What Are Soft Skills?
Soft skills relate to how you work. Soft skills include interpersonal (people) skills, communication skills, listening skills, time management, and empathy, among others. They are among the top skills employers seek in the candidates they hire because soft skills are important for just about every job.
Hiring managers typically look for job candidates with soft skills because they make someone more successful in the workplace. Someone can be excellent with technical, job-specific skills, but if they can't manage their time or work within a team, they may not be successful in the workplace.
How to improve your soft skills
There are many benefits to improving your soft skills, including relationship building with coworkers and career development. Here are 11 steps to improve your soft skills:
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Be open to feedback.
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Communicate often.
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Emphasize teamwork.
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Build positive relationships.
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Step outside of your comfort zone.
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Get ready to learn.
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Adapt to workplace changes.
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Observe others.
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Work through conflict.
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Take on a leadership role.
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Arrive to work on time.
1. Be open to feedback
A large part of improving your soft skills is being open to feedback you may receive from supervisors, managers, and even coworkers. When you're open to feedback, you can be better able to receive constructive criticism and use that information to improve in your workplace role, including your soft skills. You may receive feedback on your communication skills, ability to work in a group, time management, leadership potential, and more.
2. Communicate often
Effective communication is a soft skill that benefits everyone in the workplace. Although you may have tasks and responsibilities that don't require the help of anyone else in your office, take the opportunities you have to form relationships with those around you. Communicate often to develop this soft skill.
3. Emphasize teamwork
When you engage in good teamwork, you show your employer that you are great at collaborating with others. Teamwork could occur in a group setting for a presentation or one-on-one with another coworker to complete a shared task. During a shared task or daily responsibility, allow each member of the group to contribute their share and celebrate the different skills and personalities of the group.
4. Build positive relationships
A lot of the soft skills you use in the workplace rely on the relationship you have with other employees and managers. You can build positive relationships with your coworkers by engaging in a genuine conversation about their weekend plans, family, hobbies, and interests. Try to find ways to connect with them over a shared experience. If you work in a department with multiple people, consider asking everyone if they would be interested in going out for a group lunch on Friday.
5. Step outside of your comfort zone
As with anything you want to improve, it's important to step outside of your comfort zone and take on something new. This may be a new setting, new responsibilities or a leadership role. You can even offer to be the one in your group who gives the project presentation as a way for you to improve your public speaking skills. Placing yourself in unfamiliar territory professionally has the potential to showcase to your manager how seriously you take your job and allows you to learn something completely new.
6. Get ready to learn
As you go through your process of improving any soft skill, you may encounter setbacks, but you'll likely encounter many successes too. In either case, what's important is that you learn from them.
For example, if you are in charge of a project and are working on your leadership and collaboration soft skills, consider taking time after the project is complete or even in phases during it to gather feedback on your leadership and how the project could improve next time. The people you work with are best able to evaluate how the project went and offer their feedback based on prior experiences.
7. Adapt to workplace changes
It's common for a workplace to go through fluctuations in anything from the office staff to workplace procedures, and one way to improve your soft skills is to be adaptable. Adaptability is also an important soft skill to have so you can come up with alternative solutions to any workplace issues that may arise. Be open to learning new technologies when they're released and assist with training newcomers to the organization.
8. Observe others
One of the strongest ways you can improve your soft skills is by observing others around you. This can mean paying attention to managers, coworkers, and employees from other departments. Observe the way they complete a task, including how they interact with others and their individual process, which may involve many soft skills. It's important to be open to learning from others, as everyone comes to the workplace with their own set of hard and soft skills.
9. Work through conflict
It's not uncommon for there to be conflict in the workplace, but how you work through it is what matters. When conflict arises, think of alternate ways to resolve it so you can continue your relationship with coworkers, learn from each other and continue to be productive as teammates. All members of the organization benefit from a collaborative work environment, and you can display your abilities as a team player and capabilities as a leader.
10. Take on a leadership role
To improve your leadership soft skills, consider taking on an actual leadership role in the workplace. Start by speaking with your manager or supervisor about your interests, and see if there are any opportunities to lead a project or group or even be a mentor to someone else in the workplace who has less experience. In this role, think of how you can inspire your group to do their best. Ask for your manager to consider you as an interim supervisor in the event they are out of the office for a meeting or planned vacation.
11. Arrive to work on time
Time management is a solid soft skill to have in the workplace, and a great way to improve it is by arriving to work on time. Adhering to a schedule can give you the ability to meet goals, finish work on time and stay organized, which are all skills that lead to more productivity and can help you stand out from your peers.
