LinkedIn surveyed 2,000 business leaders and looked at data points from its 500 million members. They asked employers, “Who and what are you looking to hire?” and asked the data, “What did employees possess to successfully land a job or earn a promotion?” In individual terms, “What is employability?” Fifty-seven percent of the time organization leaders, hiring managers, and human capital professionals said soft skills was the answer.
Soft skills, a term that is thrown around regularly. Everyone wants them, too few people have them, and even fewer are skilled enough to identify them in others.
For the purpose of this discussion let’s keep it simple. Soft skills are those interpersonal skills, abilities, individuals bring to work, home, and community. Emotional intelligence plays into the mix. They are often visible, hard to measure on a day-to-day basis, yet, can produce significant and long-lasting results. What most people don’t realize is how easily people with soft skills can translate their talents to a variety of settings and how transferrable they are in the workplace.
The survey identified four soft skills “most likely to get you hired.” I would add as well as get you promoted and/or allow you to change careers.
Workplace Soft Skills
Leadership: A trait, backed by experience, that encourages others to follow. It can be literal, such as heading a military charge but more often it is getting people to think and act in a way that is ethical, useful, and good for the group. Leaders have thoughts and beliefs that they share. They are strategic as well as tactical with both formal and informal styles depending on the circumstances. Soft-skilled leaders’ decisions always consider the impact they will have on others and they take responsibility for outcomes, regardless. Leaders address and settle conflict. They lead by example. People want to work with and for a good leader. They often aspire to be them.
Communication: People with strong soft skills communicate at many levels and in a variety of ways. They use all forms of communication — oral, written, body language, in appropriate places, times, and quantity. They have a natural ability to know when they should meet face-to-face and when an e-mail would suffice (or have more usefulness or impact). They actively listen and talk only when necessary. They are concise and respectful, and know how to get the attention of others, and plant an idea. They write well, speak well, and understand the importance of a clear message. One-word replies, e-mail only communication, or silence instead of disagreement aren’t how they operate. Many are naturals, though it is a skill that can be learned and honed.
Collaboration: The ability to work with others to get to the best integrative solution. People with excellent soft skills know how collaboration works. They appreciate and want to understand the positions of others and respect what aspects are most important to each participant. They recognize the strengths of each member and attempt to get the most from everyone. A good collaborator can get others to work together rather than compete or challenge. They set a tone that says, “we can achieve a consensual decision” and they show a determination for this to happen. Collaborators are aware they are a rare breed in the workplace. They also know decisions made through collaboration often are better thought-out and longer lasting.
Time Management: I was a bit hesitant to place this one on the list, but it was a survey result. My reasoning? I know many people who have great time management skills and very low emotional intelligence. That said, self-awareness is a big part of time management and self-awareness is an essential element in all soft skills. Being cognizant of your needs and habits, and those of others, is part of managing your time and energy. An open-door policy shouldn’t mean you are available all times of the day, yet you should be able to decipher when something unexpected requires immediate attention. A good time management leader has rules about availability, time allotted, and what constitutes an emergency. People with excellent soft skills can give too much time to people issues and not enough to the task at hand. Demonstrating you can know and show the difference is important.
What’s striking about this foursome — leadership, communication, collaboration, and time management, is they are not the skills listed by employers as most needed — technology and data management. It is my experience people working in these fields, who either naturally, or through learning and experience have acquired these soft skills, place themselves in an almost limitless career opportunity position. For those of us not in these fields, the job market is still very open and starving for executives with soft skills. The trick is how to prove they translate and transfer to people who might not have the insight or appreciation.
Soft skills — desperately needed, rarely rewarded, hard to measure, and in short supply. Coaching is one way of addressing the issue.
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