Soft-Skills To Standout at the Workplace

By NIIT Editorial

Published on 06/04/2021

7 minutes

Technical skill sets are the bread and butter of all working professionals and as a by-product of big businesses. While focusing on your core competency, which people equate with aptitude, is vital, it is equally important not to drag your feet when it comes to soft skills. The socio-political events of recent times have also made it through the turnstiles of workplaces. Such discourses encompass one’s gender, ethnicity, career prospects, and attitudes.

Observing strict control on your form of expression is crucial. Soft skills training is the panacea that educates the workforce of professional conduct. And if you haven’t already been briefed on the written and oral norms of communication, then it is time you take initiative.

Wellness Skills

The pandemic helped behavioural experts draw a grim shade to address the elephant in the room. Ideally, humans undertake an action with their well-being in mind. Well-being is associated with each walk of life be it financial, occupational, intellectual, and or physical. Working from home and facing burnouts on a regular basis gravitated focus on mental health. Future-headed leaders arrived at the conclusion that the measure of productivity cannot be restricted to just outputs and deliverables.

Employee management initiatives have to be encouraged at the workplace. This includes access to counselling resources, and stress-management training. Positive workplace impact, in terms of both revenues and employee engagement rates will rise if impactful wellness schemes are a mainstay at offices.

Productivity Skills

Stakeholders are showing a serious commitment to imparting productivity skills in their employees. In the midst of lockdowns, a huge number of virtual workers are reportedly distracted from tasks by familial obligations such as elderly care, parenting, and random smartphone notifications to name a few.

The Learning and Development Strategy must seek to embolden practices that help employees focus on important and practical techniques to achieve invariable levels of consistency and productivity. This should include the following:

Time Management
Self-motivation
Focus building

Comminication

Expression is an art. Just like intellectual IQ, there is an emotional IQ in all of us. This emotional intelligence is key to fast-guessing, even better, knowing the impact of the way you communicate. Flexibility, willingness to adapt, and empathy are overlooked traits but separate leaders from followers. Workplaces have become dynamic and so have the requirements and expectations of the management.

Remote collaboration has decreased face-to-face time we used to spend with team members. This puts special impetus on written and presentational forms of idea-sharing used in emails. Until the pandemic lasts, and otherwise, it is expected that the following Skill sets will be top of the wishlist for learners:

Active listening
Business communication
Business Writing

Leadership

Leadership is not restricted to those in the upper echelons of the company. It is an attribute that can be taught. People need to be bold and decisive, and respectful towards their peers. For some, the skill comes naturally, but even so, they need experiential guidance. As per a Mckinsey survey, 40 - 50% of professionals assuming leadership positions flounder within 18 months of their new job.

The young guns of the day are prepping to add the following skill-sets, keeping them central to their positions:

Diversity & Inclusion
Strategic thinking
High-pressure decision making

Wrapping Up

Soft Skills have earned an unprecedented pedestal in learning and development checklists of individuals. NIIT’s career programmes include dedicated sessions on soft skills such as behavioral aptitude, interview FAQs, and role plays highlighting workplace scenarios.

In addition to this, we have a series of webinars, some conducted and others upcoming around the same.

Learners can make the most of it through Facebook Lives, or enrolling in our flagship career programmes.