According to research, successful employees have strong soft skills. With the rise of artificial intelligence and automation changing the job market, 92% of talent professionals as well as hiring managers acknowledge that candidates with strong soft skills are becoming increasingly important. Indeed, 89% believe that "bad hires" typically have poor soft skills, which could make or break hiring the ideal candidate. This was published in LinkedIn's 2019 Global Talent Trends report, which is an annual survey of hiring professionals that helps HR, talent acquisition, and business leaders plan their recruiting strategies for the coming year.

This suggests that if you do not develop your soft skills, you may be restricting your career development. Soft skills include communication, collaboration, as well as conflict resolution. A combination of personality traits, behaviours, or social attitudes characterises soft skills. Individuals with strong soft skills are more likely to have strong situational awareness and emotional intelligence, which allows them to deal with difficult situations while remaining productive. This is especially important for positions of leadership because good leadership frequently requires managing people and helping guide them toward their goals.

Another function of soft skills in the workplace is that they facilitate adaptability to changing circumstances. Communication during times of uncertainty, as well as collaboration with other people when solutions aren't immediately obvious, are essential skills for anyone, whether or not they hold a position of leadership. Given the volume of job applications received by organisations, it's not surprising that more focus is being placed on evaluating soft skills during interviews.

7 Soft Skills

In this section, we will look at a few key soft skills that you may need to learn in order to achieve success in the workplace.

Problem-Solving Skills

Understanding a situation thoroughly, trying to identify the underlying issue, as well as finding a solution are all examples of problem-solving abilities. Every job has obstacles and stumbling blocks, which provide learning opportunities. Your ability to devise workable solutions and find solutions to pressing problems will demonstrate one's ability to handle — and excel at — your job. Discussing your mistakes and also what you learned from them is an important part of creating a soft skills resume.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, evaluate, and respond to one's own and other people's emotions. This means you can comprehend the world around you as well as the interpersonal relationships which occur in the workplace. This assumes new significance for the upcoming years. There is a lot of stress, grief, as well as frustration in the midst of the pandemic. It is critical that you can read your coworkers' emotions so that you can respond sensitively when faced with new work-from-home challenges or the loss of loved ones.

Leadership Qualities

Almost all businesses seek employees who can supervise and direct others. Organizations require employees who can develop relationships at all levels of the organisation. Leadership entails assessing, motivating, encouraging, enforcing accountability, assembling a team, resolving conflict, and cultivating the desired organisational culture. Effective leadership is frequently defined as the ability to influence others and meet their needs. Leadership development frequently includes the development of soft skills.

Excellent Work Ethic

Effort, loyalty, and dedication are all characteristics of good work ethics. To excel in a role, you must be committed, enjoy successes, be motivated by challenges, and be excellent internal and external ambassadors for your organisation. A person with these characteristics is punctual, completes tasks on time, and remains focused and organised. Work is completed efficiently and thoroughly. Individuals with strong work ethics can work independently while also following instructions.

Teamwork

Most employees are most likely members of a team, department, or division. Even those who are not officially part of a team must frequently collaborate with their coworkers. Even if you prefer to work alone, it is critical that you recognise and understand the importance of working together and collaborating to achieve the company's goals. You are demonstrating the soft skills required for productive collaborations by doing so.

Communication Skills

Effective communication consists of five components:

• The ability to express yourself clearly and accurately is required for verbal communication.

• Nonverbal communication includes body language and facial expressions.

• The ability to compose texts, reports, as well as other types of documents is referred to as written communication.

• Visual communication includes your ability to convey information through pictures as well as other visual aids.

• Finally, active listening is the ability to actually listen to and understand others. Effective communication necessitates the ability to listen. All communication will be one-sided and unlikely to be successful if you lack strong listening skills.

Adaptability

Even without the challenges of today's world, it is impossible to deny that change is a major part of the modern workplace. As technology advances, we are constantly changing our practices. Consider the most recent developments. A large number of offices began doing some or all of their work remotely. Video conferencing has become popular, as has the practice of working and collaborating online. Workers have been made to learn new methods, new technologies, as well as new ways of thinking in order to adapt to these changes. Because corporations have become more decentralised and agile over the last decade, employees must have a diverse set of skills and be willing to take on responsibilities outside of their comfort zone.

About EngConvo

EngConvo provides English language and communication coaching to working professionals, business people, homemakers, students, job seekers, and anyone else who wants to improve their communication skills for personal and professional development. EngConvo is determined to continue researching and innovating techniques and methodologies for learning English communication skills. EngCono's team has successfully combined tradition, technology, human behaviour, and psychology to train learners in the most effective way possible.