How to Develop Your Soft Skills to Accelerate Your Career
Organizations have been stressing the importance of how the lack of soft skills can be the backburner for their overall growth and progress. If your workforce is equipped with technical skills but lacks those mission-critical soft skills such as creativity, virtual collaboration, reasoning, team coordination, and empathy in the workplace then adapting to the inevitable workplace changes and staying competitive in the market will have a direct impact. A LinkedIn report, Future of Skills, highlights the need to develop soft skills in an automated world and lists the important skills for the future of work - Innovation and Creativity, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Adaptability & Flexibility, Communication, Leadership, and people management.
Soft skills are not only those non-technical skills that help an individual write and communicate effectively but also lets them display problem-solving skills, emotional intelligence and work ethic to name a few. These are fundamental to any professional’s career growth and success in the workplace.
So, how can you develop these soft skills? Can soft skills be taught inside a classroom, or self-learned at your own pace? Let’s take a deep dive into the four best ways to develop your soft skills.
Self-Assessment
Before you decide to jump in and enrol for a course, bear in mind that without knowing your strengths and areas of improvement, spending money would not fetch desired results. List down all the soft skills you want to measure yourself against and reach out to your colleagues, friends, mentor and family members to learn how they feel you stack up on these soft skill levels. Specific examples or situations where you displayed a soft skill well or where you need improvement can teach you a lot about yourself.
Learning Experience Platforms
If your organization has implemented in a companywide upskilling and reskilling initiative, then you have access to the latest learning platforms which offer numerous training programs, books, and other learning materials that you can rely for your soft skill training. These training programs can be taken at your own pace while rewarding you with digital badges upon completion. These digital badges act as public recognition and you can add more of these as you scale up the level.
Participate in Workshops & Clubs
Apart from digital learning tools which are extremely convenient and efficient, there are other ways you can hone your skills. Most companies have started conducting workshops within the organization to help their employees develop soft skills. A toastmasters club is a great way to be part of likeminded individuals, give presentations, get involved in group projects, interact, and observes.
Face to Face interaction
Actual human interaction is key to developing soft skills. People don’t realize but collaborating with team members is the surest way to develop your soft skills. While digital learning is designed to assist you on your path to becoming a skilled professional, only by implementing what you have learned in a face-to-face interaction puts that training to test. Remember to always put your learnings to use and you will be well on your way to becoming an employee who is in demand.
The future of work is fast approaching, and organizations have recognized the value of training their workforce needs to improve their soft skills and thereby have begun adopting learning solutions. Even during the recruitment process, more importance is now being given to candidates who have to possess these soft skills and have demonstrated good use of them in real-time. As our workplace continues to evolve with the rapid automation and adoption of technology, the onus lies on working professionals to prioritize their skill development and be future-ready
