10 Soft Skills to Catapult your Career

The most important skills to develop in the future are soft skills. These will be more in demand than just technical skills. Technical skills get you in the game but beyond that it is the soft skills that get you moving further in your career. This Inc. article has identified 10 top soft skills as identified in a LinkedIn survey of hiring managers http://www.inc.com/jt-odonnell/why-these-10-soft-skills-could-catapult-your-career.html?cid=nl029Aweek44day31. Here is my take on the 10 skills in demand and how to personalize these to win in the marketplace.

Communication – This is the most important skill across any era. Your ability to put your thoughts across will establish you as a key decision maker and will make you visible in the organization Develop your public speaking skills as well. Your ability to communicate both verbally and written is a key success skill in the future marketplace

Organization – I take this to mean your ability to manage multiple demands of your work. There is no way around it but your ability to ensure you prioritize your work will determine how far you go in the job. Identify your key result areas, work with your boss on determining your priorities, work on the top priorities and report to your boss on a weekly basis. Being personally organized is a key success skill that you should master to reach the upper echelons of your profession.

Team Player – All work is done by teams. You cannot be ego driven and your ability to work as part of a team will place you on the cutting edge of leadership. Be agreeable, approachable and a pleasant person to be around. Always share the credit with the team and you will win in the future market place.

Always Punctual – When you are punctual it shows your commitment to the work and also shows that you are very considerate of others time. Your boss will appreciate you all the time when you are punctual. Be punctual to all meetings and when you are late make sure everyone knows. Transparency is the key to building trust.

Critical Thinking – Thinking is the hardest discipline of all and that is why very few engage in the hard task of thinking. Make sure you allocate some alone time to do real thinking. Thinking slow means being deliberate and ensuring you take time to make important decisions. The more time you spend thinking the better decisions you will make. Spend time in solitude, write all your ideas and keep brainstorming with others. Also before making an important decision allow enough time roughly 48- 72 hours to really think before making a decision.

Social Skills – Empathy is the key to the kingdom of social intelligence and sales as well. You need to be able to get along with people. Most people are fired from their job because of poor social skills. It doesn’t matter if you like someone or not in a work environment you are expected to work with all different personalities. The more you develop social skills the better prospects you have for a big leadership position.  

Creativity – Creativity is your birthright. We all have latent potential and creativity can bring out that extra hidden potential. Have a notebook and write down all your ideas. Be a keen observer, share ideas on making improvements and never be shy of speaking your mind. Creativity can be unleashed by spending dedicated time on identifying and solving problems. Brainstorming is another way to be creative. Spending time day dreaming is another key to unlock your creativity.

Interpersonal Communication – Interpersonal skills are in high demand. Make sure you are approachable, agreeable and smile when you speak to a person. Understand what the interests of the other person are and tune your conversation to that topic. Be extremely well read so that you can speak on any topic with anyone. Raise the self-esteem of others by constantly praising others for their accomplishments. Say please and thank you all the time.

Adaptability – Change is the only constant in our work. Make sure you are flexible and the ability to change course with new information is the key to your success. Always stay nimble and be open to new ideas from anyone. Let go of the Not Invented Here syndrome.

Friendly Personality – Your ability to develop a pleasing personality is the key to achieve this. You can develop this by smiling, being attentive, being considerate of others, maintaining eye contact, giving credit, not bragging, being magnanimous and finally following the golden rule.

There you have it the 10 soft skills in demand. Develop this and conquer the future marketplace.

The views expressed here are my own and do not represent my organization.