What Are Soft Skills
Soft skills are character traits and interpersonal skills that characterize a person's relationships with other people. In the workplace, soft skills are considered to be a complement to hard skills, which refer to a person's knowledge and occupational skills. Sociologists may use the term soft skills to describe a person's emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) as opposed to intelligence quotient (IQ).
Why are they important?
Almost every interaction with other people will require some level of soft skill proficiency. At a company, you might be negotiating to win a new contract, presenting an idea to other students in a class, organizing your time to ensure you meet your deadlines, and so on. We use soft skills every day, so developing them will make you more likely to succeed, whatever you do.
What's more, business leaders and academic research are suggesting that soft skills now have a critical role to play in helping you stand out from the crowd and advance your career. Many universities are beginning to nurture their student’s soft skills as an integral part of their curriculum: EHL (Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne) emphasizes their experiential education model, within and outside the classroom, providing a social learning context where cultural sensitivity, leadership skills, adaptability and an appreciation for lifelong learning are developed.
1. Management Skills
- Become student and good listener.
- Try to take initiative and willingness to learn new things.
- Try to be close to your co-workers or fellows, listen to them and solve the problems.
- Focus on time management, this is the key factor in current era.
- Don't hesitate for calculated risk, if sure, then go ahead and catch the ball.
- I am not in favor but nowadays, Diplomacy has to be there, so do that.
- You have to be good at listening, speaking. Presentation, Multi Tasking, Negotiation, Leadership, Discipline, Ethics etc.
- Become a role model and learn one new thing every day.
- Be a team player and captain as and when required, but never cross the LOC, be in your limits.
- Be goal oriented and burn your midnight oil to create the example
2. Communication Skills
If it is 'Needless to say', please don't say it. If the next speaker needs no introduction, please don't introduce him.
But you still do that because you don't really believe that it is 'Needless to say'. You are probably just being poetic.
If that is the case, just weed out the redundant words and the sharpness of your communication will skyrocket. A big part of good communication is saying less and conveying more.
Once a lawyer in London told me when he considers a contract well-drafted: 'If you remove one word from the document, the contract should collapse', he said. Every word should have meaning.
3. Body Language Skills
Your nonverbal communication cues—the way you listen, look, move, and react—tell the person you’re communicating with whether or not you care, if you’re being truthful, and how well you’re listening. When your nonverbal signals match up with the words you’re saying, they increase trust, clarity, and rapport. When they don’t, they can generate tension, mistrust, and confusion.
If you want to become a better communicator, it’s important to become more sensitive not only to the body language and nonverbal cues of others, but also to your own.
4. Leadership skills
Leadership refers to the ability to mentor, train, or guide. No matter the industry, employers prefer to hire applicants who show they have leadership potential for 2 reasons:
- Employees with leadership skills show more initiative and are more likely to invest themselves in helping the company grow.
- The company can eventually promote employees with strong leadership roles to better management positions.
Skills related to leadership include:
- Management skills
- Authenticity
- Mentorship
- Generosity
- Cultural intelligence
5. Interviewing Skills
Strong interviewing skills are vital in today’s employment world. Even if you are not the best fit for a job, if you ace your interview, you are more likely to get hired than someone who lacks confidence in their interview or doesn't have the proper skills. With strong interviewing skills, you will make a good first impression.
Think about the amount of competition you face during an interview process. Employers scan through an abundance of applicants, many of which are indistinguishable on paper due to having similar work histories. Acing your interview will help you stand out from everyone else.
6. Time Management
Time management, accountability and responsibility are all equally important for your career as they are in your academic life. Project managers, for example, must have strong organizational skills in order to set manageable goals for their team and keep others on track to meet their deadlines. Nurses must also demonstrate strong time management skills, prioritizing and delegating tasks so that they can spend more time on the patients who need extra care.
Learning how to balance multiple deadlines and assignments while you are in school will make it easier for you to adjust to a fast-paced and collaborative work environment in the future.
