re a part of, and how? Good
teamwork involves a combination of other soft skills. Working in a team towards
a common goal requires the intuition and interpersonal acumen to know when to
be a leader, and when to be a listener. Good team players are perceptive, as
well as receptive to the needs and responsibilities of others.
4.
Punctuality: No one likes to wait. Not for employees late to a meeting; not for
candidates late to a job interview; and certainly not for colleagues who
deliver their work late on million-dollar business projects. Punctuality and
good time management are skills demanded by employers across all industries.
That is because being late has the ability to negatively affect the whole team,
disrupting meetings and giving yourself and others a reputation for being
unprofessional. While it might be a big shift to how you organise and manage
your life, learning to be punctual will benefit your career immensely.
There is no
shortage of reasons for why being on time is a valuable soft skill to have.
Exhibiting your consistent punctuality will show you are reliable and serious,
and will always play a positive role should you want to be considered for more
senior positions. It also has the following positive effects:
a)
It shows you are dedicated and
serious about your work
b)
b) It exhibits respect to your
colleagues, managers and stakeholders. If you’re always running late (even by a
couple of minutes), then meetings, briefings will not start on time. This is
productivity disruption
c)
You appear organised and
professional. Much of being punctual is knowing the details, data and facts of
the situations you face at work
d)
It reduces stress. Any action or
habit that reduces stress and anxiety in your professional life should be
pursued feverishly, so consider learning to be punctual a must. Arriving late
is a known stressor and can make people feel isolated, ill-prepared,
ineffective and fearful of discipline that being consistently late might
warrant
5.
Critical Thinking: The ability to use imagination, reasoning, past experience,
research, and available resources to fundamentally understand and then resolve
issues is attractive for obvious reasons. Critical thinking is the objective
analysis of facts to form a judgment. It is the ability to think clearly and
rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas. It is thinking
about things in certain ways so as to arrive at the best possible solution in
the circumstances that the thinker is aware of. Highlight this skill by listing
an example (or speaking of one in an interview) of a time when your company was
dealt a sticky situation and you effectively addressed/resolved it via critical
thinking skills.
6. Social
Skills: They are also interpersonal skills. They are skills for interacting
with other people. They include verbal skills (the ways of speaking to others)
and nonverbal skills (body language, gestures, and eye contact). Almost every
job requires social skills for effective interpersonal relations.
7. Creativity:
This skill is helpful in developing innovative solutions to problems. It
requires an openness to innovation and mental flexibility. In many sectors,
creativity techniques are seen as a means to an end and are designed to achieve
better results. This is probably the most underrated soft skill because it
usually takes someone creative to appreciate the need for others who are, and
most people just are not that creative. Creativity does not mean being an
artist, it means being resourceful and innovative in finding solutions to
problems at work.
8.
Interpersonal Communication: The ability to work in teams, relate to people,
and manage conflict is a valuable asset in the workplace. Interpersonal
communication is an important skill to hone to get ahead, and as you advance in
your career, the aptitude to work with others becomes even more crucial.
Interpersonal
communication is the process by which people exchange information, feelings,
and meaning through verbal and non-verbal messages [face-to-face communication].
It is not just about what is actually said - the language used - but how it is
said and the non-verbal messages sent through tone of voice, facial
expressions, gestures and body language. How something is communicated can be a
source of conflict or building the team in workplaces.
9.
Adaptability: industries can change at any time, leaving employees scrambling
to adjust to new ways of doing things and new skills to learn. The ability to
adapt well to change is a soft skill that is highly valuable to employers. When
you can switch gears well and adapt to the conditions and procedures of a
workplace, your status rises to that of a go-to person. Learn to be an observer
and a problem-solver when developing this soft skill.
Naturally,
people can be wary of leaving the comfort zone formed by their repertoire of
hard skills. Adaptability is an important soft skill, inasmuch as it
demonstrates an ability and willingness to acquire new hard skills, and an
open-mindedness to new tasks and new challenges. Employers often seek
candidates who can show a willing and upbeat attitude. The ability to adapt to
changes should not be underestimated in today’s tech-driven and rapidly
evolving business environment. The ability to pick up on new technologies and
adjust to changing business surroundings is critically important.
10. Friendly
Personality: People want to work with people they like, or think they will
like—people who are easygoing, optimistic, and even fun to be around regardless
of situation. Do other people tend to come away feeling good after working with
you? How can you tell?
Some additional
soft skills that are often in demand include:
a) Strong
Work Ethic: Employers are looking for employees that take initiative, are
reliable, and can do the job right the first time. Managers don’t have the time
or resources to babysit, so this is a skill that is expected from all
employees.
b) Emotional
Intelligence: Although you will most likely never see this in a job
description, Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a highly sought-after skill that
relates to your ability to identify and manage not just your emotions, but
those of others. Think of it this way: an employee who can talk another
employee off a ledge—say, someone who’s having a particularly bad day, and
showing it with their actions and emotions—would be considered someone with a
high EI.
Emotional
Intelligence describes the ability identify, assess, manage and control the
emotions of one’s self, of others, and of groups. In addition to having a cadre
of transferable skills relevant to a particular career field, employers are
looking for candidates with sound emotional intelligence when hiring. Emotional
Intelligence helps us connect and communicate with colleagues on a deeper
level. In this very global world-of-work, EI helps us create stronger
multi-cultural relationships and celebrate differences by allowing distinctive
points of view to be valued.
c) Computer
and Technical Literacy: Almost all jobs nowadays require basic competency in
computer software, but many job seekers fail to provide this section because
they think it’s implied. If computer skills are relevant to your field, insert
a “Technical Skills” or “Systems Proficiencies” section to your resume.
d) Research
Skills: With Google at the tip of your fingers, it’s easy to find answers to
common issues. However, hiring managers seek employees that are skilled at
assessing situations, are able to seek multiple perspectives, and gather more
in-depth, harder-to-locate information.
e) Process
Improvement Expertise: The number one goal every company has in common is to
save money. Optimizing business procedures can save a company time and money.
Quantify results in your resume by listing the before and after facts of
projects that you took on.
Being able to
grasp new skill, concepts and programmes takes a combination of soft skills
that can set a candidate apart. The ability to then translate these new ideas
into meaningful work tasks and when handling projects is what can help grow
teams and develop more efficient methods. As a career professional, it is
advisable to seek new opportunities to learn. As an employer, it is critical to
provide learning opportunities to boost skills for your teams. The teams should
be availed chances for learning leadership skills. Developing leadership skills
can be a ticket to success in any industry. Leaders and managers take
responsibility of their personal growth and development, thus inspiring others
to do the same. Leaders are good decision makers, know how to tactfully deal
with others and solve problems effectively. Courtesy of https://www.livecareer.com/career-tips/career-advice/soft-skills-in-demand
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