The concept of soft skills at work is revolutionizing professional profiles, why? Well, because soft skills or soft skills are not limited to academic training or professional experience, the so-called hard skills, but rather ensure the adaptability of professional profiles within a company.
Empathy, communication, knowing how to work in a team or managing stress are some of the soft skills that companies value the most today. It is no longer enough to have an exemplary resume, but it is the ability to know how to solve situations that make a professional profile attractive to companies.
Adapting to changes is essential because behaviour, mentality and philosophy are evolving, both in our personal and professional lives!
New technologies have influenced the labour market and the selection processes so much that there is a list of the soft skills that companies demand the most. In fact, the list focuses, this 2023, among others, on emotional intelligence, coordination and leadership, negotiation skills, critical thinking, cognitive flexibility and solutions.
Although they seem to be very typical and obvious, the speed at which the labour market is transforming requires that these very skills be updated based on the existing social reality. For this reason, they are so important and appear automatically when making a list of the most demanded ones.
In fact, soft skills are fundamental when it comes to counteracting deficiencies in professional practice, so working on them can open many doors to a resume lacking notable experience.
Being a leader seems like the skill you always want to highlight, but it’s a mistake to assume that being a leader is the most important thing, because it’s not. In fact, there are other soft skills that are here to stay and that Human Resources departments take into account when assessing a candidacy.
What soft skills are we talking about? Well, one of those that provide essential value, due to the dizzying speed with which society is changing and its needs as well.
The first is the ability to adapt to change and to want that change to happen. And we talk about wanting it to happen because resigning yourself to change is not daring to do things differently, even if they involve a 180-degree change.
We must bet on improving and for this, sometimes, we have to forget what we have learned. Remember! Pluto is no longer a planet, nor is Che a letter of the alphabet.
The second soft skill that we are going to highlight is that the obstacles stop being seen as brown. Taking on challenges and facing setbacks only makes us grow as professionals, providing an attitude of overcoming the limits we thought we had and, of course, acquiring skills that we had not yet developed.
We have all had a bad day or a difficult moment, and at work, there is always a first time for something: a confusing contact with a client, a run-in with a colleague, a moment of nervousness or a blunder, and the least pleasant emotions. They are part of these circumstances, but what makes us human is empathizing when we are not the ones going through that trance.
And this is also applicable to empathising with the company and providing solutions that manage to turn towards the needs and objectives that are intended to be achieved. In fact, another soft skill that can be highlighted from this is the contribution of disruptive solutions.
At this same point, related to empathy, is the soft skill of critical thinking. It is true that a good leader is capable of making the most of the strengths to achieve perfect team coordination, but weaknesses must also be identified and evaluated so that every professional is capable of continuing to grow and not just stick to what is best for him In other words, effective feedback will help the company, the professional and the team thanks to the increase in trust.
In short, soft skills at work are currently of great relevance when it comes to applying for a position.