What Are Soft Skills?
Soft skills are the more intangible and non-technical abilities that are sought from candidates. For example:
Soft skills are sometimes referred to as transferable skills or professional skills.
As this term implies, these are skills that are less specialised, less rooted in specific vocations and more aligned with the general disposition and personality of a candidate.
Soft skills relate to your attitudes and your intuitions. As soft skills are less about your qualifications and more personality-driven, it is important to consider what your soft skills are and how you might show evidence of them before you apply for a job.
This is particularly true of the recruitment process for graduate programmes, where transferable skills and potential often take precedence over professional experience.
Why Are Soft Skills Important?
Soft skills are the difference between adequate candidates and ideal candidates.
In most competitive job markets, recruitment criteria are not limited to technical ability and specialist knowledge.
Every job role requires some interaction with others, whether they are colleagues or customers, so soft skills will be important to most employers.
Earlier in your career, recruiters will be looking for people who have the potential to become leaders.
They won’t expect you to have all the qualifications and experience from day one, but they will need to know that you have the qualities that will allow you to learn and grow in the role.
Here are some examples of the difference made by soft skills:
- A doctor is required to have an extensive repertoire of hard skills, especially the ability to diagnose and prescribe treatments for an array of ailments. But a doctor who does not have the soft skills of emotional intelligence, trustworthiness, and approachability is not likely to be very highly regarded by their patients.
- A salesperson, who may have an unrivaled and exhaustive knowledge of their market, will find it difficult to close a deal and retain their clients if they lack the soft skills of interpersonal skills and negotiation.
- A customer services professional with amazing organizational skills will only do well if they are also able to interact professionally with customers and have empathy and listening skills.
Soft skills are not just important when facing external customers and clients. They are equally important when it comes to interacting with colleagues.
Employers value soft skills because they enable people to function and thrive in teams and organizations as a whole.
A productive and healthy work environment depends on soft skills. After all, the workplace is an interpersonal space where relationships must be built and fostered, perspectives must be exchanged and, occasionally, conflicts must be resolved.
What Are the 10 Key Soft Skills?
This section is an extensive, but not exhaustive, guide to some of the key soft skills sought by employers.
1. Communication
Communication is one of the most important soft skills.
Able communicators can adjust their tone and style according to their audience, comprehend and act efficiently on instructions, and explain complex issues to colleagues and clients alike.
A key, often forgotten, communication skill is listening.
Whether you are dealing with a customer complaint or working with your colleagues, good listening skills will help you learn and respond correctly to the circumstance you have been presented with.
Equally as important are your verbal and non-verbal skills.
Verbal skills are key to fostering relationships that are collaborative and respectful, and ultimately, productive. This also applies to your written communication.
A lot of business communication is now played out by email, so it’s important to know good email etiquette and give instructions clearly and concisely.
2. Self-Motivation
Having a positive attitude and the initiative to work well without around-the-clock supervision is a vital soft skill for any employee.
Not only does it demonstrate reliability and commitment, but it also shows that you can fit efficiently into an organizational structure without the need for constant supervision.
To demonstrate your motivation, think about these keys skills:
- Positivity
- Ambition
- Commitment
- Initiative
3. Leadership
Leadership is a soft skill you can show even if you’re not directly managing others.
Those with strong leadership skills will have the ability to inspire others and lead teams to success. This is why it is a particularly sought-after skill.
People with good leadership skills will have a range of skills that are useful in the workplace, including:
- A positive attitude and outlook
- The ability to make quick and effective decisions
- Exemplary problem-solving or conflict management skills
- The ability to communicate effectively
- An aptitude for both self-motivating and motivating others
Even if you are applying for an entry-level role, don’t be afraid to demonstrate your potential by showing how you have positively influenced others to take a project to success.
4. Responsibility
Responsibility is a seldom talked-about but highly valued soft skill.
Colleagues who fail to take responsibility for their work will be less productive and less successful overall.
To demonstrate a high level of responsibility, make sure you can master these skills:
- Trustworthiness
- Discipline
- Motivation
- Conscientiousness
- Accountability
Taking responsibility means taking ownership of not only your goals but the wider company goals. This will mean taking the initiative to make improvements, accepting responsibility for any failures and really caring about working your way to success.
5. Teamwork
Like leadership, good teamwork involves a combination of other soft skills.
Working in a team towards a common goal requires the intuition and interpersonal acumen to know when to be a leader and when to be a listener.
Good team players are perceptive, as well as receptive to the needs and responsibilities of others.
6. Problem Solving
Problem-solving does not just require analytical, creative, and critical skills, but a particular mindset; those who can approach a problem with a cool and level head will often reach a solution more efficiently than those who cannot.
This is a soft skill that can often rely on strong teamwork too. Problems need not always be solved alone.
The ability to know who can help you reach a solution, and how they can do it, can be of great advantage.
7. Decisiveness
Decisiveness is characterised by the ability to make quick and effective decisions. It does not mean recklessness or impulsiveness.
Decisiveness combines several different abilities:
- The ability to put things into perspective
- Weigh up the options
- Assess all relevant information
- Anticipate any consequences, good and bad
A decisive employee will take effective and considered action quickly, especially when under pressure.
They take responsibility for the consequences of their decision and can adapt when mistakes are made. This ensures that opportunities aren’t missed by lengthy analysis or debate.
8. Ability to Work Under Pressure and Time Management
Many jobs come with demanding deadlines and, sometimes, high stakes. Recruiters prize candidates who show a decisive attitude, an unfaltering ability to think clearly, and a capacity to compartmentalise and set stress aside.
Time management is closely related to the ability to work under pressure, as well as within tight deadlines.
Employees who manage their time well can efficiently prioritise tasks and organise their diaries while adopting an attitude which allows them to take on new tasks and deadlines.
9. Flexibility
Flexibility is an important soft skill, since it demonstrates an ability and willingness to embrace new tasks and new challenges calmly and without fuss.
Flexible employees are willing to help out where needed, take on extra responsibilities and can adapt quickly when plans change.
Employers are looking for candidates who can show a willing and upbeat attitude, and who are unfazed by change.
10. Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
This is another of those soft skills which employers look for in potential leaders.
To be an adept negotiator is to know how to be persuasive and exert influence, while sensitively seeking a solution which will benefit all parties.
Similarly, conflict resolution depends on strong interpersonal skills and the ability to establish a rapport with colleagues and clients alike.
How to Push Your Soft Skills in Your Resume and at Interview
As with hard skills, you should spend some time considering what your soft skills are (it may help to ask people who know you well) and highlight them in your resume and in job interviews.
Hard skills can be shown via qualifications, but soft skills are more slippery.
It is important to fully research the company you are applying to and identify which of your soft skills are most relevant to the role.
Once you have identified the soft skills that are most relevant to the role you are applying for, make sure you prepare to talk about them at the interview and include them as keywords in your resume or cover letter.
Since soft skills are necessarily abstract, you should reinforce any claims with examples of when you were able to use them to achieve positive outcomes.
These examples can be drawn from professional, personal or academic experiences:
- If you’ve been an undergraduate student, you will probably have experience of juggling various deadlines and extra-curricular responsibilities.
- If you have previously worked in any job with a customer service element, you may have had to use your communication and conflict resolution skills to manage any complaints.
- On your resume, the easiest and most essential way to show your soft skills of communication and attention to detail is to proofread ruthlessly and eliminate any typos.
- In your interview, demonstrate your interpersonal skills by being professional, making eye contact, shaking hands, listening closely to the questions, and answering them fully.
How to develop soft skills?
By this point, you’ve learned that soft skills are critical to getting and keeping a job. And you have some idea of what soft skills you have and lack. But how do you get those qualities? Are you born with soft skills and that’s it?
Fortunately, no. You can develop any soft skill your heart desires. Here’s how.
Step 1: Prioritize which skills to develop
Before you can improve, you need to know which skills you lack.
A simple and effective way to find your weaknesses is to simply ask others who know you.
To get their honest feedback, ask them to take this Insight quiz. Based on their responses and your response about yourself, it calculates your level of self-awareness (or your assessment of yourself compared to others) and sends you the results.
If you’re still unsure, start by making a list of your most desired soft skills. A great place to start is this comprehensive list by LinkedIn (or this list on LifeHack).
The top 10 most desired soft skills, according to LinkedIn are (its category is in parentheses):
- Communication
- Organization (time management)
- Teamwork (collaboration)
- Always punctual (time management)
- Critical thinking (problem solving)
- Social skills (collaboration)
- Creativity (problem solving)
- Interpersonal communication
- Adaptability (leadership)
- Friendly personality (collaboration)
Once you decide what skills to focus on, set aside time to improve.
Step 2: Dedicate time to improving
Just like you should continue to learn hard skills that apply to your job (like better marketing tactics or an understanding of financial statements), you should also make steady progress on your soft skills.
In fact, some experts say that you can reach an impressive level of competency in a topic by putting in just 20 hours of deliberate practice.
So if you work on your soft skills for just five minutes per day, you’ll reach those 20 hours in one short year – not counting weekends and two weeks of vacation.
Finally, it’s time to get to work.
Step 3: Find resources for studying
Just like a hard skill, you can learn a soft skill through study, practice and application.
But how should you study?
Gone are the days when you had to pore over a dry textbook to learn something new. With today’s technology, you can get the best advice from the world’s premier experts on any given topic – in a variety of formats.
A few free resources you’ll find helpful include:
- Podcasts. You can find podcasts on almost any topic imaginable, including instruction on how to develop any soft skill. Most podcasts have a guest speaker who provides unique insight, plus analysis and content from the host.
- Blog articles. The blogosphere is full of how-to advice. Look, in particular, for in-depth guides with research – anyone can post their thoughts on the internet, but high-quality writers will provide data to support their claims.
- Online videos. To see soft skills in action, watch a video! You can find instructors from around the world on YouTube, Vimeo and other sites. Unlike reading or listening, you can learn by observation.
But free content tends to lack comprehensive detail. For even more depth, consider these paid resources:
- Curated content. If you want an expert to help you decide what to focus on, consider curated content. These are ongoing subscriptions or memberships, and you’ll usually get a new topic every week or month for as long as you stay a member.
- Online courses. Unlike curated content, courses have a start and end time, and you can either follow a dictated timeline or finish at your own pace. The best ones combine video and other media to teach one specific skill and usually are broken down into separate lessons. This multimedia format has been proven to increase comprehension.
- Books. Perhaps the oldest way to learn a new skill, books provide a tremendous amount of research you won’t find anywhere else. Look for more recent publications (or even digital titles), since business culture and technology etiquette changes rapidly.
Step 4: Practice intelligently
No matter what skill you want to improve, you can put your newfound knowledge to use with practice.
For maximum practice, you need a few key components:
- Reaching and repeating. Try a new technique that challenges your current level of understanding – then repeat often. For example, experiment with a new data analysis strategy on each spreadsheet you review for an entire week.
- Engagement. Make sure you trim the practice down to stay interested. For example, if you’re struggling with a compelling conclusion to a presentation, practice just the conclusion – not the rest of the speech.
- Purposefulness. Practice in a way that directly relates to your weak area. For example, if you struggle with speaking to large groups, practice speaking in smaller groups rather than just rehearsing on your own.
- Strong, speedy feedback. Get someone to review your skills and provide areas for improvement as often as possible. For example, have your mentor give you leadership feedback verbally right after a meeting, instead of by email the next day.
Over time, this type of active practice will show measurable improvements in your soft skills.
And since soft skills predict your success in life, it’s an investment that will last years to come.
