ANN/THE DAILY STAR – The ethos of today’s workplace has undergone significant evolution compared to the past. While competence in your field was once the primary determinant of success and advancement, it’s no longer sufficient on its own.
In today’s dynamic landscape, possessing additional soft skills is essential to complement your hard skills, which pertain to the specific tasks you perform. These soft skills encompass a broad spectrum of interpersonal abilities that facilitate effective communication, adaptability, and collaboration in the workplace. So, what exactly are these soft skills? They encompass various traits that enable us to interact harmoniously with colleagues and navigate professional environments adeptly. Here are a few soft skills you can focus on to enhance your impact in the workplace.
COMMUNICATION
This is the foundation of any workplace and indeed life. Being able to communicate effectively will propel you to success.
Skills like active listening, speaking in an elaborate manner, and even empathy can add a lot of extra layers to the way you communicate with others and help initiate positive interactions with your co-workers. It can also help you convey your ideas and action plans better, and prevent things from being lost in translation. This does not have to be limited to verbal communication only as you can practice it in message boards, emails, reports, documents, etc to impress others and be noticed.
A crucial problem with our work culture is that most individuals know how to work alone but not in teams.
TEAMWORK
However, we live in a generation where projects often require a team with diverse skill sets to work collectively, so, if you do not play well with others, you might work in that facet of life.
Learn to take in viewpoints different from yours, learn to navigate conflicts in a constructive manner, and learn to combine various ideas to help facilitate growth and get things done quicker.
You do not need a leadership position to develop leadership skills. This is a huge misconception we have and we often wait for directives from the upper level before taking action.
LEADERSHIP SKILLS
While this probably stems from how we grew up watching our parents work, leadership and influence are much-needed skills at any level.
Being able to take initiative, motivate people, and inspire and guide teammates to achieve the team’s goals will bring about an air of positivity in your team and the workplace. And rest assured, having these skills will not get overlooked by management.
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS
Having strong interpersonal relations with your stakeholders can be the key difference-maker in your bid to climb the corporate ladder.
Be it with your colleagues, your bosses or customers, being able to connect with others can open doors to new and exciting opportunities for you and your organisation in many cases.
We know that people do not go to work to make friends but that is a very backward way of thinking and while we are not asking you to form ‘The Breakfast Club’ at work, do not shy away from interactions which will help you create a positive impression. – Irfan Aziz
