Quickthink

Our Negotiation Course Begins today!

Before getting started, you might pause for a second to ask yourself how often you think about the idea of “soft skills”.  How would you rate your own soft skills?  BTW,  “soft skills” is an unfortunate term to the extent that calling them “soft” makes them  seem unimportant. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Soft skills are those that we need to work more effectively with people. Wikipedia tells us

Soft skills is a sociological term relating to a person’s “EQ” (Emotional Intelligence Quotient), the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that characterize relationships with other people.^[1] Soft skills complement hard skills (part of a person’s IQ), which are the occupational requirements of a job and many other activities.

So what’s the big deal? As we move from industrial to post industrial and onto digital workplace environments, connecting with people becomes more important. It is not just a functional chore. People with higher levels of soft skills have a competitive advantage. And our communities function better if our friends have high soft skills levels.

So what soft skills are most important these days? Interesting question. I think they are the skills that help us communicate more effectively. To communicate effectively, you need cognitive and behavioral skills. And how to measure the results? Well, how about these attributes (from Training Zone)

adaptability

resilience

optimism

integrity

critical thinking

pro-activity

empathy

All of these things are important. I have a more basic one — learning how to have better conversations. So why not give yourself a rating and work on building your soft skills?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 at 8:33 am and is filed under Professional Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.