Perfecting your Softer Skills

Employers are increasingly focusing on ’soft’ skills when recruiting. They want to hire people who can demonstrate good communication and social skills and a strong character. When making a decision around promoting staff employers will also assess the quality of your soft skills.

We examine the range of soft skills in demand and make some suggestions on how to improve them.

Superior communication skills

To be a successful manager it’s critical that you can communicate with your peers who will rely on your ability to use simple language to describe and explain your work, analysis and recommendations.

1. You need to be able to do this verbally, both one to one and as a presentation, to a group and in written format
2. You need to ensure that your written skills are up to scratch and that your written analysis is clear and concise
3. You also need to be adept to “showcasing” these skills and the first, and potentially only opportunity to do this with prospective employees will be via your resume and letter of application

A positive attitude

Employers always want to hire those people with a positive can-do attitude and time after time we see employers opting for less experienced and potentially less skilful candidates because they have a great attitude.

This quality is so much in demand because a good attitude will increase productivity not only for you as an individual but it has a hugely beneficial effect on the people around you. A positive attitude is obviously a core value of yours and something that can be changed but only with a great deal of effort and application.

The second aspect of having a positive attitude and outlook on life is to be able to project it. This ability can potentially be the secret to career success so if you have one flaunt it, if you don’t have one, acquire one.

Healthy values

Employers do want to recruit and retain those people with good values. Honesty andiIntegrity should be a cornerstone of your personal values as a professional executive. It is worth developing as part of your interview technique so that the employer knows you do live to your values.

Social skills

Social skills are an extension of good communication skills. It’s important to have the ability to converse and communicate in a work or social situation and to be able to influence positively the people around you.

One of the key ingredients of a successful executive will be strong social skills, with the ability to entertain and impress at dinners and lunches and work get togethers. Certain profiles of roles are known for being introverted so a sociable outgoing candiadte can stand out in a crowd.

Personal appearance and presentation

You never get a second chance at a first impression so taking pride in your personal appearance can have a hugely positive impact in interviews and in the work place. Even apparently small things such as polished shoes and well kept hair can influence people to think more positively about you.