Soft skills are abilities that are needed in any field of work. Both soft skills and hard skills must be developed side by side in order to provide the best contribution to achieve work targets optimally.
So, do you know what soft skills are and how they differ from hard skills? If you are still confused, let’s read the explanation of this article until the end.
What is Soft Skill?
Soft skills are skills related to interpersonal and behavioural abilities. These skills support a person to interact with others.
By having soft skills. an employee can do their job and develop their career well. This is why recruiters often include certain soft skill requirements when opening job vacancies.
Difference between Soft Skills and Hard Skills
Hard skills and soft skills are both needed in the working world. Both support each other. So for those of you who want to or are working, you must master both as much as possible.
If you are still confused about the difference between soft skills and hard skills. see the following explanation:
1. In terms of skill type
The first difference between hard skills and soft skills can be seen in terms of the type of skill.
Basically, hard skills are the skills or abilities needed to complete a job technically. For example, an SEO specialist needs hard skills in the form of understanding Google Search Console, Analytics, and other SEO tools.
Meanwhile, soft skills refer to personal characteristics, traits, or awareness of a person to do a job with better quality. For example, the ability to make decisions based on data ( data-based decision making ).
2. In terms of how to get it
Hard skills and soft skills are abilities that must both be learned, trained, and developed. However, both are different in terms of how to obtain and the knowledge resources.
To master hard skills. you can learn them yourself through courses, internet materials, reading books, or even studying in formal education.
However, mastery of soft skills can only be done with self -awareness to practice what is understood ( wisdom ). Soft skills are usually also honed through experience and self-introspection.
3. From a functional perspective
The final difference between soft skills and hard skills can be seen from a functional perspective.
Soft skills and hard skills are both needed in the workplace. However, soft skills are more flexible and can be used in any position, regardless of the job description. Meanwhile, hard skills are generally only useful in certain positions.
Let’s take an example of soft skills in the form of leadership. Someone who has a leadership character can bring progress to his team, whether he is an official leader or a team member. Meanwhile, people who have hard skills in C+-based programming can only work in systems or applications that use the C+ language, unless they are willing to learn other programming languages.
Benefits of Soft Skills in the World of Work
Soft skills are abilities that can help you interact well and smoothly with others. The benefits are of course many, including the following:
- More professional.
- Able to think innovatively and creatively to support work results.
- You will look more credible so that your reputation in the office will be good.
- Can help you to have broad relations.
Examples of Soft Skills Needed in the World of Work
There are various soft skills that you need to have to support your career, here is the list:
1. Leadership
One example of soft skills needed in the workplace is leadership. This ability must not only be possessed by someone who occupies the position of chairman, head, or even other C-levels, but also you who may now still be a member of the division.
This is because without having this ability, you will be “driven” by others without knowing the boundaries where you should stand for yourself.
2. Communication
The next example of soft skills that must be possessed is communication, either with superiors, colleagues, or the team being led. In addition to communicating with other team members, this ability is also very useful if you are a public relations, marketing communication. customer service or customer relations.
3. Teamwork & Collaboration
Sometimes when working, you are required to collaborate with other teams to achieve common goals. Therefore, you are required to have the ability to work together or work in a group.
4. Work Ethic
Working is not just completing one task and then moving on to another. You also have to be dedicated to the position you occupy so that the results of your work can be useful not only for the company, but also for yourself. Therefore, work ethic is very much needed in work.
5. Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is an example of a soft skill needed in the next workplace. If defined, critical thinking is the ability to analyze information in -depth. see new information behind the information, and process information from various angles to produce new conclusions.
Critical thinking skills are very much needed in the world of work, especially if you want to get a better career level.
Critical thinking is a soft skill that is also needed in the workplace. By having this ability, you will be able to solve problems or challenges analytically.
This is because you tend to be able to identify the cause of a problem and make decisions based on various considerations.
Critical thinking skills are very much needed in the world of work, especially if you want to get a better career level.
6. Analytical Thinking
In this digital era, there is a lot of information circulating. Therefore, you are required to be able to analyze the information to ensure its truth. Good analysis can be done by conducting observations to deeper information research.
7. Creative & Innovative Thinking
There is nothing really new in this day and age. Generally, new products are created from the ATM method: take, copy, and modify. Therefore, creative and innovative thinking must be possessed so that there is no boredom in the target market and does not violate copyright.
8. Adaptive
The next example of a soft skill that you must master now is adaptive. aka easily adapting to various conditions and changes.
Adaptability serves to make it easier for you to work with a team. Especially when you work in marketing, adaptability is an absolute must.
9. Public Speaking
Public speaking is not just about whether you can chat with people or not. However, you also have extensive knowledge about something so that you can talk about it fluently.
That way, you will have good public speaking skills so that you will not be embarrassed at all when speaking in public.
10. Time Management
Time management is very useful for the world of work and even everyday life. When you don’t have good time management, all your work can be a mess. As a result, you will be labeled as someone who is unprofessional.
11. Problem Solving
Every field of work must have problems. In this way, the ability to solve problems is the main thing that must be mastered. Not only about problems in the team, but also problems with clients or even customers that you handle.
12. Emotional Management
If you still feel your emotions are exploding and you can’t control them, then you should hone your emotional management skills from now on. This soft skill is very much needed so that your relationships with others don’t fall apart. Especially with the coworkers you meet every day.
13. Networking
Another example of soft skills in the workplace that you need to master is networking. Finding relationships is very important for developing a career. By having extensive relationships, you will also learn from many sources and it will be easier for you to find information about something.
14. Conflict Management
Conflict management is the ability to handle disputes in a constructive and effective manner so that the conflict does not get worse and can be resolved.
This is an example of soft skills in a CV that you can add, considering that in the work environment conflicts often occur. Someone who has this soft skill is expected to be a mediator when a conflict arises and accommodate all aspirations and determine the right way out.
15. Empathy
Empathy is the skill of understanding someone’s emotions. This ability allows you to show compassion and put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
In the workplace, empathy is important for building strong relationships with coworkers. It also helps resolve conflicts because you can understand other people’s perspectives and find fair solutions.
If you’re applying for a customer support. customer service. or sales position. adding empathy skills will show that you can better understand customer needs and provide more appropriate solutions.
16. Flexibility
Flexibility here means that you can adapt and follow changing circumstances. Having this skill indicates that you are someone who is open, responsive, and able to adjust to new situations.
17. Goal Oriented
Being goal-oriented means you will work hard and focus on the results that have been set.
This soft skill involves being proactive and organized. It also indicates that you prioritize tasks, stay motivated, and regularly track your progress towards achieving your goals.
18. Interpersonal Skill
Interpersonal skills relate to the skills of building and maintaining relationships with others. This involves the process of communicating effectively, empathizing, and resolving conflict.
Interpersonal skills also relate to the ability to build good relationships, trust and work together. So it is not surprising that some job vacancies add this skill to their requirements.
19. Negotiation
Negotiation involves persuasive communication and finding mutually beneficial solutions. A person who has negotiation skills is usually able to build relationships, resolve conflicts, and gain trust.
In the world of work, negotiation skills are an important skill that must be mastered by sales executives. business development. HR, and procurement.
20. Pay attention to detail
In the world of work, detail-oriented skills are needed to ensure accuracy and maintain the quality of work results.
This ability allows you to have a high level of focus on the little things and make sure that nothing is missed. Usually, you are always correcting and double-checking your work to make sure everything is correct.
In addition, you also work neatly and in a structured manner.
How to Improve Soft Skills
Although soft skills are subjective and cannot be measured or assessed, these abilities can be improved. How? Let’s look at the following explanation.
1. Observe the surroundings
By observing your surroundings, you will know what bothers others and what other people like. For example, in a division meeting, when something has to be decided, but there is a disagreement. There will be different reactions, namely comfortable and uncomfortable.
You can observe the environment. Starting from how the division head leads the meeting, how other members express their opinions, to how members react in responding to each other’s opinions.
That way, you can apply good skills, such as how to organize, manage emotions, and how to communicate.
2. Learn to Manage Time
Time management is a very crucial thing in supporting work. By learning this, you will be more disciplined so that later you will be appreciated by your colleagues and even your work can be completed well.
3. Read more books and attend seminars
Reading books will help you have broad insight, as well as attending seminars according to the field you like. When you have good knowledge of something, then you will easily communicate with others.
4. Join a volunteer or organization
Volunteering or joining an organization will help you in many ways. Starting from communicating, leadership. time management. to emotional management.
5. Learn to control your emotions well
Maybe you are an expressive person. So, when something bothers you, you will clearly show your dislike for it. Or when dealing with annoying clients, you will easily get angry.
It is a wrong action because you do not have good emotional management. Slowly, you have to control your feelings.
Try to take a deep breath when you feel upset or angry. Think that when you respond to those emotions, you will regret it later. So, try to keep the bad emotions in first, and can be released later when you feel comfortable.
6. Increase Interaction with Other People
Increasing interaction with others can also help improve soft skills. This is because we will learn to understand their attitudes and behaviors and ourselves.
This is where soft skills such as empathy, interpersonal skills, and public speaking can develop.
7. Start Planning Your Goals
Try to mention what your ambitions are? If you haven’t thought about it, maybe this is the right time to plan it.
Having a dream will motivate you to improve your abilities, including soft skills, so that your dream can be achieved.
8. Learn to Understand Yourself
Understanding yourself can lead you to know more about your strengths and weaknesses. After knowing where your strengths and weaknesses are, you can improve those skills.
How to Write Soft Skills in a CV
Usually, soft skills on a CV can be written directly in the self-description section. However, you can also write them in other sections depending on the design of your CV. Most importantly, you have to adjust to the position you are applying for.
Example of writing soft skills in the self-description section of a CV : ” I’m a professional marketing communication. I’m self-driven, organized, highly adaptable, and have strong networking skills .”
In addition, you can also apply the following method of writing soft skills in your CV:
- Enter soft skills as listed by HR in the job vacancy. For example, HR includes the requirement “adaptive”, then you can include the word “adaptive” in your CV.
- Don’t include soft skills in the form of ratings or bars (such as: graphic design skills : 4 stars out of 5). Instead, show proof, like this: graphic design skills : basic – can create banner designs and simple social media content from Canva.
- Choose keywords that are ATS friendly. For example, you have the skill of drawing characters with Ibis Paint. Instead of entering the keyword “drawing”, you should use ” illustration ” and if necessary, include the tool “Ibis Paint” in your CV.
That’s various information about soft skills that you can learn. How? What soft skills do you have? If it turns out that there are some that you haven’t mastered, you should learn them slowly starting from now, okay?