The world of work is changing much faster than we could imagine, and before we could comprehend the pace, the competition is only getting tougher to pose new challenges with each passing day. So if you want to bag the best offer, clinch a business deal or ace in your next job interview you should focus on honing soft skills as expected by the employers of today.
Report from the World Economic Forum states that the 35% skills needed for the future, will be much different than what’s expected as of now. Some of the soft skills in demand by employers are effective team coordination capabilities, integrity, knowledge and commitment, abiding rules and regulations, compliance with SOPs (industry specific), sound digital skills, commitment and responsibility.
Are these skills taught as a part of the educational curriculum in business schools and graduation courses today? Not yet though, and honestly most of them cannot be taught either. Since mastering soft skills has lot to do with your character, attitude, thinking and aptitude for life. Soft skills are a careful blend of people skills, communication skills, social and emotional intelligence, personality traits and attributes. The question thus surfaces now, on how do we train our generation next to learn, understand and master these soft skills?
1. Empathy, Sensitivity and Compassion
Empathy is one key skill sought after by employers in the fourth industrial revolution age. Technology by far, has an active role to play of a disruptor being able to erode meaningful relationships, create ambiguity by allowing human mind the propensity to manipulate, maneuver and trick peace.
Companies wanting to fill in leadership positions seek talent beyond qualification and experiences. They want people who possess humanity and patience to understand, listen, care and deliver personalised human experience. They want their sales force to be able build strong business relationships and associate with customers positively to garner huge business gains, build goodwill, trust and establish credibility in the market.
2. Effective Communication and Collaboration Skills
Managers seek talent with convincing communication skills, who are able to put across thoughts and business idea succinctly, attract interest during communication delivery, pique curiosity to sustain interest levels and build upon customer engagement. Workers will need to communicate with other members in the team, despite the assistance of AI to get things done faster and efficiently. Strong communication skills with clarity of thought, purpose and action is most sought after by employers.
3. Strong work ethic and problem-solving skills
Hiring talent with strong work ethics is the key to success for any organisation and this is one indispensable trait that employers seek. There are many factors that encapsulate to define strong work ethic and commitment of employees. These include compliance with standard laws and procedures, delivering quality par excellence, meeting timely deadlines, honesty, integrity and a strong sense of responsibility that comes with the key job role assigned.
Employees who are able to find solutions to problems tend to become key assets of an organisation, because of their optimistic approach towards work and ability to withstand crisis during business growth.
4. Ability to mentor, train and transfer skills
It’s expected of experienced professionals to possess mentoring qualities to be able to train and transfer skills to their assistants and those in lower-cadre jobs. With rapid advancements in technology, today’s age demands of professionals to be able to apply concepts, ideas and theories in a climate of uncertainty. Companies should also be able to train workforce to extract insights from data with business intelligence tools for sound decision making.
5. Great Team Player and Research Skills
With collaborative teams working in different time zones across geographies, it’s expected of a manager to be a great team player with strong research skills. This competence will help gauge market expectations, preferences and forecast future product/service demand. The great leaders are those who do not uphold high egos bossing employees in a team, but believe in bridging communication barriers and fixing loopholes in the system. They are polite, courteous and trusting their workforce to deliver the best at work.
Honing these soft skills should turn odds in your favour and set you straight on the fast track route to success.
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