Soft skills: Communication

The more you can communicate and work collaboratively with your peers and supervisors the more successful you will be. What exactly is a soft skill? Well, it’s basically anything that doesn’t fall under the hard skills umbrella — with communication being one of those.

Introduction to soft skills

We all know how important it is to have skills on the job. But what about the ‘soft’ skills – the ones that are more about who you are, rather than what you do? These are also important, because they allow us to get along with other people better. They can make or break a career. And it’s possible for everyone to do things which will make them more likable, trustworthy and able to get along with others.

Two examples of soft skills are communication skills and the ability to resolve conflicts. These are the skills that enable you to interact with people in a way that gets things done, rather than getting in the way. They enable you to work as part of a team instead of as an individual. They let you become part of the company’s culture, rather than just another member of staff.

Soft skills are important for any workplace, whether you’re a startup professional or an experienced manager. What a soft skill can do is allow you to have discussions and build consensus. Here are the top 10 soft skills that every manager should focus on:

1. Learning how to listen effectively
2. Being able to create a conversation without arguing
3. Communicating in more than one tone of voice at the same time
4. Demonstrating your confidence and competence through body language and verbal cues
5. Expressing gratitude at the right times
6. Being able to take criticism without feeling personally attacked
7. Giving criticism the right way, so it helps people grow
8. Undertaking difficult conversations that are important but painful
9. Having conversations with your boss, even if you disagree with him/her on certain issues
10. Listening for long periods of time, and being able to focus on the speaker’s message, instead of thinking about what you want to say next.

The ability to relate to other people is one of the most essential skills a person can have. Without it, many of the best ideas will go unnoticed and hindrance to any potential relationships you may have. Understanding how to express yourself appropriately is one of the most crucial characteristics of a leader, especially when interacting with others from another country or culture.

A leader needs both soft and hard skills in order for any relationship to work efficiently, these include:

1. Impact clearly
2. Clear understanding of what you want
3. Controlling your behavior and emotions
4. Respect
5. Decision making
6. Negotiation
7. Building trust
8. Communication
9. Consistency
10. Teamwork

It is important to be able to communicate with everyone that you may meet from another country or culture, even if it is just for a short discussion. If you are able to effectively communicate your ideas with others, your vision for the company will become a reality and it may open doors for you to take on new opportunities. Take English classes in order to enhance your ability of speaking other languages with ease and confidence.

The soft skills are all dependent on the hard skills of leadership such as motivation, etiquette and integrity etc.. For example, developing the soft skill of “teamwork” relies on a leader’s ability to motivate his or her team, while creating the setting in which they can collaborate effectively.

Some of the most critical soft skills that you will have to have include:

1. Good negotiating skills
2. Being able to communicate with others in an effective way
3. Having strong problem-solving skills and project management expertise
4. A good attention to detail and excellent organizational skills
5. Excellent time management and organizational skills as well as planning abilities
6. The ability to work well under pressure or in a demanding situation due to your organization, time and stress management, prioritizing tasks effectively, problem solving.
7. The ability to maintain and develop good relationships with colleagues and clients.
8. A good eye for detail, being able to maintain a certain degree of organization and efficiency in doing work
9. The ability to work well both metaphorically and literally, being organized, efficient and effective in what you do.
10. An understanding of the law or relevant legislation if you are working within an industry with legal or ethical issues

Jim Collins in his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, argues that the quality of management becomes evident in the performance of a company’s people. According to him, those who focus on this factor in the process of making a decision to acquire a business will outperform their stock market rivals by at least 3 times. Collins emphasises that “Great companies make people into great leaders”.

In order to develop great leadership skills, it is worth noting that every person has different qualities which he/she can bring to the table. The ability to find and use these qualities is a relatively new concept that has emerged over the past decade.

According to Baldwin, excellence is the standard by which one measures one’s success. There are many ways of achieving excellence: superior power, superior knowledge, superior skills, superior status, etc. As a result of this view of excellence, it is often stated that becoming excellent in any area means searching for something or someone else to compare with you.

Why is communication important soft skill?

Communication is considered as one of the most important soft skill because it helps individual to maintain good relationship, solve problem related to work and day today life. Communication skill is essential in all profession either you are engineer ,doctor or teacher . Communication plays an important role in family life too . It is very difficult to understand others if we lack communication skill. Similarly it is difficult to express our feelings and emotions if we have lack of communication skills us a professional as well as personal level. Communication skill help an individual solve his problems easily. Communication plays an important role in organization it helps manage employees, process work and improve performance.

Benefits of good communication skill?
Low absenteeism, increased productivity and new ideas are the few benefits of a good communicator.

Assertiveness skills is required to be a successful communicator. We have to listen to understand, ask questions and give feedback. All these skills make us better communicators.

According to communication experts, the most important skill required to be a good communicator is active listening. It means that you’ve understood what the other person has said and responded in a way that will help him/her to express more clearly. You can ask for clarification of key points and relate your response directly to what the person said.

In this case, you will be judged by how well you listen, not how well you speak. When we judge others based on their ability to listen rather than their speaking ability we place them at ease so they’re likely to open up more. Now, you know why it’s important to listen well.

It is considered as one of the important soft skill because communication helps in any profession whether it is industry , civil or professional education. This skill will help in every work life and help to solve any problem.

Employers value people who can communicate well and they will choose such people over those who are poor communicators. Communication skills helps employees to stay motivated, be efficient and give good performance so they gain competitiveness in their field. All these skills allow individuals to develop a good relationship with the seniors, superiors and colleagues so that they get confidence and feel comfortable with their jobs.

Communication helps in the assessment process. It will help in evaluation and feedback process so that it instills confidence and good morale in employees. Communication skills help employees to interact better with their customers and it helps them to increase sales.

Communication skills help in improving personal relationships, it helps to develop personal relationship with the colleagues , seniors and clients. Communication skill plays an important role in gaining more success and establish good reputation of an organization . It is one of the important skills which will help you to find a job easily, it helps to solve problems and manage employees.

According to management experts communication skill is vital for achievement of goals in any organization. Communication allows the team to complete tasks in a better way and allows people to improve their performance. Communication will allow you to leave a good impression on your supervisor and manage positive feedback so that you can gain more confidence and perform better.

Communication skill is important because it allows people to resolve issues in face-to-face, telephonic or electronic meetings. It helps employees work easily with each other and understand each other’s problems so they can resolve them.

Personal relationship can be improved by communication skill because communication allows individuals to get along well. Parents can guide their children better if they have good communication skills. Communication skill is useful for students to get guidance from the teachers.

According to good communication skills, individual can get more opportunities in his field. It helps in selection process and allows people to perform their jobs correctly. It is essential for interpersonal and inter-office relationships so that people can enjoy their work life better. Good communication skill improves the working environment because employees will work together with each other so that they know each other’s problems so that they can resolve them.

Communication skill is important because it will help us improve our confidence level and it will allow us to get along well with others. In an environment where we communicate with others, it is important to know how to communicate properly with others. Communication skill helps us in building good relationships with our friends, family and colleagues. Communication skills are essential as it helps in solving problems at workplace and also in personal life. It is one of the vital tools needed to be successful in life and work.