With the way the future of work is moving, businesses need employees to be adept at concrete skills specific and necessary to their respective jobs. But before you work on those, you must first set up a solid foundation for yourself through soft skills.
Because of the business landscape’s rapid movement, companies are looking to stay competitive and relevant by incorporating technologies and advancements beyond their workforce’s capabilities and understanding. This situation leads to employees getting left behind, with businesses opting to hire skilled, in-demand, and experienced professionals who know how to work whatever applications, software, or programs they onboard in operations. This scenario means that employees are losing out on many opportunities that would otherwise be ideal for their career progressions. As a result, it will be necessary to pursue upskilling.
Unfortunately, the problem with upskilling is that it can be time-consuming. Given the rapid changes in work, people might not be able to finish on time, and by the time they do, the jobs they handle might have already evolved again.
It is not surprising that many people get overwhelmed because the way people work is changing at a fast rate. It tells us that if you can’t grow, you can’t get the opportunities you deserve for a better life. Because of that, people are working hard to learn the specific skills needed for their roles or the career ladder they want to progress in, otherwise known as hard skills. However, people must first establish a solid foundation, which involves acquiring essential character traits more well-recognized as soft skills.
Even entrepreneurs need soft skills, so employees must focus on them too. Without developed soft skills, you might struggle with overcoming the difficulties of constantly learning the hard skills you need now and in the future. In the battle between hard vs. soft skills, the latter might be the better first investment for career development. Here are some of them.
Communication
When people ask, “what are soft skills?”, the first thing they will say is workplace traits. As a result, communication skills automatically come to mind. Communication is not just about words. Employees must adapt to keep up with the new demands of their current work. It isn’t to simply bow your head and focus on the task ahead. The first step will always be understanding what you need and must do. To achieve that, you must learn how to communicate.
You don’t deliver results blindly. Every task you perform successfully involves talking, from the business owner’s idea to the C-Level executive’s strategy and your team leader’s brief. Everything in business operations relies heavily on communication; the same applies to adopting hard skills for career development.
Most people have career paths to follow when trying to learn what hard skills they need for their development. However, it might be challenging to develop a concrete plan if you are unaware of what you need to improve. As a result, you’ll need to talk to people directly involved in your career path. The list includes your work colleagues, team leaders, business managers, and professional network.
Communication is considered a soft skill, but it is an individual’s gateway to developing essential workplace skills like problem-solving, decision-making, negotiating, and conflict resolution.
Most career development paths involve taking over leadership duties, and communication skills will be one of the primary traits used to evaluate if an individual qualifies for the role.
There are many ways to work on your communication skills so that it becomes a part of your arsenal as you gain work experience. Immerse yourself in business operations allows you to develop communication skills that will become essential for your career.
Work Ethic
There is no question that career development is unique for every individual. It will be challenging to find colleagues who are at the same level as you, with the same skillsets, experience, knowledge, and experience. These differences could be the key to whether a person gets promoted or recognized in the workplace. To stand out and develop your career, you must be ready to work hard and reach your development goals.
Work ethic is a soft skill that relies heavily on a person’s investment in themselves. It starts with a simple question: do you really want it? Career success does not happen by accident, nor does it develop overnight. It will be years of practice, sacrifice, and study before you achieve career development, even if it is one rung higher on the corporate ladder. As a result, work ethics becomes a critical soft skill for career development.
Good work ethic is the same as communication skills regarding much-needed character traits. Suppose your hard work is visible to your workmates and supervisors. In that case, you will come off as a dedicated, motivated, and reliable team player, all essential qualities to help you enhance your career development.
However, work ethic does not mean you should be overworking yourself or letting your work take over your life. You must be smart and efficient with your work, ensuring you remain healthy as you progress toward career development goals.
Flexibility and Adaptability
Building a foundation through soft skills is essential because hard skills often have a timer. Concrete skills that will take you years to master could evolve as you learn them. Some might even end up being obsolete by the time you master them. The workplace will always be in a state of rapid evolution, and with it comes an unpredictable wave of responsibilities that might come your way. This is where your soft skills become vital, but work ethic and communication skills alone will not be enough to help you keep up with all those changes. Dedicating yourself to becoming more flexible and adaptable, however, might.
Flexibility involves embracing new responsibilities and challenges, and keeping an open mind shows you have a growth mindset. It is a valuable soft skill that can help you develop solutions for unexpected problems or delayed deadlines. Still, it is even more critical to learn a new complex skill. Accepting that your role, whatever industry you are in, will experience changes is vital. To stay competitive, you must remain flexible.
Flexibility goes together with another soft skill: adaptability. With the many changes happening in work, there will be new programs, routines, and steps you might be unfamiliar with, and schools and years of office work might not even prepare you for them. You spend most of your career working on one path, only for innovation to block and carve a different road. Adjusting to changes will make you competitive and ensure you can handle hard skills efficiently.
Career Development
Work on your soft skills daily, take online seminars, find mentors, and set goals for yourself.
Those improvement paths, however, pale in comparison to getting opportunities where your soft skills can shine. For example, you might be able to speak up about your suggestions during a meeting, which can be an excellent way to improve your communication skills. Another example is when your company onboards new software that no one in your team knows how to use. Being the first to tinker around with the program, find training videos online, and perform tasks using it will show your work ethic and flexibility. Those opportunities will be vital in helping develop your soft skills, ensuring you have enough of a foundation to make learning hard skills seamless.
Plenty of resources are available online on how to improve soft skills. With the right motivation, you can ensure that improving yourself through self-learning will be possible.
iSupport Worldwide Provides Opportunities for Soft Skills
Every employee has one long-term goal: to achieve the career they want. However, career development becomes even more challenging to carry out when everything around you is changing. Companies will want people to learn more hard skills fast, which can be overwhelming for individuals with underdeveloped soft skills.
iSupport Worldwide recognizes the importance of helping people set up a solid foundation of soft skills to ensure they can stay competitive in the rapidly changing business environment. As a result, the company focuses on providing opportunities for career development.
iSupport Worldwide partners with its clients to develop training and resources focusing on concrete skills needed for the offshore team’s respective roles. Once hired, employees will also receive beneficial career development programs focused on learning, leadership, and end-to-end management to ensure that they will always be ready for whatever work throws their way.
If you want to be part of a company that will be with you throughout your career development side-by-side, don’t hesitate to join us!