What Skills Do You Need To Be An Engineer – Is there someone (or hopefully several people) in your company that everyone seems to want to work with? Maybe it’s someone with amazing soft skills that gets them brainstormed. Or maybe they are the go-to person for some of the most important business issues. Or maybe it just seems like everyone on your team really, really likes them. Soft skills can advance your career just as much as hard skills and talent. But what exactly are soft skills? And why are they so important for the advancement of your career? Read on to find out, or use the links below to jump to a section. What are soft skills? How to acquire soft skills The 7 soft skills What are soft skills? Soft skills are the combination of social skills, communication skills, emotional intelligence and personality traits that make it easy to get along with other people and work together harmoniously. Soft skills can be taught, but they are not as simple as hard skills, which are specific qualities that can be clearly defined, measured, and taught in order to be successful in the job. Hard Skills allow you to learn advanced techniques and methods that deliver measurable results. They can even be linked directly to business outcomes. But when it comes to soft skills — things like small talk, empathy, and flexibility — they’re not an exact science, but they’re just as powerful. You need hard skills to get a job, but you need soft skills to advance in your career. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the soft skills most important to building a successful career – and how to acquire them. How to Acquire Soft Skills Soft skills, unlike hard skills, require situational awareness to know when to use which skill. If you get hired for an accounting job, you know that most days you’ll have to apply the skills you learned in school, such as math formulas, bookkeeping, and probably some work in a spreadsheet application. However, using soft skills is not so easy as they depend on intangible factors. This is why acquiring soft skills is so unique. Practice is the best way to acquire soft skills and demonstrate them effectively. And you may be wondering, “How can I emphasize soft skills in my role?” The answer is simple: genuine caring for others is the most important requirement for strengthening your soft skills and growing your career. Listen to your peers and leaders to understand their successes, challenges, opportunities, and concerns. Then see if you can offer skills, experience, advice, or resources. Practice this in your meetings, one-on-ones, and even during lunch breaks with the team. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you pick up these soft skills and advance your career. Here are seven soft skills and examples that will help you make an impact on your peers and your career. 7 Soft Skills You Need for Professional Growth Emotional Intelligence Team Player Attitude Growth Mindset Openness to Feedback Adaptability Active Listening Work Ethic 1. Emotional Intelligence Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage your emotions and the emotions of others. It consists of five key elements: self-confidence, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills. If you are interested in learning more about the specifics of the attributes of emotional intelligence, you can read this post to learn more, but in the context of the emotional workplace Intelligence relies on a few key skills: Can you identify and regulate your emotions and reactions in the workplace? Can you build relationships and positive relationships with other people? Can you empathize with others? Can you give and receive effective, constructive feedback? This may not sound like the most important skill for job growth and success, but in some cases it is. In an analysis of new hires who failed to meet expectations in their first 18 months on the job, 23% failed due to a lack of emotional intelligence. (Take this quiz to assess your emotional intelligence and identify areas where you can improve.) 2. Team Player Attitude The ability to play well with others is a soft skill that you acquire – unknowingly – have worked since your first day at school. school or daycare. You might not have known it when you fought for blocks or figured out the rules of a made-up game, but you were actually preparing for a lifetime of workplace collaboration. Whether you’re an individual employee or a human resource manager, you need to collaborate with other people – in meetings, brainstorming sessions, and on various cross-functional projects in your organization. A positive, purposeful attitude when working with others is essential for team harmony. This means you must be able to conduct an effective and inclusive meeting, be open to new ideas, and work respectfully with others. Read our guide to running better meetings for all personality types here, and improve on these relationship-building questions to get to know and work well with every team member you meet. 3. Growth Mindset In any job, no matter the role, you will encounter obstacles, disappointments, and other situations that might frustrate you. One soft skill that’s critical to your staying power is a growth mindset — a term coined by psychologist Carol Dweck to refer to a mindset that reflects using your skills, talents, and intelligence as skills consider that you can further develop and improve. Someone with a growth mindset might see failing to meet a quarterly goal as an opportunity to identify their strengths and weaknesses in order to tackle the goal for the next quarter. However, a person with a fixed mindset might say to themselves, “I’m not good at walking,” and without believing in the possibility of improvement, that negative attitude could also affect the success of their next quarter. Watch Dweck’s TED Talk to learn more about the growth mentality here – and try to find places in your daily correspondence or reflections where you can restate your attitude by embracing a challenge or setback as one consider the possibility of further development. 4. Openness to Feedback This is part of emotional intelligence, but especially when it comes to the workplace, openness and the ability to accept developmental feedback is critical to success at a job—especially a new job. Think about it: Constructive feedback helps you do the best job you can, and if you take it personally or react defensively, you won’t be able to hear the feedback and adapt it to your current strategy. The key to giving and receiving feedback is to start the conversation in a friendly way: you don’t receive constructive feedback because this person hates you personally, but because they want you to get the best out of you. You should work hard to get feedback that can help you achieve your goals more effectively. If you’re not yet comfortable with feedback, try immersion therapy—make feedback a part of your daily to-do list. Ask more of the people you work with for feedback to get instant help to improve your skills — and to make it easier to accept. 5. Adaptability Regardless of your role or industry, the ability to adapt to change – and a positive attitude towards change – are key to a successful career. Whether it’s a change of domicile or a major change of company, no one likes a complainant. It’s important to embrace change not just as a fact in the ever-evolving business world, but also as an opportunity to try new strategies to thrive in a changing environment (remember the growth mentality?). If you are uncomfortable with frequent changes in your team or organization, write down your feelings and reactions instead of voicing them immediately. By explaining how you’re feeling and why you’re feeling a certain way, you can separate valid concerns from complaints that may not need to be discussed with your team. 6. Active listening You can probably tell the difference between someone hearing the words you say and actively listening to what you say. If someone is typing while you’re presenting in a meeting, or gaping at you, they’re probably not really understanding what you’re saying. Active listeners, meanwhile, pay close attention to the meeting moderators, offer clarifying questions or answers, and refer to notes for future discussions. They don’t have to repeat things because they’re hearing them for the first time – which makes active listeners not only respectful colleagues, but also more effective employees. If you think you could improve your active listening skills, challenge yourself to not looking at your various devices during meetings, but instead to focus entirely on the speakers and take handwritten notes when necessary (which has been shown to help with helps preserve memory).
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