Ever wondered about the premise employers will use to judge competitive and qualified candidates apart from hard skills, expertise, and years of experience? The answer is SOFT SKILLS.

In recent times, employers now realise that although hard skills are important, soft skills are even more relevant to the growth and improvement of any organisation. Some employers now offer soft skill training to their employees. In 2018, LinkedIn listed leadership, communication, collaboration, and time management as the top four most in-demand soft skills.

While hard skills refer to specific skills and technical know-how that is required to get a job or task done, hard skills can also help any individual get a job and join a firm but soft skills will enable them to keep their jobs, excel in their jobs and enjoy good relationships and affiliations within the organisation and the society at large.

The Concept of Soft skills

Soft skills are also called common skills or core skills. They are positive character traits and attributes that an individual possesses that aid their interaction and communication with others in any given environment.

Soft skills are innate skills that characterize a person more than the knowledge they have gained over time or acquired by experience. Soft skill is the sum total of an individual’s character or personality. Soft skills are not limited to any profession.

Soft skills complement hard skills and both are relevant in any organization. They are prominent personal and interpersonal skills that individuals will need to relate with others and enjoy worthwhile relationships. Oftentimes, people who are perceived to be empathetic yet professional gain more opportunities in a saturated and competitive organisation because people are drawn to their personality.

Soft Skills seek to answer the question “who are you?” more than “what can you do?”.

While it can be learned, soft skills can not be measured. An individual can get better at Digital marketing or running social media ads but soft skills have no way to gauge if it has been internalised.

{Read: How Being Consistent Can Help You Become a Better Writer}

How the Term “Soft Skill” was Coined

According to Wikipedia, The term “soft skill” was created by the U.S. Army in the late 1960s. It was used to refer to skills that do not need machines to carry out a task.

Soft Skills You Need to Advance your Career

1. Emotional Intelligence

This is an individual’s ability to manage and interpret their emotions and that of others. Key elements of Emotional Intelligence are Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Motivation, Empathy, and Social skill.

To gauge emotional intelligence, an individual responds to situations – especially difficulties – with grace and kindness, and their mode of interaction with others when it is not particularly favorable to them is a clear marker of their level of emotional intelligence.

2. Team Player Attitude

Ever seen someone that everyone seems to get along pretty well with? No one individual can form an organisation. We all need to work with other individuals and relate well with them while getting the task done. The ability to be patient and not be too critical of others will help any individual to co-exist and cooperate with other members of his team.

3. Growth Mindset

This ever-winning mindset; this skill fuels any individual to look at any situation with optimism. And in the place of seeing problems and limitations, they seek to understand, analyse and find solutions to a particular problem.

4. Openness to Feedback

This generally refers to an individual’s reception of perceived judgment and criticism. Openness to feedback is a sure way to assess growth and foster team spirit. Being defensive and dismissing isn’t a way to garner good feedback. Rather it pushes people to be on edge with you and not be completely honest, which is a sure way to becoming disadvantaged. When any person accepts and works on feedback, they are on their way to immeasurable success.

Feedback is an individual’s roadmap to critically analyse their growth and weakness and strengths and to improve and level up.

5. Adaptability

This connotes an ability to accept a situation, a recent happening, a permanent or temporary situation, or even a permanent and nonreversible life event and look for a way to live with it and be content in place of complaining and wishing it away.

6. Active Listening

Active listening is the clear-cut demarcation between hearing and listening. While the former refers to acknowledging sounds and not paying real attention and the latter refers to paying rapt attention and understanding what a speaker is saying.

There are cues to when a person is actually listening; their body movements, the way they look at the speaker, etc are all indicators of a person paying active attention.

Active listening skill is essential in understanding any information and actively participating in giving useful feedback. To ensure effective listening, concentrate on the speaker and avoid doing other activities that might derail your attention.

Why Employers Now Employ People with Soft Skills

Employers look out for hard skills, but more than that they are concerned about how an individual’s personality and character can influence change in their organisation or mar change. Individuals that are wholesome in team playing and receiving feedback can be instrumental in developing innovations, campaigns, and feedback. Softskills ensure that individuals bring more value to the organisation and to themselves.