Soft skills are essential skills. That’s why just like the technical skills, you need to enhance them to ensure your adaptability in this fast-changing world. And with the changes that the previous year brought, it’s even more important for you to be equipped with the right skillsets for the new normal. So, here are 6 soft skills that you need to enhance right now!
The 6 Soft Skills You Need to Enhance Right Now
Critical Thinking
In 2016, the World Economic Forum released its report on the top 10 skills that you need to thrive in 2020 and the fourth industrial revolution. Critical thinking is one of them. And, in their newly released Future of Jobs Report, critical thinking is once again listed as one of the top skills needed for the future.
With these, it’s no doubt that critical thinking is one of the soft skills that you really need to enhance right now. With numerous information available instantaneously, it’s an essential skill to be able to examine what is presented to you, form your belief based on the facts, and come up with rational solutions to problems.
Emotional Intelligence
How many times have you reacted first before you thought things through? Probably a lot. And this is because, just like others, you tend to feel first—which causes you to react—rather than think first. However, you can use thoughts to challenge those feelings.
And this is why you need to level up your emotional intelligence. With emotional intelligence, you can better perceive, understand, and manage your emotions and how it affects others.
With the pandemic, mental health can be one of the biggest issues you’ll face. And because of that, using emotional intelligence to gain a deeper level of understanding of others and knowing how best to interact with them is a much-needed competency.
Read this blog post to learn more about how you can be more emotionally intelligent. You can also check out our affiliate, Emovation Inc.’s upcoming webinars that will surely help you level up your emotional intelligence.
Creativity and Innovation
The crisis the pandemic brought has proven that those who are creative and innovate don’t only just survive but also thrive even in the midst of challenging times.
And, for sure, the pandemic is not the only crisis that you’re going to face. So, the ability to create and implement solutions to existing and new problems, as well as answer the wants and needs of the market is essential.
With the right practices, you can make creativity and innovation happen at work. So make sure that you enhance these soft skills to make sure that you don’t only stay afloat in challenging times, but also to recover and be even better.
Adaptability
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, “The only constant in life is change.” And it’s true. If there’s one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has proven, it’s that change happens, and it can happen fast. So, what’s your key to managing it? Adaptability.
Adaptability is your ability to adjust to changes in your environment. And it’s becoming one of the most in-demand skills. After all, no one can accurately predict what will happen by tomorrow. Having the capability to face the challenges and the uncertainty of the future and not be daunted by it is a good trait to have.
But how can you enhance your adaptability? There are a few things that you can do:
- In case of situations you don’t expect do happen, you can equip yourself with continuous learning.
- Become more self-aware so that when change does happen, you can look past your emotions for a better response.
- Prepare for the unexpected.
Complex Problem-Solving
Before we move on to why complex problem-solving is one of the soft skills that you need to enhance right now, you may be wondering, what exactly is it. According to the research done by Dietrich Dörner and Joachim Funke published in the US National Library of Medicine, they define complex problem-solving or CPS, as “a collection of self-regulated psychological processes and activities necessary in dynamic environments to achieve ill-defined goals that cannot be reached by routine actions. Creative combinations of knowledge and a broad set of strategies are needed. Solutions are often more bricolage than perfect or optimal. The problem-solving process combines cognitive, emotional, and motivational aspects, particularly in high-stakes situations. Complex problems usually involve knowledge-rich requirements and collaboration among different persons.”
So, why do you need to enhance complex problem-solving? You can’t treat the problems you face and will possibly face as simple toy problems anymore. Especially when you deal with challenges at an organizational level. So, you need to have the skill to face these complex problems and determine the right course of action.
Leadership and Social Influence
In the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Future of Jobs Report, one of the skills listed among the top is leadership. Not just leadership, but “leadership and social influence”. This is because leadership doesn’t only include leading people, but also the influence you have on your team, organization, and community.
Just like how the demands of your consumers change, the demands of your employees, too. It’s no longer enough to just be able to guide them to achieve business goals. You also have to be a purposeful leader—which, according to the World Economic Forum, is “a leader that will bring a future of work that fulfills human potential and creates broadly shared prosperity.”
And there you have it: the 6 soft skills that you need to enhance right now! The good news is that there are numerous training programs out there that can help you develop these skills.
Let us help you with your soft skills development and enhancement needs! People Dynamics offers public and in-house training programs, seminars, workshops, certification programs, and team building programs—face-to-face and online. For more information, contact us here, email us at solutions@peopledynamics.ph or call us at the following numbers: (02) 8 635 0016 / 8 637 8770 / 8 635 9215.
We also have online soft skills courses available in our learning management system, LearnED. For more information, email us at solutions@peopledynamics.ph or contact us through our website.
