Basically, you can’t be the best at what you do if your soft skills fail to match your intellectual or technical talent; you’re limiting your chances of career success. One reason soft skills are so valued is that they help facilitate human connections.
Soft skills are the building blocks to growing relationships, gaining visibility, and creating more opportunities for advancement in your career and in your workplace culture. Learn which soft skills are critical to master and what steps you need to practice to acquire them: 1. Communication Why you need it? - Both written and verbal communication skills are of utmost importance in the workplace because they set the tone for how people think about you, or approach you, and even react to you. Boosting your communication skills will improve your chances of building relationships with co-workers and increase your performance because they help you to extract clear expectations from your manager so that you can deliver excellent work. Practice clear expression - dig into the - who, what, when, where, why, and how of anything, you’ll discover most everyone has a different perception - that’s the good! Practice group cohesion - actively listening and communication similarities that bond or draws others towards a meaningful and /or productive conversation - that’s the goal!! 2. Teamwork Success is rarely dependent on one person doing something all by themselves - although you might achieve individual gratification which is fine but when you learn to share success - then success achievements transfers to into a social pleasure - a human intrinsic desirable trait. Joining a team gives purpose and common goals. Success as well as failures are then shared - both have an added benefit - it’s called sharing and it’s an act of caring! Practice to generate goodwill, lend a hand when you see a co-worker in need - that’s the goal!! Practice how to synthesize teamwork of varied talents. This collaborative effort strengthens the quality of your work - it’s a win - win!!! 3. Adaptability Things don’t always go as planned, and instead of digging in your heels, you need to be able to pivot and find alternate solutions. Successful leaders are the ones who know how to be flexible when problems arise and can adapt to industry shifts in order to keep the company current. Practice early adoption of change and don’t get trapped by negative thoughts or discussions of how it used to be. Business needs to more forward to keep with the times and so do you - that’s the goal!! 4. Problem-Solving There are 3 kinds of problem-solvers - those that don’t, those that complain, and those that take action... Anybody can find fault but those who practice solutions are advanced in knowing or being able to advise what to do when an issue crops up - be visionary. Practice communicating effectively when a problem arises - this makes you reliable! Practice knowing how to think on your feet - this makes you valuable!! Practice getting to solutions of the problem - this makes you indispensable!!! 5. Critical Thinking Data doesn’t mean much if you don’t know how to interpret it. Is there a pattern emerging? What else should you be looking for? Critical thinkers are people who bring a fresh perspective and offer intuitive solutions and ideas to help with competition or improving internal processes. Practice analyzing information and understand how to put it to good use - no what you know & learn what you don't know! Practice identifying patterns of behavior at work - observing how people respond to the constant flow of information can help critical aspects of improving business operations - this is the goal!! 6. Conflict Resolution It a natural human nature that we don’t always like or get along with everyone else so being able to resolve issues constructively with people is a sure indicator of maturity - a key leadership ability! Practice promoting a healthy, collaborative workplace - this is good!! Practice resolving disagreements by addressing the issues directly, delicately with a judgment-free environment to find common ground - this is the goal!!! 7. Leadership Sure it’s about having confidence, ability, focus and vision - but if no one will follow you then you have no one to lead - that’s the bad! Practice leadership skills and approach everyday as if your followers depended on those leadership skills - remembering leadership isn’t merely about getting people to do what you want. Leadership means inspiring and helping others to reach their own full potential - this what a leader does!! Practice supervisor skills - learn to manage people, learn how to motivate a team - this is your goal!! Navigation-Point, we’re here to help you discover all the ways you can put your talent to good use - that’s our goal!!! Patti Mitchell, CEO Navigation-Point Professional & Management Development Training |
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