Soft skills — magic or knowledge skills?
What are the Soft skills and why it’s important
The basic set of professional competencies is split into Soft and Hard Skills.
Soft skills — are highly professional skills that help us to resolve daily-routine tasks and work with people. We need to develop and grow this Skillset regardless of our work specialization.
Soft skills — are valuable in all areas, are formed in childhood, and are related to emotional intelligence.
Hard skills — narrow professional skills needed for specific tasks in daily work. They are needed to resolve specific tasks, can be educated, and are based on technical knowledge.
Hard skills can be learned in a few weeks and their effectiveness can be measured.
Scientists from Harvard, Stanford, and the Carnegie Foundation discovered that “soft skills” are 85% of a person’s success in a profession; hard skills account for 15% only.
In 2017, Google had an internal investigation to determine the most productive teams within the company. They discovered that their best teams were mixed groups of employees with strong soft skills. They highlighted such important skills as communication, empathy, and leadership.
Flexible and hard skills should be complementary to each other to solve tasks of different complexity. For example, a graphic designer or architect would have great helpful soft skills: communication, creative thinking, empathy, and hard skills: knowledge in such professional tools like Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator, Canva, Sketch, Figma, Zeplin, Autodesk Maya, GIMP, etc.
Top 14 main Soft skills you should know as well
Below provides the actual soft skills set that helps you define or/and upgrade your practice knowledge:
1. Communication:
Communication — is an information transfer process, knowledge, or information exchange between people. For example, small talk in the office elevator or coffee orders in the coffee shop. Communication helps us build interpersonal relationships and resolve all issues: personal and professional.
The communication process includes 2 skills:
- Business communication — the power of corresponding and negotiating with colleagues, clients, and management for problem-solving and achieving goals.
- Presentation and public speaking — the ability to speak clearly and concisely, to present your ideas to others.
Critical thinking — is the ability to manage information in a balanced way. We live in an information flow day-by-day. It’s easy to lose the focus of the objectives. You can easily become a victim of information manipulation. This skill helps us to verify and clarify all information we need, clearly understand the dependencies between different facts, think rationally, make the right decisions and formulate strong arguments.
How to develop. Develop logic and observation. Try to identify the behaviors in roles with colleagues at work. Observe how they respond to incoming information. Learn to ask questions. Apply critical thinking techniques to the news, for example, start with simple “5W+H” information verification techniques.
What to learn about communication:
Books
- Morten Hansen “Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Build Common Ground, and Reap Big Results”
- Mark Rhodes “How To Talk To Absolutely Anyone: Confident Communication for Work, Life and Relationships’’
- Jim Camp “Start with NO…The Negotiating Tools that the Pros Don’t Want You to Know”
- Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, Bruce Patton “Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In”
2. Critical thinking:
Critical thinking — is the ability to manage information in a balanced way. We live in information flow day-by-day. It’s easy to lose the focus of the baseline. So that you can easily become a victim of manipulation. This skill helps us to verify and clarify all information we need, clearly understand the dependencies between different facts, think rationally, make the right decisions and formulate strong arguments.
How to develop. Develop logic and observation. Try to identify the role behaviors of colleagues at work. Observe how they respond to incoming information. Learn to ask questions. Apply critical thinking techniques to the news. For example, start with simple “5W+H” information verification techniques.
What to learn about Critical thinking:
Books:
- Diane F. Halpern “Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking”
- Vincent Ruggiero “Art of Thinking, The: A Guide to critical and Creative Thought”
- Erik Vance “Suggestible You: The Curious Science of Your Brain’s Ability to Deceive, Transform, and Heal”
- Tom Chatfield “Critical Thinking: Your Guide to Effective Argument, Successful Analysis and Independent Study First Edition”
3. Customer focus
Customer focus — is the ability to identify the needs and desires of your audience. With this approach, you can connect customers’ expectations and needs with your proposition. For example, your client has no time to visit your service station’s seasonal tire changing procedure and you provide tire replacement service with a visit to the customer directly. In this way, you give them added value with customer care.
How to develop. Investigate your customer and target audience. Explore audiences in different areas of your life.
What to learn about Customer focus
Books:
- Jack Mitchell “Hug Your Customers: The Proven Way to Personalize Sales and Achieve Astounding Results”
- Carl Sewell, Paul B. Brown “Customers for Life: How to Turn That One-Time Buyer Into a Lifetime Customer”
- Ken Blanchard, Sheldon Bowles “Raving Fans : Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service”
- Philip Graves “Consumerology: The Truth about Consumers and the Psychology of Shopping”
4. Project Management [PM]
Projects are all around us. Developing a mobile app or website, football stadium construction, and organizing weddings, to name a few. Different people are involved in the project: the client, contractors, assistants, external actors like government agencies, and so on. The project manager stands in the middle of the system. He manages and controls the project’s life-cycle and is responsible for the project’s success.
How to develop. You can present any of your cases as a project. Define goals, milestones, and deadlines. Think about how you can improve your project .1. with PM instruments, 2. a basic approach, and 3. domain best practices. You can save time, money and improve the project yourself.
What to learn about project management
Books:
- Mark Forster “Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management”
- Jeff Sutherland, J.J. Sutherland “Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time”
- David J. Anderson, Donald G Reinertsen “Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business Blue Book ed. Edition”
- Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister “Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams”
5. Mentoring
Our basic professional knowledge may be different from what is required for day-to-day work tasks. A mentor helps to cover the knowledge gap for professional growth and adaptation to the demands of the job.
If your question can be googled in 15 minutes, there is no such question. It can be answered by a teacher or/and a coach, but not by a mentor.
A mentor will help you make a personal development plan and track your progress. You work with him regularly to track progress and adjust your learning. If you become a mentor yourself, you can share skills and knowledge with other people who need that competence. Adapt the team to the task, project, or workplace.
How to develop. Think about what competencies you need to develop, and how to do it more effectively. Make a training plan for half a year. Prioritize your plan and make a roadmap. Follow it and analyze your results. When you learn how to manage your learning, invite your colleagues or friends to be their mentors for a while. This way you will practice the mentoring skill and help other people. You can find future mentees in your company or/and search for many relevant groups on Facebook, telegram, and elsewhere.
What to learn about project mentorship
Books:
- John C. Maxwell “Mentoring 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know”
- Hilarie Owen “The Complete Guide to Mentoring: How to Design, Implement and Evaluate Effective Mentoring Programmes”
6. Nonviolent communication
Nonviolent Communication [NVC] is a method of communicating clearly, understandably, and accurately to your interlocutor and getting your point across. In Nonviolent Communication you communicate an observation to your interlocutor, reinforce it with facts, talk about your need and formulate a request. This way, you do not hurt people, meet your needs, identify violent communication and stop it in time. The skill helps to negotiate in collective meetings and personal communication with colleagues and loved ones.
Dr. Marshall B. Rosenberg was a founder and author of the NVC methodology.
How to develop. Learn to understand yourself and the people around you with empathy. Apply Nonviolent Communication techniques to your friends so you can practice them safely. Attend NVC meetings and training where people learn how to communicate without violence.
What to learn about nonviolent communication
Global organization: The center of nonviolent communication [CNVC].
Books:
- Marshall B. Rosenberg PhD, Deepak Chopra “Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships (Nonviolent Communication Guides)”
- Patrick King “Improve Your People Skils: Build and Manage Relationships, Communicate Effectively, Understand Others, and Become the Ultimate People Person”
7. Decision Making
Decision-making — the ability to consciously choose the best solution from among the possible options. This skill helps to achieve our goals quickly and with maximum benefits. For example, if you receive two interesting job offers, but you don’t know which one to choose, you can miss out on both.
How to Develop. To develop decision-making skills, you need to see as many options as possible, prioritize correctly in each situation, and choose the best possible decision. If you see a difficult unsolvable task, ask for help from your supervisor and create a solution, not a problem.
What to learn about Decision Making
Books:
- Chip Heath, Dan Heath “Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work”
- Dr. Adam Ferner “Think Differently: Open your mind. Philosophy for modern life: 20 thought-provoking lessons (BUILD+BECOME)”
- Tal Ben-Shahar PhD “Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness”
8. Problem-solving
If something goes wrong, you can complain/seek blame or make decisions. The problem-solving skill helps you solve challenges at work and in life. The more you practice it, the more difficult situations you’ll be able to handle and resolve. Problem-solving is similar to project management and decision making — you overcome challenges to achieve goals and get results.
How to Develop. Identify a few major problems in your life and come up with 20–30 possible resolving scenarios for each. Set a deadline and try to implement each of them in that time. If you can’t solve the problem, think of new ways to deal with it. The most important thing about a problem is to find a satisfying solution.
What to learn about Problem-solving
Books:
- Daniel Kahneman “Thinking, Fast and Slow”
- Morgan D. Jones “The Thinker’s Toolkit: 14 Powerful Techniques for Problem Solving”
- Nat Greene “Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers”
Course:
- Coursera “Creative Problem Solving” by the University of Minnesota.
9. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage emotions, motivation, personal intentions, and others’. This skill helps to solve practical problems, make decisions, and build communication with others. For example, if during your presentation session you see that your listeners are tired, take a break and change their attention. You can manage that.
How to develop. To upgrade your emotional intelligence, you need to develop empathy toward yourself and others. Observe your own emotions and the emotions of others. Think about what they are related to and how they affect those around you. Try to control yourself and make better decisions based on observations. Look at the situation from a third-party perspective, as an analyst-observer.
What to learn about Emotional Intelligence
Books:
- Daniel Goleman “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” and “Working With Emotional Intelligence”
- Anthony Mersino “Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers: The People Skills You Need to Achieve Outstanding Results”
- Susan David “Emotional Agility”
- Travis Bradberry, Jean Greaves “Emotional Intelligence 2.0”
Course:
- Coursera “Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence” by the Case Western Reserve University.
10. Knowledge management and learnability
Learning is the ability to learn new information and apply it to everyday tasks. Knowledge builds competencies, and competencies build skills. It is important not to collect concepts and theories, but to implement them in practice, turning them into full-fledged competencies. Knowledge management helps you choose the right sources of information, sort them, and analyze and manage your learning plan.
How to Develop. Make a personal learning plan, identify the information you need, and choose the knowledge you want to put into practice. It is important to understand that theory without practice is not effective. Always look for opportunities to put the new theory into practice and you succeed in that knowledge.
What to learn about Knowledge management and Learnability
Books:
- Josh Kaufman “The Personal MBA 10th Anniversary Edition”
- Kay Peterson, David A. Kolb “How You Learn Is How You Live: Using Nine Ways of Learning to Transform Your Life”
- Dan Waldschmidt “Edgy Conversations: How Ordinary People Achieve Outrageous Success”
11. Working in uncertainty mode [VUCA]
Today you often hear the term VUCA. It is a characterization of today’s world:
- V–Volatility
- U–uncertainty
- C–complexity
- A–ambiguity
All these points are combined into an umbrella term — Agility. Working in an uncertain regime we should be able to react quickly to requirements changes, make decisions, and manage projects and your resources. Uncertainty mode includes the Stress management skill-set.
Stress management — the management of the condition and behavior of your own and other people in periods of physical and psychological stress-pressure: tight deadlines, force majeure, over-loads, and so on.
How to develop. You need to develop your independence. Think of ways out of different difficult situations, try approaches you haven’t used before. Try new tools: messengers, data mapping tools, online learning formats, remote work, etc. Follow trends and new technologies, and choose what works for you. Open your startup or start writing a book. Think of ways to develop it in different circumstances: when everything is going well, in a crisis, when there is a lot of competition or no desire to do it.
Important: Always leave a personal operational capacity. Don’t overload yourself by 100…120% and more!
What to learn about VUCA
Books:
- Tim Harford “Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives”
- Neen James “Attention Pays: How to Drive Profitability, Productivity, and Accountability”
- Carl Honore “In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed”
- Paul Woods “How to Do Great Work Without Being an Asshole: (Guides for Creative Industries)”
- Annie Duke “Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts”
12. Lean manufacturing.
Lean manufacturing is the ability to eliminate waste of any kind, find bottlenecks, and improve the process of creating something. The skill helps to save resources for a particular person or an entire production. For example, if you calculate your workload correctly, you don’t burn out, so you have time to do more and better. The skill is necessary for entrepreneurs who are involved in small, medium, or large-scale production.
How to develop. Organize your own space: your desk, your computer, your apartment. In lean manufacturing there is the 5S technology — removing unnecessary things, self-organization, observing cleanliness, standardization of processes, and improving order. Start with it — put your closets in order, and create your system of storing and sorting things, trash and information.
Sort emails and files on your computer and phone, and make your space comfortable. The better your systems are, the better you will develop the skill. Plan your tasks through a kanban or scrum board.
What to learn about Lean manufacturing
Books:
- James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones “Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated”
- Thomas Fabrizio, Don Tapping “5S for the Office: Organizing the Workplace to Eliminate Waste 1st Edition”
- Shigeo Shingo, Andrew P. Dillon “A Study of the Toyota Production System (Produce What Is Needed, When It’s Needed)”
- Michael L. George “Lean Six Sigma: Combining Six Sigma Quality with Lean Production Speed”
13. Ecological Thinking
Ecological thinking is the ability to consciously deal with events without harming oneself or others. Ecological thinking implies responsibility for one’s actions and a positive attitude toward the world. The skill helps you to be passionate about what you do and get satisfaction from the result. For example, if a deadline in a project gets pushed back, you don’t panic, but look for a solution. You are quicker to overcome difficulties and strive to finish your work well.
How to develop. Develop proactive thinking instead of reactive thinking. For example, if someone is rude to you in a line, you don’t answer back, but first, think and decide whether it’s worth being rude in return. If this does not improve anyone, then a response is not worth it.
Be environmentally conscious about the resources you use at home: separate your trash, turn off the water when you brush your teeth, buy less plastic, or recycle your clothes.
What to learn about Ecological Thinking
Books:
- John G. Miller “Flipping the Switch: Unleash the Power of Personal Accountability Using the QBQ!”
- Joshua Becker “The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own”
- Yutaka Yazawa “How to Live Japanese”
- Timothy Morton “Being Ecological (The MIT Press)”
14. Self-Reflection
Self-reflection is an independent analysis of one’s actions, behavior, and activity. It helps you evaluate your actions, recognize them, and decide what to do next. For example, if you can’t get along with your colleagues, self-reflection can help you find mistakes in communication on your part. This skill develops awareness — you will make better decisions if you know yourself and are aware of your needs.
At every stage of your training, you need to consciously set goals. The goal-setting skill helps you formulate and achieve them. In a separate piece, we explained in detail how to work with goals for your training and present it as a project.
How to develop. Observe yourself: note the details of your behavior and actions. Try keeping a diary: write down your impressions of the day, insights, and analysis of your behavior. Write down every day the people you are grateful to for something in your life.
— Read my bookshelf overview:
What to learn about Self-reflection
Books:
- Mark Williams, Danny Penman “Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World”
- Viktor E. Frankl “Man’s Search for Meaning”
- Immanuel Kant “The Critique of Pure Reason”
Conclusion
In conclusion, here is my recommendation: how to determine the direction of development for yourself.
Gallop has developed a test to help determine predispositions:
Enjoy your life through skills development!
