Soft Skills are about behavior and thinking, personal traits and cognitive skills. These’re typically more difficult to measure, but these can also help a person thrive in a variety of roles and industries. While hard skills are usually very specific to a person’s role in their company, the top soft skills like creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, emotional intelligence are needed to be successful in nearly any role.
Soft skills are personal attributes that influence how well you can work or interact with others. These skills make it easier to form relationships with people, create trust and dependability, and lead teams. Most interactions with other people require some level of soft skills. At a company you might be negotiating to win a new contract, presenting your new idea to colleagues, networking for a new job, and so on. We use soft skills every day at work and developing these soft skills will help you win more business and accelerate your career progression.
The workplace has evolved an interpersonal dynamic that can’t be ignored. The acts of listening, presenting ideas, resolving conflict, and fostering an open and honest work environment all come down to knowing how to build and maintain relationships with people. It’s those relationships that allow people to participate fully in team projects, show appreciation for others, and enlist support for their projects. It’s important for you to recognize the vital role soft skills play within your team and not only work on developing them within yourself, but encourage their development throughout the organization. On the other hand, a lack of soft skills can limit your potential, or even be the downfall of your business.
Developing soft skills is a (sometimes uncomfortable) process, because employees must first engage in a little self-reflection before they’ll know which soft skills training they need. This can be tough. Mentoring can be an effective way to deal with this problem.
At its core, mentoring is about people coming together and learning from one another. It’s about having real conversations, being open with one another, showing empathy, and building relationships. In a nutshell, mentoring relationships help people improve soft skills such as listening, receiving feedback and being empathetic because they use those same skills in the relationships themselves. People can practice those skills during mentoring, even if the main focus of the relationship is not centered on the soft skill itself. A surprising benefit is that mentoring empowers mentors to improve their soft skills.
Mentoring develops questioning and active listening skills. Emotional intelligence goes way beyond professional success or gaining the trust of others in the workplace. It can cultivate our personality, improve our interpersonal relations and boost our empathy for other people. And, while there are a lot of ways to improve emotional intelligence, mentoring is a strong example. Mentoring teaches leadership and job satisfaction.
Every employer whether he is looking to hire someone with blockchain knowledge or expertise in design he’ll be making sure that candidates have a desirable mix of soft skills as well, emotional intelligence, a skill important in just about every role.
