Soft Skills at Work

Subjects like financial management, marketing management, HR management can be taught in the classroom and can be studied at home. But not soft skills. Soft skills are acquired and experienced on the spot and cannot be developed by merely reading textbooks.

The soft skills you gain will equip you to excel in your professional life and in your personal life. It is a continuous learning process.

We list here 60 soft skills, which if practised at the workplace, could boost your professional life.

The 60 soft skills mentioned can be classified into corporate skills, employability skills and life skills. In some parts of the world like in USA and Australia, soft skills ate also known as world skills.

Corporate skills:

These are generally CEO level skills, but if you are familiar with them you will be in a position to guide your boss towards success ie working together for a common goal as a team. You can become a courageous follower as mentioned by Ira Chaleff in his award-winning book Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders.
These skills include:

~ Political sensitivity.
~ Business and commercial awareness.
~ Strategic awareness.
~ Understanding funding streams and mechanisms.
~ Information management.
~ Organisation and control.
~ Team building.
~ Communication and persuasion.
~ Networking and public relations.
~ Leading change.

Employability skills:

These have to be mastered by employable graduates and freshers include communication, team working, leadership, initiative, problem solving, flexibility and enthusiasm.

Every skill helps us to learn one more as they overlap each other.

To quote an example, leadership encompasses a number of other skills including cooperating with others, planning and organising, making decisions and verbal communication.

Verbal communication itself involves various means of communication, some of which you may find easier than others -- talking over the phone, making a presentation to a group, explaining something to a person with a more limited understanding of the topic for example.

By improving one skill, you may also improve a number of others. In the context of your career planning and development, they are called career management skills

Life skills:

These skills are related to the head, heart, hands and health ie highly personal and behavioural skills which reflects our personality and naturally helps in personality development.

Source: http://www.extensio n.iastate. edu/learningandl iving/main/ tlsmodel. html

We manage and think with our head. Resilience, keeping records, making wise use of resources, planning/organising and goal setting are 'head' related managerial functions. Service learning, Critical thinking, problem solving, decision making and learning to learn were related to our thinking processes, which we manage with our head.

Functions of the heart are relating to people and caring. How do we relate to people? We relate to people by accepting differences, conflict resolutions, social skills, cooperation and communication. The second function we do through our heart is caring. We care through nurturing relationships, sharing, empathy and concern for others.

We give and work through our hands. Community service, volunteering, leadership, responsible citizenship and contributions to group effort -- are our way giving back to society. We work through our marketable skills, teamwork and self-motivation to get the things done.

Living and being comes under the functions of health. Healthy lifestyle choices, stress management, disease prevention and personal safety are our prime concerns for better living. Self-esteem, self-responsibility , character, managing feelings and self-discipline must be practiced without fail for our well-being. In a nutshell, the essence of life skills is share well, care well and fare well.

Things to do everyday:

Follow these ten golden rules and enjoy every moment of living.
~ Greet your family members first thing in the morning. If you are not used to this, they will be surprised with your sudden and nice gesture.

~ Greet your peers, subordinates and boss once you enter the office. Smile at even the 'security' personnel standing at the gate, who takes care of your safety.

~ Greet your friends along the way and do not ignore them.

~ Continously reciprocate to breed communication. If you do not reciprocate at least with a 'thanks' when you get information or a source on your online network or your offline network, you will not be remembered for a long time. If you are not remembered, you are out of your network.

~ Be a proactive listener and empathise with others to command respect.

~ While talking to others, your voice, tone and tenor must be audible and soothing. It should not be aggressive or in a shouting mode.

~ Dress well to suit your profession and to create positive vibes in your workplace. If you are a sales representative, do not go out with printed shirts and jeans, which may turn down your customer.

~ Political and religious comments must be avoided at all costs in the workplace, when you are in a group.

~ Your communication should not provoke others.
~ Do not speak ill of others if you can help it.

The author is a certified trainer and facilitator (CAMI, USA) and is a career management consultant and corporate trainer by profession. The author can be reached at challaramaphani@ rediffmail. com.



Another Input:


In today's world, social skills at work are as essential as hard skills and business etiquette.

Not everyone, however, is endowed with good social skills. If you happen to fall in this category, do not worry. Social skills can be developed with a little practice and they will go a long way in boosting your career.

i. Practise taking instructions

This is easier said than done. Most of us think we already know what the other person is trying to say. Secondly, we may be preoccupied with other thoughts when our boss is instructing us on how to go about a certain task.

As a result, we may forget important details and make mistakes that could cost someone their job. Remember these points:

~ Listen carefully for things said and implied.

~ Clarify.

~ Understand what has been told to you.

~ Acknowledge that you have understood.

~ Reconfirm instructions by quickly summarising what you have understood.





ii. Practise explaining a problem to your supervisor/ boss

Do you feel butterflies in your stomach the moment you encounter a problem and need to involve your boss?

Do you worry that s/he might think you are incompetent to handle it yourself?

These feelings are quite justified. However, you still need to explain the problem to your boss. The secret lies in the term 'explain' and not 'complain'. To explain effectively, pay attention to:

~ The volume of your voice and tone. It should not be too soft, loud or screechy.

~ Be respectful.

~ Keep your emotions in check. Be calm. You may be flustered by the problem; however, you don't need to let your boss know that.

~ Remember to include all the facts of the problem. Try to find most of the answers yourself before approaching your boss.

~ Offer a solution if you can. Your boss will appreciate your initiative.





iii. Practise asking for help

There are times at work when we are so overwhelmed by the things that need be done that we get all worked up and stressed out. We still do not ask for help, for fear that we might be perceived as incompetent.

However, when you have a task at hand that must be completed and you know you cannot do it alone, you have to be humble enough to ask for help.

Identify people at work who handle a particular task better than anyone else and request them to help you if they have the time. They may be happy to help. Also, remember:

~ No man is an island. We all need people and people need us.

~ Two heads are better than one and, yes, four hands are better than two.

~ It is nice to be important but it is more important to be nice. Help others; they, in turn, will help you

~ Be gracious when you accept or refuse help. This will enhance your chances of building a strong support system on which you can depend when you need help.





iv. Practise accepting feedback

It is natural for us to become defensive when we hear anything negative about ourselves. However, have you considered it might be just as difficult for the person giving the feedback to be candid?

Besides, it is possible for others to see things about you that you may not even aware of.

~ Appreciate the fact that someone has taken the risk of giving you feedback.

~ Be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking.

~ Don't take criticism personally because, even though it is about you, it is still the other person's perception; his or her views need not necessarily be the 'real' you.

~ Feel free to accept or reject all or any part of the feedback without feeling obliged to explain your choice.





v. Practise giving constructive criticism

The word criticism spells doom for some. It need not be that way.

There are two types of criticisms -- constructive and destructive. All of us have been at the receiving end of these types of criticism at some point in our lives.

It depends on what you are criticising in a person and the purpose of the criticism. If the objective of criticising is to demean and insult a person, it would be destructive criticism. Such criticism is best ignored.

Do remember, the situations that bring about the need to criticise can become sensitive and volatile. It is easy for the person criticising, as well as the recipient of the criticism, to overreact and start accusing each other.

Giving constructive criticism and seeing that it is well received is a fine art. Things to remember:

~ Stay focused. Don't confuse the person with the problem.

~ Keep tempers down.

~ Use a suggestive approach rather than a dismissive one.

~ Reiterate that the person is good but the problem could be handled differently.

~ Be sincere, honest and caring while giving constructive criticism.

~ Express your faith in the person and his/ her ability to successfully implement and reap the benefits of the suggestions given.





vi. Practise receiving compliments

Many of us are especially wary or shy when someone compliments us.

Why? Do we think we don't deserve compliments? That we are not worthy of them? Or is it plain modesty? Whatever it is, it is time to get over it.

We need to understand that accepting compliments is not self-indulgence. So:

~ Don't feel embarrassed and brush it off.

~ Never counter it with something negative about yourself.

~ Don't be arrogant; accept the compliment graciously.

~ Smile and thank the person for the compliment. Express genuine happiness.



vii. Practise giving compliments

I have very often heard people saying, "She is excellent at her work but, if we tell her that, it might go to her head."

This may not always be the case. It depends on how one is complimented. There is a delicate line between flattery and genuinely complimenting someone.

If you keep these suggestions in mind, you can easily compliment someone without sounding fake:

~ Use simple language. Smile and look into the person's eyes while complimenting him/ her. It sounds more genuine this way.

~ Using filmi dialogues and a lot of actions could make it look like your aim is to flatter, not compliment.

~ Modulate your voice to match the expression of admiration on your face.

~ Don't laugh or giggle while complimenting someone. It could sound like you are being sarcastic.

Finally, remember a good social network will help you at work. You need social skills to find a job and to keep one. So, if social skills do not come easily to you, it will be well worth your time to pinpoint your weaknesses and work on them.

Thanks to: "Shenoy, Sheshagiri"