SOFT POWER: 10 SOFT SKILLS THAT ARE GROWING IN POPULARITY AMONG

ayshakhatunasha

Are soft skills just a popular concept with minimal importance for a candidate or are they even more important than hard skills?

SOFT POWER: 10 SOFT SKILLS THAT ARE GROWING IN POPULARITY AMONG EMPLOYERS. Photo 1
Soft skills are not related to a specific type of activity, but to communications for effective interaction with colleagues, clients and partners. Soft skills are determined mainly by psychological traits, preferences, experience, background, etc. Measuring soft skills is difficult because there is no objective way to test the skill itself, unlike hard skills.
hard skills - a set of professional skills and abilities related to the received education and/or acquired experience, existing knowledge. They can be relatively easily taught and measured.
Ten years ago, in the vast majority of cases, employers assessed candidates based on their education, qualifications, and work experience. Developed hard skills were the determining criterion, while skills such as communication and multitasking (soft skills) meant little when making a final decision.

Today, we are seeing a completely different situation. There is no doubt that hard skills, embodied in acquired qualifications, are necessary for success in the labor market. At the same time, as practice shows, soft skills are the decisive criterion when hiring, while qualifications are used for the preliminary selection of job candidates.

SOFT POWER: 10 SOFT SKILLS THAT ARE GROWING IN POPULARITY AMONG EMPLOYERS. Photo 2


The results of a study conducted at Harvard University and Stanford Research Institute show that the "contribution" of hard skills to the professional success of an employee is only 15%, while soft skills determine the remaining 85%. The management of most companies strives to hire, retain and promote employees with a high level of soft skills. Of course, this does not mean that skills related to a specific area of ​​activity are not so important, but they are not enough for career growth and successful solution of those various tasks that an employee faces in the process of achieving the goals set by the company.

According to the forecast of the World Economic Forum, soft skills such as critical thinking, complex problem solving, will top the list of skills, according to employers, as the most important in the near future. The importance of hard skills is not lost, but investment in the development of soft skills will be decisive.

What soft skills does a candidate or employee need for career growth? We've compiled a list of 10 skills that we believe are increasingly popular with employers:
1. Complex problem solving;
2. Critical thinking and analysis;
3. Initiative;
4. Resilience;
5. Flexibility;
6. Antifragility;
7. Lifelong learning;
8. Leadership and social influence;
9. Creativity;
10. Idea generation.
Complex problem solving skills are one of the key skills that employers expect from job seekers. They are associated with the employee's ability to apply logic and use imagination to develop intelligent solutions to problems not in a linear projection, but in a "panoramic format" taking into account all elements and components.

By developing critical thinking and analysis, an employee is able to interpret examples of various problems, formulate conclusions, calculate probabilities and make decisions. Critical thinking is associated with the ability to admit one's wrongness or mistake, formulate new conclusions, calculate other possible ways of developing and eliminating the problem and make effective exits from the situation.
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While everyone may have a different set of virtual phone number service skills that contribute to their success, employees with well-developed initiative skills usually succeed at work and may have higher chances of career trajectories. Initiative refers to an employee’s ability to assess a situation without anyone’s instructions and take action or propose solutions on the best algorithm of actions to achieve a specific result.

Flexibility, resistance to adverse situations, stress with the ability to quickly adapt and recover with an exit to a new level of development (antifragility) - these soft skills allow an employee to remain healthy and effective even under heavy workloads.

The ability to constantly learn and improve their professional level through reskilling* and upskilling* gives an employee the opportunity and additional advantages to remain in demand in a situation of constant technological development, an increase in the volume of information and an actualization of the demand for the necessary knowledge and skills.
Reskilling - professional retraining

Upskilling - advanced training

Soft skills of leadership and social influence are necessary and important not only for top managers, but also for middle managers. The management style and behavior of a leader are usually reproduced in the company by immediate subordinates, and then at all other levels of the organization. A manager who has empathy, wisdom, adaptability, is able to inspire trust, distribute authority and responsibility, has a strong motivating effect on employees and increases labor efficiency.
SOFT POWER: 10 SOFT SKILLS THAT ARE GROWING IN POPULARITY WITH EMPLOYERS. Photo 4

With creativity, an employee solves complex problems or finds interesting ways to solve problems, often using imagination to generate new ideas. A creative approach is associated with a certain risk, but it gives the opportunity to try something that has not been done before, creating a unique product or service that benefits the market and creates a new revenue stream for the company.



The ability of an employee to generate new ideas implies a creative process with the creation, development and transmission of new thoughts and concepts that become the basis of an innovation strategy. Idea generation is beneficial for all parties involved: the company receives many innovative ideas to work on, employees become part of the big picture. Creativity increases, and many effective solutions are generated, which in turn affect the overall success of the business.
The employer begins to respect and recognize the value of soft skills, linking the employee's competence in this area with positive dynamics in efficiency, productivity and, as a result, the company's success. The employee, for his part, is interested in acquiring or improving soft skills, since the l.