What are soft skills?
Soft skills focus on people's character, rather than focusing on the training they have received. They represent your approach to life and work, or simply they are personal skills related to the individual's personality, which characterize the way they interact with others in the workplace.
Soft skills are basically the interacting skills with others, personal skills, and communication abilities that your workforce needs for the long-term success of your organization. In the end, nearly every job requires employees to interact with others, both inside and outside your organization, which makes these skills something that cannot be ignored.
Soft Skills vs. Hard Skills:
We have shown how soft skills focus on character without relying on qualifications or work experience. Soft skills include personal skills, social skills, personality traits, dealing with others skills, and convertible skills. Hard skills are job-specific technical skills that your workforce acquires from education, certifications, training, and work experience. They can be taught, measured, and tested through tests and practical tasks.
While hard skills can be learned and mastered over time, soft skills are often more difficult to develop, evaluate, and measure.
Let's give an example of a course coach, and look at the soft and hard skills required for this role.
Solid Coach Skills:
- Extensive knowledge of the course program.
- Develop lesson plans.
- Develop learning strategies.
- Evaluate learners' work and do exams.
- Use suitable technology, such as the learning management system, and upload academic subjects.
Soft Coach Skills:
- Communication.
- Problem Solving.
- Critical thinking.
- Organization.
- Leadership.
Examples of soft skills:
Undoubtedly, hard skills are essential, as they are the basic requirements that your employees must have in order to be able to complete their job tasks. However, research has found that soft skills are responsible for 90% of employees’ advancement in their career success.
Let's take a closer look at some examples of soft skills required of any workforce:
- Self-stimulation.
- Teamwork.
- Creativity.
- Time management.
- Organization.
- Flexibility.
- Conflict resolution.
- Positivity.
- Communication.
- Leadership.
- Problem solving.
- Critical observation.
Reasons for interest in soft skills:
Soft skills have become required more than ever. Many organizations are beginning to give those skills the recognition they deserve for providing a confident and satisfied workforce that will keep your organization going.
Many employers assume that soft skills are all equally important to employees, but this is not always the case. Assuming that your workforce will simply know how to act in non-technical work situations is naive, as it is assuming that all employees have the same personalities.
Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, considered that soft skills are the largest skills gap in the United States. When your workforce is good at technical skills, but lacks soft skills, you may notice that your company has certain difficulties. For example, if your employees are well trained to acquire clients, but are not good at retaining them, you have a skills gap here. Fortunately, you can fill any soft skills gaps in your company through training.
Benefits of soft skills training courses:
LinkedIn conducted a study in early 2018 in 100 large cities in the United States, and discovered that 1.4 million people lack communication skills. Because soft skills, such as communication, can lead to the prosperity of your organization, training your workforce in these vital capabilities makes sense.
There are many options for training your workforce in soft skills. You can dedicate entire soft skills courses only as part of employee preparation, or you can add a soft skills section to your existing course content. And by investing in soft skills training for your workforce, you will get many benefits such as:
1. More Effective Communication:
Your employees will be able to communicate effectively with each other and with your clients, equipping them with the skills to express themselves clearly, to listen, and to handle difficult conversations.
2. Stronger leadership:
Your employees will be better able to delegate, provide, and accept feedback, take responsibility, and motivate themselves and others to achieve their goals.
3. Improved problem solving:
Your employees will be able to take the lead when it comes to identifying potential problems and obstacles to projects, tasks, and goals. Furthermore, they will be able to identify and apply solutions, or offer alternative solutions.
4. Promote Creative and Critical Thinking:
Soft skills training enables your employees to think outside the box creatively and critically. Using these skills, they will be able to evaluate their options and make informed decisions, making it easier for them to achieve the desired results.
5. Enhancing Teamwork, Efficiency and Productivity:
Soft skills enable your employees to collaborate and work together towards collectively achieving company goals, which in turn leads to improved efficiency and increased productivity.
Although the focus on soft skills is becoming increasingly popular, hard skills should not be overlooked. Soft skills and hard skills are equally important. So, give them equal priority in your learning and development strategy to build an inclusive workforce that has the skills you need to do a great job.
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