Why Soft Skills Matter More Than You Think in Today’s Job Market
It’s known for the past 20 years. Technical skills will only get you so far but technical skills with perfect soft skills will help you retain the job and grow. People often overlook how aspects such as essential communication, teamwork, or adaptability, are important for succeeding in career.
Soft skills need equal consideration as they distinguish a great employee from a good one. Let’s try and break down why soft skills are more important than what one might think, and why EVERYONE should focus on sharpening them.
What Exactly Are Soft Skills?
Soft skills are personal traits that help someone to interact smoothly and communicate without any issues. These skills may include communication, teamwork, problem-solving, adaptability, emotional intelligence, leadership, conflict resolution, and time management. While hard skills consist of specific teachable abilities that are often gained through education, training, etc., soft skills are usually developed over time through personal experience and interaction. It’s about “how” you do your given job rather than “what” you do.
The Value of Soft Skills in the Workplace
Enhancing Communication
Having the ability to listen to someone, be attentive to their ideas and opinions, and be able to communicate your opinion in return, clearly and strongly is essential to avoid misunderstandings. You can be working on a team project, delivering a presentation, or negotiating with clients. Strong communication skills can help you convey your ideas boldly and persuasively and build rapport with other colleagues. Employers genuinely value candidates who can present and share their thoughts and can collaborate and negotiate well in a working environment.
Initiating Collaboration
Being empathetic in a workplace is a great quality, as employees are often involved in team projects and events. This encourages harmony between workers and creates a positive environment. Employees who can collaborate and blend in well with multiple teams are more likely to achieve shared goals and bring in blooming ideas within their organizations. An online MBA from the university of Manipal Jaipur will help you achieve the skill of networking and enhance your communication even if you are a working professional who has little time to go to a university.
Adaptability to Change
The ability to adapt to new situations is more important than ever. Be it learning new tech skills or adjusting to changes in company strategy, adaptability indicates you thrive in dynamic environments. Not to mention, employers appreciate candidates who can accept the change, learn quickly, and remain resilient under pressure.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking
Critical thinking and problem-solving are directly linked to people’s soft skills, which help them to think out of the box to find a solution. Recruiters often look for individuals who analyze situations, evaluate possible options quickly, and propose the ideal solutions right away. And this is quite relevant today as wave after wave of new technologies disrupt every industry and business model. To the extent, today’s customers are not merely looking for solutions: often they are perplexed because they are not even able to understand the problem. So as a new age MBA graduate or manager you need the additional skill of framing problems and then finding the right solutions – both of which require high quality critical thinking abilities.
Building Emotional Intelligence
A person who has emotional intelligence can understand and manage their weaknesses, emotions, strengths, and possible outcomes as well as the emotions of others. This soft skill acts as a solid pillar among the other skills, as it strengthens the interpersonal relationship of the team and improves the team dynamics. People who can survive workplace challenges with empathy at heart and maintain a positive attitude, even under stressful situations are appreciated by the company as they are the glue that sticks the team together. Nowadays, employers expect emotional intelligence more than intelligence quotient (IQ) from employees which makes a huge difference in business market.
How to Invest in Your Soft Skills?
Tending to your soft skills will help you shine brightly among your colleagues. Communicating your thoughts, opinions, and concerns without shying away from shame will set you apart as unique and strong. Regularly asking for feedback from your colleagues and mentors is still an underrated practice but that feedback will help you grow your interpersonal skills. Engaging in team-building exercises and group projects will give you an insight into how to understand your team to work well together. This also helps you showcase your communication skills and boost your confidence when it comes to collaborating and negotiating with your colleagues.
Attending workshops will offer you training sessions that solely focus on developing basic and essential soft skills like leadership qualities, emotional intelligence, and effective communication. Continue to showcase your soft skills with nonstop practice in active listening which leads to practical engagement in the workplace which then ensures that you understand others well before mindlessly responding.
Conclusion
Soft skills are more than just an addition of preferences on your resume. Irrespective of the professional career, they are must-haves in both your professional and personal lives. It doesn’t matter what you are aiming for, be it a leadership role, trying to build stronger relationships at work, or simply wanting to be more effective in your day-to-day job, soft skills are what will set you apart to be remarkable.
If you are someone who is looking for online degrees for an MBA, MCA, BBA, BCA from top universities, we’ve got you covered! Click here to check out the fees structure, eligibility, placement and syllabus of some of the best universities like SRM, Bharathidasan, Manipal Jaipur, to start your distance learning journey!