Today’s employers are seeking more from their employees than technical knowledge and expertise. They also are looking for people who are willing to work as team players, who possess strong communication and problem solving skills, and who demonstrate good character, good work ethic, strong lead ership, and a positive attitude in the workplace. In short, they’re looking for employees with soft skills. In this chapter, I define soft skills, introduce you to our ten most important soft skills, and discuss why cultivating a strong soft skills set is essential to career and life success The term soft skills itself is just jargon. From the standpoint of behavioral science, it really refers to a series of mindsets and behaviors.
Where Do People Learn Soft Skills?
Most people in the United States don’t learn soft skills in school . . . at least not after elementary school. In preschool and early elementary school, students expe rience role modeling and instruction on soft skills daily. Children learn how to interact with classmates, approach assignments, manage time, and organize their desks and backpacks. They learn about the importance of good character and hav ing a positive attitude. By the time students get to middle school, focus shifts to learning in content area coursework and preparing for high school, where college transcripts and grade point averages are the priority. Despite decades of research demonstrating the critical role soft skills play in exe cuting hard skills, for the most part high school and college students don’t get resources that can help them identify, develop, and master these important per sonal skills. Students may still pick up soft skills through participation in athletics and extracurricular activities, but they don’t receive deliberate instruction for developing the skills that make all other skills work their best. Newly hired employees enter the workplace with the hard skills they need, but they haven’t been given the opportunity to cultivate the essential soft skills that enable their hard skills to work more effectively and successfully. Obviously, a wide gap exists between what education currently teaches and what industry now requires where soft skills are concerned, and that’s where this book comes in! I wrote Soft Skills For Dummies to bridge that gap and give first-time job seekers and those returning to the workforce the soft skills education today’s employers are so desperately seeking
What Are Soft Skills?
Think of the difference between hard and soft skills this way: Hard skills are what you do. Soft skills are how you do what you do. They’re the personal character traits, qualities, and habits that make you uniquely you. Your work ethic, your attitude, and the way you interact with other people are a few examples of soft skills. They’re the personal and interpersonal skills you bring with you to work and apply to your life every day. Some soft skills are somewhat subjective by nature, such as your attitude, your character, and your appearance and etiquette. And some soft skills are more objec tive or practical, such as time management, work ethic, cultural awareness and critical thinking. When the subjective and the objective/practical come together,they work in harmony to help you become not only a more well-rounded employee but also a more well-rounded person. Cultivating a complete, strong soft skills set can make a significant positive impact on both your immediate and long-term career and life success. In fact, after your soft skills set becomes as good as (or better than) your hard skills set, you’re all set to achieve great things. You don’t just survive in the workplace and in the world; you thrive! If you ask people which of the soft skills is most important, you may find that dif ferent people rank different skills as number one. However, the general consensus is that the following ten are the essential skills you should work on developing.
Attitude
Your attitude, not your aptitude, determines your success in the workplace and in life. A positive attitude is necessary no matter what kind of job you have. Being optimistic and determined are the essence of what you need for career and life achievement, which is why more and more companies today look for attitude among job candidates. The company can later train for aptitude. You can read more about cultivating this soft skill
Character
Good character doesn’t just happen. You develop your character every day by the choices you make in all you do.
Diversity and cultural awareness
Having cultural awareness means you embrace diversity in the workplace and accept and appreciate differences among the people you work with. Cultivating cultural awareness allows you to effectively and successfully socialize and work with people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Chapter 5 has more info on cultural awareness.
Communication
Poor communication can lead to misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and costly errors both in the workplace and in your personal life. To effectively communicate with others, you need them to clearly understand both your words and the actions that accompany them. You can read more about this soft skill
Appearance and etiquette
Four seconds: That’s all you take to make a first — and lasting — impression on those you meet. Your appearance and your etiquette are often major factors in that initial impression, so think about what kind of first impression you want to make. I discuss these topics more
Time management
Being on time — whether you’re arriving for an appointment or turning in a deadline-driven project — is important both professionally and personally. If you know someone who always arrives late, you may have first-hand experience with the frustration poor time management can cause. Check out Chapter 7 for details on managing your time rather than letting it manage you
Teamwork
You may have heard the saying “There’s no I in team.” The ability to work and play well with others is essential because very few people work and live without needing to cooperate with others to reach a goal. After all, the ultimate goal of any company is to achieve overall effectiveness, but this strategy succeeds only when everyone on the team works together toward the same targe
Work ethic
People aren’t born with a good work ethic. Each person has to make a choice to work hard regardless of whether they love what they’re doing or when it feels like a chore. When you demonstrate a good work ethic, those around you are more likely to notice and reward your effort. You can read more about strengthening this soft skill
Critical thinking and problem solving
The ability to think for yourself and take ownership of your choices and decisions leads to a better understanding of the world and your place in it. Having your own point of view helps you make decisions to achieve successful outcomes, solve problems that arise, and communicate more effectively with others. Head to Chapter 9 for a deeper dive into these skills.
Leadership
You demonstrate leadership through your everyday actions and interactions with others. A leader is effective because of who they are on the inside and how their personal qualities reflect on the outside. You don’t necessarily need a special set of talents to take a leadership role, but you do need to have a willingness to step forward to take responsibility for directing and encouraging other people. We cover this soft skill
What’s the Big Deal about Soft Skills?
Soft skills go by many different names — people skills, core skills, human skills, 21st-century skills, transitional skills, employability traits, and interpersonal skills. You’ll most likely encounter some or all of these terms on job applications and in job interviews. The terms may change from company to company, but the meaning behind them is the same, and it’s very simple: Soft skills make the hard skills work.
Soft skills make the hard skills work. This phrase bears repeating, and I use it often throughout this book. I hope you take it to heart so you can demonstrate it confidently and successfully in the workplace and in life
Here’s one way to look at it: Imagine buying some property at the top of a hill, but after you’ve made the purchase, you realize the path to get there is treacherous and overgrown. To get there, you have to clear the path, which will ultimately make traveling up and down the hill easier and more enjoyable. It will also make your property more appealing to other people. You have the hard skills you need to clear the path to the top, but do you have the personal perseverance to do the hard work? Do you have the positive attitude to enjoy the task? Do you have the character to keep your eye on the prize until you reach the very top?
Well, that’s where soft skills come in.
Soft skills can help you polish that ladder and really make it shine. Soft skills can make that ladder — and the goal at the top — look so pretty, so exciting, and so much fun that you can’t wait to start your climb. Soft skills can also make your hard skills shinier and more attractive to prospective employers and to other people.
That’s right. Soft skills improve your performance and opportunity for success not only in the workplace but also in life.
And in case you think the focus on soft skills is a hot trend in the business com munity that will soon burn itself out, I’m here to tell you that they’ve been impor tant to workplace success for many, many years, as the following studies show:
More than 100 years ago, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching released a study on engineering education authored by Charles Riborg Mann. In this study, 1,500 engineers replied to a questionnaire about what they believed to be the most important factors in determining probable success or failure as an engineer. Overwhelmingly, personal qualities (that is, soft skills) were considered seven times more important than knowledge of engineering science.
In the spring of 2006, the Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society for Human Resource Management conducted an in-depth study on the corporate perspective of the new entrants’ readiness for the U.S. workforce. The survey results indicated that far too many young people were inadequately prepared to be successful in the workplace. The report found that well over half of new high school–level workforce entrants were insufficiently prepared in the following workplace skills: oral and written communication, professionalism, work ethics, and critical thinking/problem solving.
In a 2021 review of more than 80 million job postings across 22 industry sectors, the educational nonprofit organization America Succeeds discovered that almost two-thirds of job listings included soft skills among their qualifica tions, and seven of the ten most in-demand skills were soft. The same report found that certain professions, including management and business opera tions, actually prioritize soft skills
GETTING A LITTLE OXYGEN
Once upon a time, the powers that be at Google — yep, that gigantic, multibillion- dollar company that much of the world relies on to answer questions in a matter of seconds — were only interested in employee candidates who had graduated from top computer science programs. The company’s focus was all about the technology. Brains and book smarts, also known as hard skills. At least that’s what the managers at Google thought was most important when they decided which candidates to hire.
Then Google decided to test this hiring hypothesis by crunching every bit and byte of hiring, firing, and promotion data accumulated since the company’s incorporation in 1983. The effort was called Project Oxygen, and the results of this multiyear study shocked company executives. The eight top characteristics of success at Google were all found to be soft skills:
Being a good coach
Empowering the team and avoiding micromanagement
Expressing interest in others
Being productive and results-oriented
Being a good communicator
Helping employees with career development
Having clear vision and strategy for the team
Having the hard skills needed to help advise the team
Technical expertise came in at number eight.
You read that right. Google determined the most successful employees weren’t simply good at computer science; each and every one of them, every single day on the job, dis played seven personality characteristics: leadership, teamwork, good communication, problem-solving, good work ethic, adaptability, and interpersonal skills. In other words: soft skills. This story is totally true. Go ahead. Google it
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