How to Master your Soft Skills and Become a Leader?

Creating good teamwork is an art in itself. It requires skills that are neither measurable nor specifically definable. These are what are known as "soft skills". Interpersonal skills, adaptability, communication, listening skills, empathy, creative thinking, motivation, and critical thinking are just a few. All of these skills are non-technical and highly human-centric. This makes them useful no matter what environment or situation you find yourself in.

8 Soft Skills Examples:

1. Interpersonal skills:

How do you interact with others? Do you treat people equally and with respect? Can you assert yourself while accepting other points of view?

2. Adaptability:

How well can you adapt to new and different situations? Do you run away, fight, or stick when circumstances change? Or do you see new opportunities in  new situations? Or do you redirect as needed?

3. Communication:

How do you communicate with others? Do you speak the truth? Do you manipulate? Do you speak in monologue or dialogue?

4. Listening skills:

How well do you take in what others communicate? Are you interested in others' perspectives? Do you take other people seriously?

5. Empathy:

How well do you understand other people? Are you able to put yourself into the shoes of all kinds of people and circumstances? Do you care about your fellow humans?

6. Creative thinking:

Can you think creatively and create a new good alternative path to what it used to be? Do you have the spirit of curiosity and exploration?

7. Motivation:

How motivated are you? Do you set  goals and be ambitious, or do you  give up easily? Are you looking for a reason to keep moving forward, or are you living life blindly?

8. Critical thinking:

How critical can you  think? Do you blindly believe  the status quo or  question it? Do you seek  the truth? Do you think for yourself or do you assume someone else's answer?

Learning by doing:

Soft skills cannot be learned by reading books or watching webinars. Like any other skill, this is learned through practice. You learn to listen by listening. By empathizing, you gain empathy, and by being creative, you become creative.

What all these skills have in common is their emphasis on human interaction. They all require a certain level of social and emotional intelligence to be successful, and you can't master these skills if you don't care about the people around you.

Tips To Gain Soft Skills:

1. Select Values:

If it is important to you to be a nice human being who shows compassion for others, you’ll have a reason to start developing your soft skills and feel a greater sense of accountability.

2. Rate your current level:

Looking at the skills above, which ones are you naturally good at and which are still in need of improvement? Rate them from a scale from 1-10 to identify which skills you need to focus on.

3. Find learning opportunities:

Depending on the skill you need to improve, find situations and experiences where you can improve your skill. For example, if you have trouble listening, call your grandparents and ask them to talk about their lives.

4. Track your progress:

Set yourself a concrete goal you want to reach and check in regularly to see how much progress you have made.

Road to Leadership:

To become a leader, you need to master many of the soft skills listed above. To build trust with the people you want to follow, you need to be a good communicator. You need to listen to them, show empathy, and motivate them, ect. Instead, it's important to build trust and get the support of people who believe your decisions are true and productive.

Anyone can become a leader, but those who are truly successful in embodying leadership qualities are those who have developed advanced soft skills. Remember,You are a team member and probably not a formal leader, so each team member should have a certain level of leadership skills. A team truly works only when everyone shares responsibility.