What Are Soft Skills in the Workplace?
One way to understand what soft skills are is by looking at hard skills. These are job-specific technical skills. So if you’re a software developer, your hard skills are your ability to program. If you’re an accountant, it’s your ability to do your client’s taxes. Every area of specialty comes with certain expectations for technical knowledge and hands-on skills.
In contrast, soft skills are more general and cut across most types of jobs. Soft skills are essentially your ability to work well with others. When a physician takes the time to connect with other doctors with a professional attitude and talk to nurses in supportive ways and really listen to patients, those physicians are building relationships through their soft skills.
When I do consulting and workshops, the most common problem I see is that most of my clients are smart, they’re competent, but they have underdeveloped soft skills, and it’s holding them back. So two resources I would suggest are on my website. I have classes at the Communication Coach Academy. Then there’s always at least one free class there. I also have a free PDF download on the five essential communication skills that every professional should have. I’ll put links to those in the description below the video.
To prepare for this video, I looked at five different online articles on soft skills until I started to see clear overlap. Links to those articles are in the description below. I stopped at five articles because they all started to mention the same skills. I then boiled down those separate lists into the eight most commonly mentioned soft skills across those lists. So roughly speaking, I list these in order of priority based upon those lists and also my own professional experience working with clients in corporate settings.
Top 8 Soft Skills
- Leadership: Leadership is your ability to successfully guide a group of people from point A to point B. This doesn’t necessarily require an official leadership position. Leadership skills include communicating, inspiring goals and a vision, coaching, mentoring, and engaging team members effectively.
- Communication: This includes both verbal and nonverbal communication. Verbal skills involve clear and concise updates, emails, and reports. Nonverbal skills include eye contact, facial expressions, and body language. Advanced communication includes public speaking, storytelling, and persuasive communication.
- Interpersonal Skills: These include listening, communicating a positive attitude, building rapport, showing empathy, using light humor appropriately, being assertive without aggression, and giving and receiving criticism constructively.
- Work Ethic and Self-Motivation: This involves dependability, meeting deadlines, taking initiative, time management, and being self-directed. Employers value those who don’t require micromanagement.
- Teamwork: This refers to the ability to collaborate and work cooperatively with others. Successful teamwork often involves connecting with team members and stakeholders, adopting a collectivistic view, and avoiding individualistic behavior.
- Problem Solving: This includes critical thinking, logical reasoning, decision-making, research, creativity, and resourcefulness. Problem solvers approach challenges systematically and prepare well for obstacles.
- Flexibility and Adaptability: Being flexible means responding positively to change and uncertainty, being trainable, and remaining productive under pressure while staying easy to work with.
- Conflict Management and Negotiation: Avoid being a source of conflict. Instead, handle conflicts productively, seek common ground, and aim for win-win solutions. Use negotiation and facilitation skills to resolve disagreements.
