When I typed ‘soft skills’ into Google, the results were centered around people skills, social skills, communication skills, character or personality traits, attitudes, career attributes, social intelligence, and emotional intelligence quotients.
These skills are typically described as ways to help people to “navigate their environment”; “work well with others”; “perform well”; and “achieve their goals”.
I can’t stop thinking that these skills are not ‘soft’, they are strong, as a matter of fact, they are essential! For a company to be successful and perform well, it requires employees and leaders to have these qualities.
Here are 4 ways that you can work on improving your essential skills:
Enroll in a training program:
You will have access to great tools, get to interact in a group, and also get to work productively with others. We offer personal development; professional development; resilience training; and personality profiling, which you can find out more about on our website.
Get a coach:
A coach works with your needs and helps with your essential skill development. When I coach a client, I focus on soft skills to improve communication and development as well as make goals that are realistically achievable.
Get feedback from others:
You gain awareness of your strengths and weaknesses by asking for feedback from your mentors and/or peers.
Practice with others:
Find someone you trust and practice these skills with them. If you run through a scenario with them you get to practice how you would like to come across.
Studies have shown that ‘soft skills’ training in communication and problem solving boosted productivity and retention by 12%, and there was a 250% ROI due to these increases.
Why not do what’s best for you and your company’s success and invest in a training program for continued growth? There is only room for improvement.
Let’s abolish the term ‘soft skills’ and give it the term it deserves: Essential Skills.
If you’d like to chat to me directly about coaching or one of our other essential skills services, please pop me an email at Janine@credogrowth.com
