Before discussing why soft skills are important, let’s quickly get a better understanding of what they are.
Soft skills are your abilities/attributes to interact with others. It dictates how well you can gel with people, work or communicate with them. It enables people to form better and long-lasting relationships. It reflects character traits and interpersonal skills which plays a major role in how the individual is perceived by others. Soft skills comprise of several skills such as emotional intelligence, social intelligence, attitude, people skills, social skills, management, interactions, delegation, teamwork, time management, influencing others etc.
Relevance:
Soft skills matter the most in today’s dynamic work environment. Every individual in an organization or team must possess good soft skills as only then they will be able to get the work done harmoniously. It is crucial in maintaining a friendly work atmosphere. The people who lack soft skills face difficulty in working in a team and tend to receive negative feedback from others. Further, classifying people with good soft skills as extroverts would be wrong as introverts also possess excellent soft skills.
Apart from the professional environment, soft skills are equally important in a personal space. Let’s discuss a few points on why it is so important.
The modern workplace is interpersonal: The Modern workplace includes a lot of meetings, discussions, and brainstorming all of which require active participation and listening. The process heavily relies on input from each other in order to find the best solution. From presenting ideas to the acknowledgement of ideas, soft skills are highly important for a productive and healthy workplace.
Customers and clients: No matter what business you are in, there is very little chance that you are the only one that provides that specific service. We live in a highly competitive world where every company/brand is continuously making efforts to produce the best product or provide better services. Today, a customer/client is spoiled for choices. The key factor for a customer/client is the experience and customer service. The ability to communicate on a human level is a key factor hence, soft skills become very important.
Future prospects: With Artificial Intelligence developing at a fast pace, it won’t be long before robots take over a lot of jobs from humans especially jobs that solely rely on manual labour. A study by Deloitte access economics predicts that “Soft skill-intensive occupations will account for two-thirds of all jobs by 2030”. The only jobs that AI can’t take over are the jobs that require critical/creative thinking, teamwork and communication.
These are some of the many advantages of having good soft skills. If not already, you need to start working and developing your soft skills as it will immensely help you grow in the career of your choice.
By Vrutika Dawda, Director, IdeateLabs