Soft skills are hard in business

Soft skills are hard in business

That’s right, the way in which we as humans choose to think, what we choose to say or what we choose to hear are in fact the “hard” skills.

There is confusion within the business world these days when it comes to the topic of soft skills. A misconception is commonly made that being technically savvy or numbers orientated means you can disregard the need to learn communication and people skills.

Of course, there is always going to be a strong element of technical capability required for any leadership role, but the confusion needs to be cleared. Those “soft skills” create sustainability, they create a culture that allows for continuity and most of all, a positive reputation while being respected by the team. The soft skills are the hard skills from a business perspective.

Sustainability is all about making sure that the long-term well-being of a business or organisation is considered. This means having the right mentality in place to ensure that the business can continue to function, even in times of difficulty or change. It also means being able to adapt quickly and effectively communicate the changes when necessary.

Creating a culture that allows for continuity means creating an environment where employees feel appreciated. They have a sense of purpose, direction, and longevity within the business. It also involved adopting a sense of teamwork and cooperation.

Finally, building a reputation while being respected. Having the ability to understand different personality types, psychological impact of decisions made and managing your time efficiently adds value to your personal brand as an employee or a leader within a business.

Although such skills can appear to be easy to learn and understand on paper, it’s important to understand that everyone within the wider business will have unique preferred learning styles. Be it within a group environment, interactive activities, through reading material, one-to-one coaching, face to face, virtually or many other styles. I recently created a poll to learn what the preferred learning styles are through my connections and although it might not be an accurate representation of the world, the results still show me that traditional methods of reading and writing are outdated.

I guess the key takeaway here to understand that in most roles within most industries, the winning formula is to understand it’s less of “WHAT” we say, rather more “HOW” we say it. The soft skills accelerate your ability to better understand people as human beings rather than just an employee. They teach you how to communicate/interact with those people in a human and authentic manner. And finally, they allow you the ability to understand how to effectively react to tough situations.

So how does Cegos come into the picture?

The “great resignation” continues as employees lose engagement from their employer, but perhaps there was a solution to upskill new, existing, or future leaders to communicate effective in a digital world.

For over 96 years, Cegos has remained relevant and innovative, leading trends and enhancements within the learning and development industry. Leading by example when it comes to sustainability and creating a learning culture, be it in person or over camera, for some of the world’s largest organisations within the fortune 500 list. The recent pandemic proved that, as Cegos had been running cyber courses for around 12 years prior to it becoming a necessity.

With an extensive catalogue of over 2,450 digital assets in up to 19 different languages are readily available as ‘off-the-shelf’ content or these can be customised to any companies Training Needs Analysis (TNA’s) with personalised branding and colour schemes. And let me just touch on the language element here as well. Those languages are not just google translated, Cegos content is always truly localised using local language and culture experts to ensure the courses resonate with local populations.

Each module combines different ways of representing key concepts through text, images, sound, video, animations and more. State of the art, live training is provided either in person or in virtual workshops covering all soft skill topics for management, personal development, sales, HR and more.

But the learning doesn’t stop there.

Harvard studies prove that 90% of learnings are forgotten about within 30 days from a learning session. What good is that to a business already investing thousands into each individual for them to go on and forget what they have learnt a month later? Where’s the longevity for individual growth to accomplish long term business objectives?

Cegos ensures that the learners are engaged and can practice their skills in real-life situations through a variety of on demand, self-paced, engaging digital assets that are compatible on any device with an extensive use of video animation and interactive exercises. Proof is in the pudding, and without the proof of learnings being actioned, there’s no pudding.

Speaking of pudding, it’s not just me as a Cegos employee saying that the Cegos expertise and offerings work, observe the proof below and see all of the awards that Cegos has been recognised for.

To find out how Cegos can help deliver personalised and digitised learning with human interaction and transfer to the workplace for your business, contact [email protected] or 07775 124 538 for a free, no obligation conversation.