SOFT SKILLS: WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE AND HOW CAN YOU DEVELOP THEM?

Soft skills are in high demand in the job market and can be essential to generate opportunities in your professional career, and it is important to understand why. These skills involve your social and communication skills, that is, your way of interacting with other people, for example, with coworkers or clients. Unlike hard skills, soft skills are less tangible and difficult to measure. Building strong professional relationships is essential to a company's success, which is one of the reasons why employers value these personal skills. For example, employees with strong ethics, leadership performance, adaptation to changes, good communicators and with active listening, among others.

So how can we develop our soft skills? For each profession and for each job different skills will be required and for that you need to interpret the job description to understand the company's expectations. Another matter to be considered is that these social skills must be developed regardless of the role you currently have, because through professional self-knowledge you can expand your strengths and overcome your weaknesses, or as I like to call them: areas for improvement. Here are some factors to think about:

1- Developing skills requires a lot of practice!

2- We need to develop a Mindset of continuous learning!

3- Managing our feelings and emotions is important!

4- Feedback is an essential tool for our growth!

5- It is necessary to know how to deal with adverse situations!

Do not underestimate the social skills you have developed throughout your life.

Soft skills are not only developed in the workplace, you may have acquired skills during your academic career or volunteering, for example. The proficiency related to communication, can be cited as essential for your professional life because they will always be hand in hand with teamwork, leadership, customer service, negotiations and other activities performed in your day-to-day, as well as they can be acquired in all areas of your life. Also, do not forget that there are transferable skills that may be needed for different jobs, so never devalue your professional history.

Everyone has unique talents and potentials that just need to be discovered, recognized, and developed. What have you been doing to cultivate professional self-knowledge and develop your skills to boost your career? Believe and invest in yourself!