Soft Skills To Support Your Career Development

You gain hard skills through years of training, education, and experience. However, how employable you are will also depend on how well you can apply your hard skills in a team environment where personalities and work ethics differ from person to person. This is where soft skills will give you the edge. There are many valuable soft skills to support your career development and get more respect at work. 
 

Adaptability

This reflects how quickly you can respond to change and how easily you master new skills. 
 
Don’t get bogged down in the routine of your job, just because your company has always done things a certain way. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a better approach. Workplaces are always changing, whether through the introduction of new technologies or finding new ways to work. Show you’re prepared to change with them by being adaptive and flexible. 
 
Keep up with new developments in your field too, by following industry leaders on social media and following relevant stories in the news. If you don’t show that you’re ready to step outside of your comfort zone, others won’t know that you’re ready for promotion. 
 
Show willingness to continue learning, whether it’s an online course in a new software you’re going to use, or taking youth mental heath first aid courses if your job requires you to work with young people.

Communication

A skilled communicator can express their ideas clearly and engage with others. Communication is a two-way process, so you also need to be good at listening, understanding instructions, and carrying them out accurately. 
 
Leaders also need strong communication skills in order to:

• Built relationships with new connections
• Nurture long-term relationships
• Explain complex issues
• Delegate clearly
• Utilise feedback
• Deal with a variety of personalities

 
If you tailor your approach to suit different people, you can demonstrate that you’re sensitive to others and don’t expect people to conform to you. 

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking relies on your ability to draw on experience, gather information, and ask relevant questions to form judgements. 
 
The goal is to find the best solution to a problem, rather than one that just fits your preconceptions or biases. You need to:

• Consider all evidence
• Assess other points of view
• Keep an open mind
• Allow results to change your approach

 
Through critical thinking, you will refine your research skills, learn how to process data, and be able to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information. This will help you to become more strategic and open-minded, be more adaptable, and keep a good track record of sound decision-making. 

Time Management

Employers always rate time management as a difficult soft skill to find among candidates. The ability to manage your own time involves being realistic about your capabilities and properly prioritising your workload to make sure you can meet your deadlines. 
 
Leaders need to manage their own time, as well as the time of their team. They need to consider individual workflows when delegating tasks and prioritising them to fit the company’s wider goals.