Your university education and training certifications may provide you with the knowledge to qualify and become competitively successful in your field. These technical skills are also called hard skills. On the other hand, soft skills, or people skills, are equally valuable components that give employers and hiring managers more information about your personality, work ethics, how you interact with clients and colleagues, and whether you’re a perfect fit in their workplace’s culture.
Soft skills can get you ahead in the game and are often key considerations for hiring and promotions. In this article, Will Cotter shares his list of essential soft skill requirements when hiring employees for Deluxemaid, his Indy-based cleaning company.
1. Communication Skills
Excellent communication skills are a must-have in almost any job position nowadays. You should be able to speak and write in English and a native language to communicate effectively with your bosses, workmates, or customers. It’s especially critical for front-facing jobs, such as account managers, customer service representatives, public relations specialists, or store assistants.
2. Critical and Creative Thinking
Typical job interviews would always ask about the professional experiences written in your resume, the challenges you’ve encountered at work, and how you overcame them. It’s because they want to see whether you’re a good problem solver who can analyze the situation with the resourcefulness to devise your own feasible solutions. Thinking outside the box also scores extra points because it opens opportunities to improve and innovate existing processes.
3. Leadership Skills
A sense of leadership is important even if you’re not applying for a team leader or any upper-level position because it shows employers that you’ve got a promising potential that may prove helpful in the future. Leadership isn’t all about telling people what to do; it’s the initiative, sound decision-making skills, knowing how to lead by example, and the gift to inspire and motivate colleagues.
4. Positive Attitude
Optimistic professionals with a can-do attitude will always look more appealing to employers and hiring managers. It’s because it exhibits confidence in your level of competence, determination to take on anything, and enthusiasm both in life and work. In addition, people with a positive attitude are friendly, infecting other team members with their energy, which helps boost their morale and lighten up stressful situations. Frequently, they are also the easiest bunch to work and collaborate with.
5. Flexibility and Adaptability
At the rate we’re going, every workplace is now a fast-paced environment. There are all kinds of updates and changes that we need to keep up with on a daily basis. One’s flexibility and adaptability mean having the genuine desire to welcome new challenges that will help one grow professionally while also achieving success for the company. For example, if you are interested to take on another skill, you need to be flexible to changes. These include the willingness to learn new things to keep up with industry trends or the openness and positive response to constructive feedback.