Soft Skills That Make You Invaluable in the Workplace

Having a robust resume with strong technical skills is what lands you job interviews or even gets you the job. It’s not, however, what will help you keep it or advance your career.

Your hard skills make you valuable talent in your sector. What will make you invaluable talent, however, is your number of soft skills combined with those excellent hard skills.

Research repeatedly indicates that soft skills are as valued by employers and companies as hard skills are. They are even gaining ground, taking precedence over the hard skills skillset in today’s modern, continuously changing workplace environment.

But what are they, which ones are they, and how should you include them in your CV?

Soft skills definition

Soft skills are character traits, behavioral patterns, and methodological skills which enable a person to function well in the workplace’s various challenges. A person with good soft skills is likely to demonstrate good leadership, a capacity of working well with others, being able to resolve or deescalate conflict, and more.

These types of skills are usually considered part of an employee’s personality which complements their technical skills, also known as an employee’s hard skills. While hard skills are usually the skills you have acquired within the context of formal education, such as earning a degree, soft skills are skills that usually aren’t formally taught, such as good negotiation skills.

Soft skills are important to employers and companies’ HR because they can enhance the workplace environment and ensure that workflow is not easily disrupted. They can also significantly boost productivity and provide access to every individual’s personal talents within a workplace team. They can even inspire loyalty and greater return on investment for each salary paid.

Seeing the benefits of soft skills in business makes it evident why they have become so important for employers and companies that they will actively look for them in employees and managers.

What soft skills are the best to have?

What soft skills are important to employers depends on the requirements of the job or career path. While they are not as easily quantifiable as hard skills, people tend to gravitate intuitively towards what is required in terms of soft skills:

A company manager, for example, needs to have good leadership skills, such as active listening and good conflict resolution tactics. A salesperson needs to be a good storyteller as well as have a good grasp on how to quickly build positive relationships and establish rapport with strangers. A doctor should be able to display empathy as well as be an active listener.

Each industry sector has its own ideal soft skills skillset which employers are looking for. However, there are some soft skills which are universally sought after. While this list might vary in the way these soft skills are described or presented, you will find that they all are roughly describing the same behavioral patterns as the ones presented below.

Essential soft skills to have or acquire for business

No matter what the industry or business sector is in which you are seeking to have a career, these soft skills are always going to be in high demand:

1. Time management and work ethic

Micromanagement of employees’ work behavior is not an asset to the workplace. Employers want to feel reassured that employees can do the work they’re assigned well without constant supervision.

This means that you should be able to manage your time accordingly so that you can reliably and responsibly:

• Be punctual
• Meet deadlinesSet goals correctly
• Prioritize tasks properly
• Plan out tasks efficiently
• Manage stress

Regarding your work ethic, you should be able to demonstrate professionalism as well as dedication and discipline in carrying out your tasks. Good work ethic is expected to include qualities in your work protocols such as:

• High productivity
• Integrity
• Reliability
• Responsibility
• Accountability

In general, your work ethic will be assessed from the results you yield: if you consistently turn in error-free work on time and act in a professional manner as required by your company guidelines, then you will be considered to have good work ethic.

2. Interpersonal skills and communication

This is what would be considered having good ‘people skills’: being able to interact and communicate with other people in a manner that is efficient and avoids disruptions in the workflow or general productivity of the team you are in.

• Having good interpersonal skills involves being able to efficiently and consistently:
• Be an active listener
• Understand other people’s tone and mood and adjust your interaction accordingly
• Establish rapport with others
• Display an attitude of tolerance, acceptance, and inclusivity
• Show respect and empathy
• Have the required written and verbal workplace etiquette when communicating

Good communication is a necessary, complementary soft skill to interpersonal skills, and it is all about how you get information across to other people. Having good communication skills means being able to efficiently and consistently:

• Use positive language
• Successfully negotiate
• Give and receive constant feedback to enhance cohesion and productivity
• Give constructive criticism that empowers others and enhances productivity
• Give clear and concise information, especially for instructions or when asking questions
• Deescalate situations
• Resolve conflict

Your good interpersonal and communication skills will be assessed by how easy it is for other people to communicate, work, and collaborate with you, thus boosting your team’s productivity.

3. Problem solving and teamwork

Despite not being often described as such, companies hire employees to solve problems within their area of expertise. Your hard skills provide you with a learned set of solutions to some problems. For example, having a marketing degree provides you with a set of solutions on how to market a variety of products or services to the public.

However, you will be faced with a lot of problems in the workplace which will require new solutions. Solutions which you will need to find.

This is where the soft skill of problem solving comes in. If you have good problem-solving skills, you will be able to consistently approach problems that arise at the workplace in a calm, level-headed manner. You will also be able to:

• Analyze problematic situations
• Evaluate different variables that comprise the problem
• Brainstorm and generate alternative plans for solving the problem
• Efficiently evaluate these alternative plans
• Apply solutions faithfully to the plan
• Objectively assess results and act accordingly

Often this problem-solving process will involve your entire team and this is where you will need to display good teamwork.

The soft skill of teamwork requires you to be able to ‘play well with others’. Being a team player is a tremendously important soft skill where you efficiently:

• Explain and communicate ideas
• Brainstorm together with others without inhibiting them
• Support initiatives
• Give feedback using positive language
• Coordinate well with others
• Collaborate well with others

You may have noticed that a lot of the behaviors within good teamwork and problem-solving skills also fall under other skills already presented in this list. This is because a lot of soft skills overlap and are interrelated.

It can even be said that the cumulative effect of having several soft skills such as active listening, empathy, or communication yield more encompassing soft skills such as teamwork and problem solving.

This cumulative effect is evident even more in the most sought-after soft skill of them all:

4. Leadership

Leadership is a soft skill which is not only for those in managerial positions or those seeking to gain rank within a company. Having good leadership skills in the modern workplace is vital for anyone who will be required to work with or even alongside others because everyone is, at some point, put in a formal or informal leadership role.

Being able to fulfill this role well when that happens can make or break an employee’s future and career within a company or industry.

Having good leadership skills effectively means that you have good soft skills such as:

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Time management
• Problem solving

These soft skills are integrated together so that you can consistently and effectively:

• Inspire motivation in others
• Delegate tasks correctly
• Inspire discipline and good work ethic in others
• Inspire flexibility and adaptability in your team
• Take on responsibility
• Inspire accountability and cohesion in your team

Being a good leader even when not in a leadership position is a vital soft skill which will base your career on solid foundations within a company or industry and build your reputation and network on a professional level.

How to list soft skills in your CV

Listing soft skills on your resume can be daunting because unlike hard skills, there is no official way of demonstrating proof of having them.

The best way to list your soft skills is through examples of successful action taken by you within the workplace context, as well as in the way you phrase, format, and proof the CV itself.

Such descriptions are usually found in the section where you list the tasks fulfilled by you within your duties in previous jobs: for example, you could have been a team leader where you accomplished a specific task or solved specific problems. Describing these accomplishments briefly and efficiently, without spelling or syntax errors, would display your soft skills of leadership, teamwork, professionalism, and attention to detail.

Can soft skills be learned?

Though often thought of as innate talents, soft skills can be learned just like any other human behavioral pattern. Very much like hard skills, soft skills can be acquired through instruction and coaching. Like hard skills, they can and should be constantly perfected and enhanced.

The difference is that while with hard skills you can enroll for the course that teaches them, with soft skills you need to be mentored and coached through hands-on experiences to learn them. Lately, it can also be done through special programs geared to teach you soft skills.

The one requirement necessary is the motivation to make them part of who you are within and outside of the workplace as part of your personal development, not simply to check a box in your resume.