Top 5 soft skills for career growth
Top 5 soft skills for career growth
Essential soft skills that will help you improve at your work
If I’m a specialist in my field then my career will eventually skyrocket, right?
Well, not necessarily.
Besides technical abilities and knowledge on nuances connected with your niche, soft skills are becoming more and more in demand.
Those are necessary for a cooperation within teams and among other colleagues.
I try to look at myself critically and see where I could implement some improvements too – in my case, probably mostly in communication and emotional intelligence.
Why pay attention to soft skills in the professional environment?
Firstly, soft skills and essential for career growth regardless of the industry.
It means that no matter how your professional path changes certain abilities will stay relevant, so I think it’s worth putting time and effort in their development.
According to the research I found on https://uk.indeed.com/ people who have stronger soft skills end up with 12% higher job satisfaction than their peers.
Moreover, besides the obvious individual advantages for self-growth, promoting soft skills also improves the way the whole company works.
Employers value them more and more as they result in increased productivity, better company culture and more creative ideas.
There are a lot of skills that can be called essential, though I chose 5 which I found absolutely must-have.
Let’s take a look.
Top 5 soft skills for career growth
Communication
Is the absolute basis for any professional relationships.
Lack of it leads to misunderstandings, poor results and dissatisfaction.
Conveying the wanted message in the right way and being able to understand the given feedback is necessary for development of any planned initiatives.
What I’ve learned from my own experience is that not delivering a detailed enough instruction often ends up with failed expectations. It is also the responsibility of the receiver to ask about the details if some things are not clear.
Also, it’s worth remembering that communication covers both verbal and nonverbal signals and we should not disregard the effects of our body language either.
Time management
First step to productivity and effectiveness.
The ability to set goals and prioritize tasks correctly is the skill necessary in both professional and personal life.
Here you can find my article on goal setting and task management with ChatGPT for more tips: https://productiveimpact.com/p/make-ai-your-mentor
I don’t see people who are overworked as the marks of success anymore.
Rather pity them for poor time management.
There are so many prioritizing techniques available online, that it only takes a click to improve the way you work.
Adaptability
The world and technology changes fast, so it’s not surprising you need to be able to adapt as well.
I try to stay open and curious towards learning new skills or facing upcoming challenges.
Seeing them as opportunities, rather motivates me and gives me an adrenaline rush than drags me down.
Employers value those who are able to bounce back quickly from failures and be eager to find new solutions.
Also, this newsletter is an example of me exploring a new area and sharing my learnings.
Teamwork
Whether you are an extrovert or an introvert, you will be forced to cooperate with people.
You can work remotely and still won’t fully avoid human contact.
One of my friends working in IT told me that times when a software developer could just silently write code and lock himself up in the room are over.
You do need teamwork skills like collaboration or accountability no matter what your responsibilities are.
I used to to think I can always do everything on my own and don’t need any additional help, but actually sharing ideas can often result in better problem solutions or more creative proposals.
Emotional intelligence
It’s probably the hardest skills to measure or name.
It includes empathy towards other coworkers and self-awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses.
I heard many times that in business you should be as cold as ice – I think it’s valid to say you should control your emotions at work, however that doesn’t mean you should completely lack the human side.
Another aspect would also be motivation – it took me some time to realise that it comes in flows and that there’s nothing wrong in that. Then it is discipline that pushes me to complete given tasks.
Conclusions
What I find the most important to remember to stay in balance.
Same like you take care of your physical health, you should not forget about your mental well-being.
Accordingly, if you spend a lot of time and money on developing your technical skills, you should also put some effort into nourishing your soft skills.
Let’s invest in your self-development and improve the way you feel about your work!
What other skills I didn’t mention you find particularly important? Waiting for feedback!
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