Thank you. Good morning everybody, welcome back
to Food for Thought Thoughts if it were you,
and I'm your host, Neogentrics. Today, we're going
to cover a different topic in the same area.
We're still going to cover personal skills, as
there is a lot, and I mean a lot, to cover. But,
today I want to take a look at an employable
skill, okay? Employability is something that
a lot of people need, and I don't know if it's
been covered yet by me. But, I want to look at
some of the skills that... you know, are necessary
for us to move forward as far as trying to find
our true self and personally growing to fit the
current economy that we've clearly seen has changed
thanks to the pandemic. So today I'm going to
cover soft skills. Now, mind you. The phrase
soft skills is often used by employers, particularly
when they are bemoaning a shortage of suitable
candidates. But it's mostly in terms of good
faith, like they're hoping they'll find someone
reasonable, someone who's good at what they do,
you know, to take on the task. You will almost
certainly have heard big employers complaining
that millennials, school leavers, and university
graduates, or perhaps simply young people, lack
soft skills needed in today's workplace. Well,
here's the question that a lot of people have
asked. What exactly does that really mean, though?
Like, why is this such a problem? Why should
I be concerned? Why does it even matter to me?
And, you know, within reason, it's a fair question.
Let me go ahead and dive into this today and
explain why. First off, before we move forward,
I want to go ahead and state that a wide range
of skills fall under the heading of soft skills.
And they're often known as transferable skills,
as I've said in previous episodes. These include
interpersonal skills, sometimes called people
skills or social skills, but they go far beyond
this area. Okay, and I'm going to explain the
term soft skills and then describe the soft skills
that are usually considered most important by
employers. Let's go ahead and define a soft skill.
Soft skills are desirable qualities for certain
forms of employment that do not depend on acquiring
knowledge. They include common sense, which I
feel like I need to do a podcast on separately,
but let's go ahead and move forward. The ability
to deal with people and a positive, flexible
attitude. All right. And if you're wondering
where I got the definition from, it was the Collins
English Dictionary. The 2012 version, I do believe.
Anyway, moving on. Soft skills is the term used
for skills that are essentially not technical
or job -related, but are still necessary to complete
the task in hand. They include social skills,
your interpersonal skills, and a positive attitude.
I can't really stress that one enough. They are
the skills that defined your relationships with
other people and how you approach life and work.
Hard skills, by contrast, is a phrase used to
describe job -specific skills, which is, again,
another topic in itself. If you'd like to hear
about that, let me know. But examples of hard
skills include professional skills like bricklaying
or accounting, medical expertise such as diagnosis
and treatment, can be taught and whose presence
is testable through exams. But ironically enough
for most people, the so -called soft skills are
often some of the hardest skills to develop,
believe it or not. However, this doesn't mean
that they can't be learned or taught, it's just
that people lack the patience to do it. And a
lot of people see these skills as non -necessary
for some reason. I feel like I'm talking to myself,
because as you already know, I don't really...
I'm not really a people person, so it's ironic
that I'm doing a podcast on how to improve oneself
and other educational facts about a person's
self when I myself don't really like being around
people in the first place. Granted, though, being
around a large group of people makes me nervous.
Anyway, the relevant importance of hard and soft
skills... job related expertise is essential
to any professional and many, many, many other
careers. However, over the last 20 to 30 years
or 50, depending on how old you are, understanding
has grown that perhaps soft skills may ultimately
be way more important in determining levels of
success. Example would be the fact that I work
for this company that's currently hiring people
to come and, you know, you get to stay at home,
you pick your own hours and work from home. It's
a call center agent, but you have to have the
necessary qualities to be able to do this and
be self -motivating. I mean, you can't ask for
an easier job. You pick your own hours. You get
to stay at home in front of your own computer.
But, you know, essentially what I'm saying is
hard skills are there for a basic minimum necessity
to operate that particular workplace depending
on where you are. Okay, whether or not you're
successful... in your career may depend on how
you relate to other people at that job, and that's
where soft skills comes into play. Okay? So,
keep that in mind. Principles of competition.
Before I close out here, let me take a short
break. Think of soft skills in the light competition
principle, in terms of that. Imagine... Let me
see here. Imagine you're a company producing
something. Let's say the light bulb. Something
stupid like that. You come up with a revolutionary
new type of technology. Your light bulbs are
suddenly much better than others and your profit
goes up. But, after a while, your competitors
get a hold of the technology. You license its
use, perhaps, or they develop alternatives. Suddenly,
light bulbs are all the same again and your profits
are suffering. You still need the new technology,
but you also need a new competitive edge, perhaps
a reputation for customer service. Hard skills
are like your technology. Anyone can acquire
them. You can go buy it. You can also get them
through training, and they are necessary. But
without them, you will not be able to operate
in the workplace. Soft skills, on the other hand,
are your unique selling point. They are what
give you your competitive edge in the workplace,
perhaps even in life. Think about it. If your
technology is necessary for you to get the job
done, how are you supposed to broadcast, yes,
I have the skills. Yes, I can do this job. Yes,
I can make a difference if you can't even talk
to people. That's why you need soft skills. Okay,
so many people have characterized soft skills
as those relating to emotional intelligence,
which I've covered before. Which, you know, the
ability to recognize and manage your own and
others' emotions. However, in reality, it actually
goes beyond that. And in the wider realm of how
you organize yourself and how you approach life,
the good news is that you can learn and develop
soft skills as well as hard skills. The bad news
is that it's often much harder to do that, and
there's no easy measure of success or there's
no shortcut to doing this. Like hard skills,
soft skills require a lot of practice to make
you, I don't know, really skilled at using them.
Unlike hard skills, there are no exams to prove
that you can do it. Okay, you measure your success
in developing your soft skills and how well you
manage relationships with the people or things
around you. No idea why I said it like that.
But this includes family, friends, co -workers,
peoples, dogs, animals, as well as customers
and those who provide you with goods and services.
And or services. I don't... Anyway. Okay. What
are the most important soft skills? This is the
question that we now must focus on. It's hard
to say which soft skills are most important because,
you know, it varies by situation to situation.
However, the list I'm going to give you is a
broad list in which most employers, you know,
mean when they talk about good soft skills. And
this is generally what they're looking for. They
are, therefore, the skills that are most likely
to enable you to build constructive working relationships
with others as well as... to be a constructive
and helpful employee or land you that job that
you've been fighting against since the beginning
of the year. Or lack thereof. Depends on the
person. Okay? So, let's begin with the first
one. Your communication skills. I did a podcast
on this already, so I'm not going to dive in
it too, too much, but your communication skills
are most always high on the essential skills
list in any job advertisement. People with strong
communication skills can build relationships
from the initial rapport building through to
the long -term relationships. They can listen
well and vary their communication to suit the
circumstances. They can read the room. They avoid
misunderstandings and generally make any workplace
a better place to work and function better. Time
on nothing else from all of my podcasts that
I've done up to now, all 200 and something. Work
on your communication skills. Okay? Second, making
decisions. Being able to make decisions is valued
by any and all employers for many, many different
reasons and also essential to getting on in life
in general. Okay? We all have to make decisions
every day. what we have to breakfast, to more
important decisions like whether to apply for
a new job or whether you want to get married.
Wow, that was dark. But anyway, sometimes the
actual decision doesn't even matter. What matters
is that you have made one and you've moved on.
If you're still struggling on whether or not
you want to... move forward in life, take this
class, or decide if you want to make a cake today
or tomorrow because you're just too tired, then
you know where you need to start. Being able
to make good decisions can also help you with
problem solving, which is a lot harder to learn
than making decisions because it enables you
to choose between possible solutions. Problem
solving is a whole other thing in itself, but
if you have that skill, I'd say you're pretty
good and well off. In which case, now we move
on to number three, which is a topic I'll come
back to at a later date. Self -motivation. People
who are self -motivated get on by themselves.
They don't need supervision. They don't need
someone staring down on them. They are good at
work because they are generally positive about
life and can be counted on to keep going, even
when times are tough. Two skills that are closely
linked to self -motivation are personal resilience
or the ability to bounce back when you encounter
a problem, such as the adaptability to change,
which is, I'm starting to learn recently, is
a lot rarer of a skill to have, and I'm rather
sad by that. All right. So we understand that
making decisions, being motivated and having
communication skills are all important. But let's
talk about something a little more in depth,
something that a lot of y 'all have seen on applications
or they give you scenarios for. Let's talk about
leadership skills. OK, something that you may
not even think you are a leader. Now, mind you,
a leader can be anybody from the person who stands
in the back who's always observing and doesn't
say anything to the person in the front who's
loud that everybody can hear, okay? I'll cover
leadership, I'm covering leadership skills on
and off, but I have done some episodes on different
types of leadership skills. Well, it's something
I'll definitely touch on again later, but...
Leadership skills are the skills required to
take the lead when necessary. They include the
ability to manage and motivate other people as
well as delegating work. Like I mentioned in
my last podcast, there are a set of soft skills
that are, you know, that we at least expect people
to develop on their own and some develop passively.
Like you're not actually paying attention, they
just happen. But employers... Understand that
it is hard to develop skills without being able
to practice them every day. So there is likely
to come a point, however, when you need to step
up to a leadership position for the first time.
So even if you don't have the skill quite yet,
while it is a plus, a lot of employers are willing
to work with you on this one as they know opportunities
to do this don't readily make themselves available.
Okay. There are, therefore, many leadership training
courses available, though, and much has been
written about how to develop your leadership
skills. Okay? Now, let's move on to something
that's rather actually important and, for some
reason, hard for people to grasp. Your team -working
skills. Team -working skills are broadly those
required to work effectively with other people.
They are, therefore, basically interpersonary
skills or interpersonal skills. Mike, excuse
me. There are plenty of thinkings to suggest
that good communication skills, particularly
good listening skills, together with building
rapport, go a long way to support your ability
to work well in a team. However, some specific
skills and areas of expertise that may be helpful
if you need to work closely with others, it is,
for example, the ability to use something called
Belvin's Team Roles. To be more exact, the distinction
between task and process -focused skills. Okay?
Essentially what I'm saying is being able to
work with other people, being able to communicate,
being able to listen, being able to build that
type of relationship between each other to have
some kind of trust is a skill that a lot of employers
are looking for because they need people who
can work with each other and not cause a problem.
That being said, They don't want to hinder any
of your creativity or problem solving. So here's
number six, creativity and problem solving skills.
Like your leadership skills, creativity and problem
solving skills are highly valued because they
are hard to develop, okay? So they don't try
to hinder you with these. However, they do want
to keep you in line. There are many people who
believe that creative thinkers are born, not
made, but this is certainly not true. Trust me,
I'm one of them. There are certainly some people
who find these skills much easier, and some who
don't learn them until later, and others who
it just comes naturally or they have to actually
figure it out. But like other skills, you can
develop it if you work on it to do so, okay?
And I have a few topics that will go into, you
know, building on these, but again, that's for
a later date. Next, number seven, time management.
and the ability to work under pressure. This
is definitely something that a lot of people
need and they don't have. A lot of people fold
under a lot of pressure, some people get mad,
some people get pissed off. These two areas put
together can be summed up as an ability to get
the job done in the time available regardless
of how small. They also sometimes described as
having a good work ethic in case you were wondering
what that actually meant. And many would say
that these two skills, which often go hand in
hand, are more attitude than a skill. The precise
words you use, though, probably do not matter
nearly as much as working on these areas, and
they are highly valued by employers, but are
also useful for organizing a family or a team
and making sure that the job gets done, whether
you're at work or you're at home. Okay, so we've
covered everything from your communication to
making decisions, self -motivation, your leadership
skills, team working skills, creativity, problem
solving, time management. But I guess you're
wondering the question here is, what is the last
one? What else could there possibly be? Well,
last but not least, I kid you not, is your positive
attitude. Positive thinking is the idea that
you can improve your life and the lives of those
around you by taking a positive attitude regardless
of the circumstances. This is not in the least,
in the manner of speaking, fluffy. Nobody can
deny that it is pleasanter to work with someone
who is enthusiastic, friendly, and has a can
-do attitude. It's also quite depressing to work
with someone who always sees the downside of
everything, but... I digress. Some people like
that type of thing. Employers tend to look for
people who have positive attitudes because they
can help everyone feel better about themselves.
They achieve more. They bring up the team. They
motivate everyone else, especially those who
have a hard time motivating themselves. Positive
attitudes go a long way next to everything else.
You can have everything else on the list, but
if you do not have a positive attitude, unless
they're extremely desperate for people, your
chances of getting that job that you've dreamed
of since you were 10 will drop to almost verily
3 .87%. And I know that seems like a very specific
number, but when you consider the amount of people
who go into most jobs and divide that by the
average people who don't get it, and then factor
yourself in there from that same estimate, it
comes out around, you know, about 3 -something
percent anyway. So, just keep that in mind. But,
you know, to summarize everything, this list
is not exhaustive with these, okay? There are
way more skills. And if you've been following
my podcast up until this point, up to episode
19 here in season 2, then you know that there
are a huge range of soft skills in many different
areas, whether interpersonal or otherwise, that
you can definitely focus in on. And whether you
believe it or not, drinking water is something
that a lot of... employers make sure that their
employees are doing because they don't need you
randomly passing out or dropping dead at work.
Just to give an example. Any given employer or
individual may place more or less emphasis on
some of these or others or even add some that
aren't even in this list. But hard work... To
develop these skills in any kind of way will
pay off, especially in your job search, regardless
of the job or career that you're aiming for or
in life in general. Trust me on this. At any
rate, I want to thank you guys for listening
and staying with me for as long as you have here
at Food for Thought Thoughts, if it were you.
And I hope you continue to support me here on
my channel. If you'd like to donate to the channel
to help me move forward and continue to grow,
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Or you can check out my Patreon page to help
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on Amazon. Just search neogentrics with a space
between the two words. So it's neo and gentrics.
But I digress. Thank you for your time. Thank
you for your effort. If you enjoy what you like
to hear, hear. then continue to listen and look
forward to the next episode. Don't forget to
hit that subscribe button and I'll catch y 'all
next time.