Soft skills meaning and the top 5 most important soft skills:

•  What is the meaning of soft skills or interpersonal skills:

1. Soft skills are considered as a summary for your personality. It includes your attitude, flexibility and manners. Mainly, it presents the traits and behaviors that you display in different situations. Soft skills, interpersonal skills or even social skills are the main target an employer look for. Employers seek out for applicants who are active and interact with others easily. Showing their interpersonal skills like communication skills, which is one of the most effectual skill an applicant should have.
2. Soft skills can’t be taught, they are gained from surrounding situations, or by developing yourself. Most likely, soft skills are more important than hard skills. They are the main reason for the interviewer in deciding whether to accept or reject you. Soft skills are totally different from hard skills. Hard skills are absolutely related to the core of the job you are applying for. It’s like your academic scores or your experience about the mechanism of the work itself. For instance, a hard skill for a pharmacist is to understand drugs interaction, while a soft skill would be the ability to communicate with patients.

However, you can’t learn soft skills from a course or from a school, you can develop these skills by practicing. Practicing make everything possible.

 

• Top 5 soft skills lists:

 Communication:

communication is the way that allows you to show and express yourself effectively in the work area. Communication is the method that makes you choose the appropriate words that you have to say in a situation. They are the most substantial skills you need, in order to deal correctly with your clients, customers, colleagues and your managers. Communication skills appear mainly in arguments situations. For example, if you are working with a team and you disagree with them in a point. By your skills you could discuss the matter flexibly without creating a struggle. Being a good listener and having the ability to respond correctly according to the situation indicates that you have good communication skills. 

 

 Problem solving:

Problem solving requires a wise, cool person who can face the problem with its details without getting a panic. It is a collection of analytical and creative thinking until reaching the most effectual solution. You have to detect the issue and analyze the reasons of this issue in order to fix it. This skill indicates that you are a self-reliant and responsible person. In order to be a good problem solver you should follow some steps as:

1-Analyzing

2-Logical reasoning

3-brainstorming

4-Negotiation

5-drawing conclusions

6-experimenting

7-a solution design

 

ü  Adaptability:

In our daily life, we face many changes. In your job, you may face many changes like changing the client you were working with, changing your team, changing your place, or changing your position, all these changes are situations you have to adapt with and don’t let them make a stress on you. Any stress or negative thinking can affect your productivity. You have to be a self-confident person and avoid getting affected by the surrounding environment. Adaptability means to be familiar with the new changes and make a good use of them to develop yourself. For example, meeting new people and working with new mates will provide you with new experiences and new ideas.

ü  Time management:

Time management explains your ability to combine between your productive work and the specified deadlines. It’s a process of investing time wisely. This skill is a very critical skill because any company or organization needs the employees to finish their tasks properly on time. Exceeding the timeline will be considered a serious problem and will delay a lot of other work. As a consequence, you should be organized and put a plan for your work to invest your time, lower the stress and focus to reach to the target. Moreover, saving your time leads to more free time that you can make use of and develop yourself.

ü  Presentation skills:

Presentation skills are the skills to explain a piece of information in front of a variety of audiences. It indicates that you are a talkative and a brave person. These skills are important in many fields. Many people fear of presenting and speaking to others. The good aspect is that presentation skills could be developed by practicing and some tips:

1-      Understanding and overcoming fear:

You should be more confident, never hesitate while speaking and control your sense of fear.

2-      Good preparation:

Give yourself the time to rehearse and practice on your presentation many times, this will make you more confident and calm. Try to present it in front of your friends or family for the first time to overcome being nervous.

3-      Slides:

Your presentation slides should be clear and simple, avoid putting a topic that you don’t know much about. You have to study every detail in your presentation and a lot of information about the topics you are discussing. Don’t put many sentences in one slide, use pictures, charts and effective titles then explain these pictures and titles in front of the audience.

4-      See others presentations:

It is good to attend an earlier presentation to see their skills and how they speak and manage their talk.

5-      Body language:

In order to have a powerful presentation, you should focus on your body language. It is the way that expresses your emotions, and show the audience that you are a confident presenter. Body language helps you to attract the attention of the audiences without getting them bored. Audiences appreciate presenters whose bodies are energetic. Your voice tone and using your hands will make the presentation active. Eye contact is the most important element in this process. Also, allowing audiences to participate by asking them questions and involving them in the presentation is a good point.

 

ü  Leadership:

Leadership is an important skill even if you aren’t applying for a manager position. It gives an impression that you are a responsible person who can take a quick and effective decision. Leadership shows that you will be an influential person who takes other to success. Also, you have to be flexible and accept the others opinion. A good leader explains his point of view in a discussion without making a conflict. A good leader should have a strategic thinking to achieve the targets and overcome the challenges. It is important to be persuasive and influential to encourage others to work effectively.

 Difference between soft skills and hard skills:

Soft skills, as we mentioned before, are natural abilities that help us interact proficiently with others. On the other hand, hard skills are learnt through education, training, and courses. Soft skills and hard skills should be harmonious with each other in order to increase your opportunity to get this job or to get promoted. Employers or interviewers need to see a rhythmic combination between your soft skills and hard skills.

Farha Mohamed Elsamanody