Why we need Personal Progressive Development ????

The phrase ‘soft skills’ is often used to describe the skills which characterize relationships with other people, or which are about how you approach life and work.

Other phrases that are often used for these types of skills include: ‘people skills’, ‘interpersonal skills’, ‘social skills’ or ‘transferable skills’.

The Relative Importance of Hard and Soft Skills

Job-related expertise is essential in any profession and in many other careers. However, over the last twenty to thirty years, understanding has grown that perhaps the soft skills may ultimately be more important in determining levels of success.

That is, the hard skills are a basic minimum necessary to operate in that workplace. Whether you are successful in your career may depend on how you relate to other people and to work: the so-called soft skills.

What are the Most Important Soft Skills?

It’s hard to judge which soft skills are most important, but this list is broadly what employers mean when they talk about good soft skills and the skills which are most likely to enable you to build constructive working relationships with others, or to be a constructive and helpful employee.

1. Communication Skills

Communication skills are always top of the ‘essential skills’ list in any job advertisement. People with strong communication skills can build relationships (from the initial building rapport through to a longer-term relationship), listen well, and vary their communication to suit the circumstances.

If you spend time on nothing else, work on your communication skills.

2.  Making Decisions

Valued by employers for many reasons, being able to make decisions is key to getting on in life. Sometimes the actual decision doesn’t even matter; what matters is that you have made one and moved on.

3. Self-Motivation

People who are self-motivated get on by themselves. They don’t need close supervision and they are good to work with because they are generally positive about life and can be counted upon to keep going. It also helps to work on your personal resilience and adaptability to change.

4. Leadership Skills

These are the set of soft skills that we least expect someone to develop by themselves. There are many leadership training courses available and much has been written about how to develop your leadership skills.

Our leadership skills pages describe many of the skills needed for effective leadership and how to develop your leadership style.

5. Team-Working Skills

Like leadership skills, there are many training courses to teach you how to work well in a team. However, there is also plenty of thinking to suggest that good communication skills, particularly good listening skills, together with an ability to build rapport will go a long way to support your ability to work well in a team.

6. Creativity and Problem-Solving Skills

Creativity and problem-solving skills are highly valued because they are hard to develop. There are many people who believe that creative thinkers are born, not made, and there are certainly some people who find these skills much easier. But, like other skills, you can develop them if you work to do so and our pages on these topics will give you some ideas about how to do this.

7. Time Management and ability to work under pressure

Many would say that these two skills, which often go together, are more an attitude than a skill. However, they can also be developed and honed, which is why we include them as skills. Highly valued by employers, they are also very useful for organizing a family or a team, and for making sure that the job gets done.

How to Improve Soft Skills

1.     Developing Your Communication Skills

•          Aim to be understood

•          Make eye contact.

•          Monitor your body language

•          Practice speaking

•          Develop your writing skills.

•          Pay attention to the other person's body                          language

2.     Strengthening Interpersonal Relationships

•          Build relationships

•          Be friendly with colleagues

•          Network with people inside and                                   outside your organization

•          Practice leading

3.     Demonstrating Enthusiasm and Ingenuity

•          Take initiative

•          Do tasks without being asked by                       someone else

•          Seek more challenging work

•          Improve your problem-solving skills

•          Boost your creativity