Soft skills are a set of personal abilities with practical implications for job performance. Furthermore, with the passage of time, they are increasingly valued, and for good reason: they are a sample of the workers’ potential. even those who still need training to adapt to a work context.
In this article We will see more about what soft skills are and how they can be developed
In a world in which the ability to adapt to changes becomes increasingly important in the world of work, degrees and diplomas lose weight when it comes to indicating which professionals fit well with their jobs and which do not.
Personal skills and abilities no longer consist mainly of memorizing information or training certain actions and protocols, but the ability to manage dynamic problems that often involve aspects that are to a certain extent unpredictable is gaining relevance. Technical knowledge is still required, but we are aware that this is applied to a complex and changing context, in which it is also necessary to know how to interact with others.
That is why what is known as “soft skills” is increasingly valued. skills that connect us to efficient management of the real problems that must be faced in the day-to-day work and that are not based on memorizing information.
Soft skills are proof that the ability to adapt to a certain task goes beyond our way of theoretically delimiting the specific knowledge that distinguishes that job from others; It has to do with our work philosophy, the attitude with which we face problems and needs, and general psychological flexibility beyond the job position.
What are its components?
Broadly speaking, the abilities that make up soft skills can be grouped into the following general categories, although these overlap with each other at several points.
1. Social skills and leadership
This group of soft skills are especially important in the context of companies, both to work as a team and to instruct, manage conflicts or inspire
2. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence consists of the psychological skills that allow us to regulate our emotions and recognize both our own and those of others It is essential to adapt to work and to avoid mismanagement of conflicts.
3. Problem-solving and goal-oriented skills
Technical knowledge and skills do not matter if the attitude with which we approach work leads us to try to pretend that we do not see the problems that arise in our path and we limit ourselves to nominally “fulfilling” our responsibilities, despite knowing that We left several fronts unattended that we did not count on.
Resolution and goal-oriented skills include self-motivation, the tendency not to avoid when facing problems, and time management among other things.
4. Creativity
Creativity is very valuable when it comes to putting solutions on the table for needs that had not been foreseen. It can be reflected in practically any of the activities that take place in an organization
As soft skills are demonstrated in the field, the most advisable thing to encourage them to grow in us is surround ourselves with people who apply them in their work and who have experience in facing various challenges in their work context.
2. Modify the environment to organize yourself better
Supporting us on elements external to us is the most advisable thing to develop organization, discipline and good time management, if we falter in that aspect. By creating clear routines and schedules, we will begin to travel down that path of effective work, and Once we get used to it, we will depend less and less on these aids in the form of agendas, calendars, alarms, etc
3. Enrich your way of expressing yourself
Many avoidable misunderstandings come from a lack of preparation when expressing complex ideas. While having a good vocabulary helps, from a soft skills perspective this is not as important as get used to mastering active listening, using non-verbal language resources, and maintaining constant communication flows with those who work with you.
4. Learn to detect your own vices
On the other hand, to develop soft skills it is necessary to know our starting point, and that involves recognizing the existence of defects in us. To do this, it is important to get used to analyzing frequent mistakes that we make, such as having poor control of work hours and mixing them with leisure hours, not reporting errors, assuming that a clash of interests is equivalent to a confrontation and an environment. hostile, etc.
Something that may be useful is keep a diary and write down these thoughts and what happens in the moments when we fall into recurring mistakes
This is a very effective way to enhance our ability to focus on long-term goals, which are those with the greatest capacity to bring us benefits in the months and years to come, increasing the likelihood that our projects will be viable. Having mini-goals ahead of us that can be easily achieved motivates us to continue moving forward
Are you interested in enhancing your soft skills?
As we have seen, soft skills are diverse, and are based more on training processes than on the memorization of information, contrary to what happens with “hard skills”. Therefore, the way in which we can learn to develop them is somewhat different from the way in which we learn technical knowledge in university or high school master classes.
If you are interested in enhancing this set of skills called soft skills, an option to consider is the live online training program “The challenge of networking”, developed by the European Coaching School through our Executive Summer School section. We are an international entity with offices in countries in both Europe and America, and on this occasion we offer the possibility of learning to develop skills such as leadership, creating action plans, regulating emotions, creating environments of trust. , and more.
This is a training proposal aimed at businessmen and managers, executives, middle managers, Human Resources professionals and other professionals in the organizational field, and gives the possibility of choosing between 3 modules of 12 hours and between 10 workshops of 3 hours each. . These live online sessions take place from June 20 to July 31. To learn more about this European Coaching School project or learn more about the Executive Summer School, you can visit this page.
