Team at work

How to make your soft skills stand out

In a professional setting soft skills are non-technical capabilities that help us to relate to other people and get our jobs done much more effectively. Everyone needs them – teachers, doctors, software developers, engineers, bankers, nurses, admin staff, etc.  

Have you got the right soft skills to help you land your next big job or grow in your current role? Stand out in the job market or your current workplace with the skills below. We have gone through loads of job adverts to find out what employers look for, so you won’t have to! Just make sure you have them…

What are soft skills?

Soft skills are a combination of one’s personality traits and acquired people skills. Although we cannot change our personalities, how we behave with or handle other people can be learnt and improved. And there are lots of good reasons why this would benefit you professionally. In present times, these seemingly fluffy set of skills are proving to be more and more important in giving people a competitive edge in a fiercely competitive job market. Formal qualifications and experience are no longer enough to land you your dream job.

A recent Human Resource survey shows that when looking to fill a vacancy, technical or hard skills (i.e. competency from one’s formal education, training or experience) only account for 70% of what employers are looking for. The remaining 30% is reserved for soft skills. Fortunately that means that a third of what employers are looking for can be acquired and improved in a number of ways, least of all through formal education.

How do you acquire soft skills?

  • Your personality inclines you to certain strengths and weaknesses. For example, an introvert may be more analytical and an extrovert more action orientated.
  • Through nurture/exposure. The way you were raised and the environment/s you have been exposed to can have an impact on your soft skills.
  • Through any personal development training you may have undertaken in the past such as communication and emotional intelligence courses.  
  • Through your work and life experiences.

This list is not exhaustive.

How do you know which soft skills you have?

  • Take a personality test. It will help you identify which soft skills might come naturally to you. Meyers Briggs and Belbin are two of the most popular personality tests.  
  • Carry out a personal SWOT analysis. This may be quicker and less structured than a personality test.
  • Ask for feedback from your colleagues and loved ones.

This list is not exhaustive.

What are the 5 must have soft skills for your career?

  1. Communication skills
  2. Leadership skills
  3. Emotional intelligence
  4. Problem solving
  5. Flexibility & adaptability

1. Communication skills

Communication is the ability to effectively receive and convey messages or information. As social beings, communication is at the centre of everything we do. We happen to communicate all the time. Sometimes consciously and other times less so. We do it at work, school, home and socially.

Yet despite communication being a natural and regular behaviour, not all of us are good at it. At work poor communication can lead to misunderstandings, stress, de-motivation, frustration, anger, or worse – job loss. Knowing how to communicate effectively can therefore help you reduce some of these issues and make you someone that other people want to work, study or socialise with. Polish up on this skill by checking out habit 5 of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Paul Covey or other resources.

Recruiters have long realised how invaluable effective communication is in the work environment. A quick browse of recent job adverts shows communication as the No. 1 soft skill in most, if not all, of them. Check that you have some of the following skills listed by employers;

  • listen effectively
  • speak articulately
  • present yourself and your information
  • engage or exchange ideas with others
  • respond to customer needs
  • respect other people’s opinions 
  • seek and follow guidance
  • use appropriate channels for communication e.g. virtual or face to face
Interaction and communication with others

 2. Leadership skills

Leadership and management are different concepts. In most simplistic terms, leaders are more strategic in that they drive an organisation towards its vision. Managers on the other hand are more operational in that they ensure the right steps are taken on an everyday basis towards that vision. To learn more about how to lead and influence others, see Dale Carnegie’s old-but-gold insights on How to Win Friends and Influence People.

For managerial positions recruiters explicitly require that prospective candidates have excellent and demonstrable leadership ability as part of their technical skills. Similarly, after our review of numerous job adverts, we found that leadership skills are also a key requirement for non-managerial roles. Check that you have some of the following skills listed by employers;

  • work autonomously
  • manage competing priorities
  • manage resources (e.g. staff, time, money)
  • make decisions
  • take personal responsibility
  • take initiative, be proactive or be a self-starter
  • achieve results
  • develop leads

Remember we are all leaders

You may not yet be a leader at work but you may already be one in other areas of your life. I also believe that we are all first and foremost our very own leaders i.e. self-leaders.

Self-leadership is important to our personal and professional progression. It enables us to determine what we want to achieve, the actions or resources we need for those goals and the ability to take consistent steps to achieve the results we want. With self-leadership we are able to take control of our destiny. Self-leadership can also be a launch pad into more formal leadership responsibilities, whether at work, home or in the community, so highlight it in your professional life.

Leadership

 3. Emotional intelligence

The ability to effectively handle people despite their diverse personalities and agendas has incredible benefits to your personal and professional goals. It helps you to get the most out of people and navigate tricky situations much more successfully.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to assess accurately and respond appropriately to your own emotions and those of others. David Goleman in his eye-opening bestseller says that those with high levels of emotional intelligence are not only very aware of who they are but are equally able to identify and other people’s emotions effectively.

What is emotional intelligence?

Being emotionally smart requires you to;

  • Be emotionally aware. Know the types of emotions you and others are prone to.
  • Understand different personality types and their behaviours.    
  • Know how to identify and assess different emotions and situations.
  • Respond appropriately and constructively to emotions and situations.

Emotional intelligence is required by employers. Check that you have some of the following abilities listed by employers;

  • influence others
  • collaborate and work well with others. Also a team player
  • build rapport and relationships. Also stakeholder management
  • work well with people from diverse backgrounds
  • be good with people. Also people skills
  • manage a team. Also motivate and enable others to achieve
  • work with others across the organisation despite their levels of responsibility
Different emotions in us and others

 4. Problem solving skills

In professional settings you will have probably heard it being said that it is much better to approach your managers with possible solutions instead of problems. There is a lot of truth to this.

As it is in our personal lives, all sorts of problems can be expected at work. Both big and small, internal and external, frequent and one-offs, technical and non-technical, and so on. This makes problem-solving is a vital and non-negotiable skill for your career – survival and growth in the work place.  

Depending on your level of responsibility at work, you may sometimes feel that resolving certain issues is above your pay grade and someone else’s responsibility. However, taking initiative to solve problems, directly or indirectly, is very likely to be noticed and rewarded. It is what could set you apart in the award of that much-envied promotion.

Recruiters are very much on the lookout for people with this skill. Be sure to have it. It has been described in numerous jobs adverts explicitly as problem solving or as the ability to;

  • apply innovation and creativity at work
  • find solutions to problems
  • deliver excellent customer service/Respond to customer needs
  • focus and see things through to completion
  • strategic/big-picture thinking
  • deliver operationally / attention to detail
  • challenge traditional ways of doing things
  • work collaboratively
Problem solving steps

5. Flexibility & adaptability

Besides a mother’s love (some may disagree), change is probably the only other constant thing. Things change a lot at work, home, school and in our personal lives, whether we want it or not. Think of changes brought about by the Covid 19 pandemic.

Being flexible or adaptable at work means being able to adjust yourself quickly and effectively to changes and still deliver on your expectations. Changes can be positive and/or negative. For example, your company might win a big contract and therefore require people to work longer hours for a certain period of time. In other jobs no two days are alike which requires staff to be flexible continuously. Change at work might also happen slowly, or rapidly as was the case when Covid 19 hit and people were required to work from home overnight.  

Being adaptable can save you lots of stress and give you an edge in a competitive and ever-changing job market. However, it is worth acknowledging that being adaptable is not always easy especially in the face of life-changing situations, for example after significant injury at work or job loss. 

Flexibility vs flexible working

Flexibility is not the same as flexible working. The latter is a way of working that takes into consideration the needs and circumstances of employees . For example allowing those that have caring responsibilities to have flexible start and finish times or to work from home so that they can better balance their work alongside caring responsibilities.  

Often employers list this skill as flexible or adaptable but also check that you have some of the following abilities also listed in job adverts;

  • work in an ambiguous and dynamic environment
  • work in a fast-paced environment
  • make decisions based on incomplete/unfolding information
  • demonstrate multi-skills
  • demonstrate continuous personal development
  • undertake any other duties assigned to fulfil one’s role
  • do things differently or non-traditionally
Plan C. Adaptability is a soft skill

In summary, these are some of the soft skills that seem to appear repeatedly in numerous job adverts but no doubt there are many others that are equally important.

Which soft skills would you say are key in your area of work and how have they helped your career growth?