Soft Skills- the Career Accelerator

Soft skills are the small details that elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary. They take a deliverable from ‘good’ to "excellent." As we improve our technical skills, it's also important that we develop our soft skills. As we transition to a new calendar year, here are 8 soft skills to help accelerate your career:

?1. Become a self-starter; show you can take projects end-to-end without follow-up.

?2. Pay attention to details on your deliverables- minimize errors and follow-up questions, and ensure your work answers all possible questions and is self-explanatory

?3. Become a great storyteller. Storytelling, like presentation and public speaking skills, is a learned art. You can train yourself to be better and seek ways to implement and showcase these skills. You only get better with practice

?4. Become an effective generalist. Never miss an opportunity to learn a new skill and expand your skill set- particularly soft skills

?5. Actively build relationships and networks. A mistake many people make is waiting until they desperately need a network to build relationships. Actively seek to build relationships; people will remember you better if you have worked together, served on the same committee, etc. than if you met at an event and exchanged pleasantries. Serving outside your sphere of influence is a great way to network

?6. Learn to receive feedback. Actively seek feedback. Critical feedback is a gift. The worst thing that can happen to anyone is to reject feedback and think they're "the best thing after sliced bread." Seek feedback, ask for the truth, don't be defensive, listen to areas of improvement, and improve

?7. Prioritise singular focus as opposed to multitasking.

Three hours of intense work > twelve hours of shallow work. Learn to define your one big target and deliver on it

?8. Lead your process. Don't always wait to be instructed. Come up with ideas on how things can be better. Put yourself out there.?

?Personal development isn't only about functional skills. As you grow in your career, soft skills are prioritized over functional skills. Invest in your soft skills today. ??