7 habits to train soft skills applied to the work environment

Soft skills are a quality of professional profiles that are increasingly taken into account.

However, it is still relatively common for people who have been working in the same professional field for years to be unaware of this concept, thus suffering a competitive disadvantage both as candidates for better job prospects, as leaders of equipment.

In this article We will explore this concept of “soft skills” and we will see some of the most important habits to enhance them.

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What are soft skills?

Soft skills, or "soft skills" are the set of personal skills that have a significant impact in the work context despite the fact that they cannot be reduced to technical knowledge or the motor execution of certain specific movements related to the work to be carried out, and which are very useful in a wide variety of roles professionals.

In other words, they are the personal skills that, despite not being reflected in the curriculum, are as important or more important than formal education and technical apprenticeships

that a person has received in order to aspire to certain jobs.

Thus, soft skills are predispositions and abilities of an eminently psychological nature, that is, linked to the management of emotions, thoughts and personal relationships, and do not depend on the memorization of certain theoretical contents or the motor strength or coordination available a person. For this reason, it is often said that the scope of application of these "soft skills" goes far beyond work, since they are useful both in the professional context and in private life, and if a person is able to apply them in one, they can also do it in the other.

In turn, due to its dynamic, flexible nature and not dependent on memorizable content, to It is very difficult for companies to develop systematic evaluation tools for software skills; That is why the most used method to study its presence or absence in candidates for a job or a promotion, for example, is personalized evaluation by professionals with experience in HR and/or in the department of the corresponding organization.

Of course, for this kind of evaluation process to be effective, it is necessary to first have a notion of what soft skills are and which are the most relevant in a job. given context, since unfortunately, otherwise the temptation to take into account only the “objective” and easily quantifiable criteria will be the option of choice. default.

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Habits to enhance soft skills applied to work

Although soft skills do not emerge from formal education (for example, from university classes), that does not mean that they cannot be learned and internalized. The only thing that happens is that in this case the learning process will be more adapted to the lifestyle and the way of being of the person, not being reduced to class notes and exercises to be done with a computer.

Since the soft skills emerge in contexts of real work and social interaction associated with everyday life, the way of training them is also based on going through certain situations that have to do with the day to day of the problems that we must learn to solve: in this case, theory and practice merge and we must learn to master them the time This can be promoted through company initiatives such as training programs in social skills, courses and workshops, etc. But it is not the only way: oneself can also do his part to, as an individual, fill his day to day with situations that "force" that learning and reinforcement of soft skills on us.

Therefore, below we will focus on this second way and we will make a brief review of habits that can help you enhance soft skills.

1. Take an arbitration role in discussions

Many people find it hard not to lose their temper in discussions, something that has negative repercussions both at work and in private life. To avoid this, it is important to approach conflicts by adopting the perspective of a character or "actor" whose task it is to recognize the reason for the discomfort of both parties and look for points in common from a relatively distant perspective that allows us to see the set. In this way, the objective will not be to "win" or to see how "our side" defeats the other, but overcome a crisis that affects a group of people.

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2. write every day

It seems incredible, but many communication problems can be corrected by learning to write well. The habit of writing sentences and paragraphs of relative complexity helps us to better structure the ideas and propositions in our mind, so that we are not only much better at writing emails and documents (something already essential in many jobs) but also speak in an understandable and convincing way.

3. Delegates and gives instructions regularly

You don't have to assume that the more tasks and responsibilities you carry on your shoulders, the better your job will be. Many times, we lose the ability to give a lot of added value to our professional profile for the simple fact of not being able to delegate and train others by explaining the theory and practice of what they should do.

To be better at it, delegate tasks in your day-to-day and make sure that the other person will have all the information needed to do those jobs in much the same way you would do them yourself. This will force you not to assume that everyone knows what you know, something basic to lead and to organize teams..

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4. Divide all your goals into sub-goals

This seemingly simple principle is fundamental to performing well, and it can be applied to practically all the responsibilities you come across in your day-to-day life. Not only will it help you to be clear at all times about what you should do; further, will help you prioritize tasks, which is necessary to have a problem-solving oriented perspective (you will avoid falling into such usual dynamics of focusing only on abstract ideas and disconnected from what is really needs to).

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5. Ask going beyond your target role

Gaining the ability to adapt requires seeing beyond the objective goals linked to our job: it is important to understand the reason for what happens in the organization. To do this, take advantage of the potential of your curiosity: ask questions of those who know. In this way you will be better able to anticipate the needs of your team, company or department.

6. Prepare your workspace

Something as simple as preparing our desk by eliminating possible distractions will make better use of the time we have to work and, on the other hand, we will have more resources and energy to learn about what is happening around us.

7. Make sure you are in constant communication with your team

It is increasingly common for teamwork to be mixed with individual work, thanks to new chat platforms, video calls, etc. For this reason, it is essential that you make a habit of always turning on these communication channels and reviewing them periodically. These types of routines will open you up much more to work, going beyond your individuality.

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Do you want to learn more about soft skills?

If you are interested in learning more about soft skills and their implications in the world of work, either to enhance them in you or to incorporate them into your work leading teams, the Executive Coaching Certification Program of Escuela Europea de Coaching is for you. This training program lasts 229 hours and is especially aimed at managers, middle managers, psychologists, Human Resources professionals and coaches. In addition, it can be done both online and in person in Madrid and Barcelona. To know more, Get in contact with us.