Soft Skills: Your Core People Skills

The term soft skills is ever-evolving name-wise, however its meaning doesn’t change. Soft skills are the value add to your technical/practical skills, aka hard skills. They’re the core people skills that enhance your career success.

In essence soft skills are those that demonstrate your abilities to:

•  work and relate well with others;
•  interact effectively and harmoniously with others;
•  brainstorm and collaborate with others so that they feel heard and respected;
•  influence, lead and inspire others;
•  clearly and concisely communication ideas, thoughts, information to others;
•  truly and actively listen;
•  empathize and understand another person’s perspective;
•  “read the room” – in essence understand and act upon the non verbal communication occuring;
•  be open/flexible – and adaptable – to change;
•  foster and build relationships by perceptive understanding of people;
•  exhibit your emotional intelligence;
•  creatively be a problem solver and convey those ideas clearly.

People skills are innate for some of us. If people skills don’t come naturally to you, know that they can be learned through training and experiences, and honed through deep personal awareness, growth mindset and positive attitude.

Soft skills = people skills =  interpersonal skills = social skills = human skills = power skills.